Food Safety: Bring on the Baon! & The Health of Caregivers

FJ, Volume 21, Number 5
March 05 - 22, 2007

My boss (I’m a live-in caregiver) is always on my case about food and leftovers. She wants to throw everything away which I think is very wasteful. I was brought up to be thrifty and frugal. Who is right?

You both are. Baon (food taken home from a party or gathering) is a central part of Filipino culture and in my opinion reflects our love of food and thriftiness, as well as resourcefulness and hospitality. We can always tell a Filipino fridge—not just by the jars of jufran, macapuno, bagoong, matamis sa bao (sometimes way past the expiry date!), but also an array of things like: little bowls of patis/soya sauce/kalamansi, Styrofoam plates of pancit, rice, adobo, stew, and cake/pastries covered by tin foil, a pot of sinigang, maybe some of those bright fuschia salted eggs, etcetcetc. Often the rice stays on the counter in the rice cooker which stays on “Warm”, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I am always a little scared of my parents’ fridge back home—packed with all sorts of things that I’m not sure are edible anymore and actually emitting loud whirring noises…I think it’s trying to tell my parents that it’s working too hard and should be relieved of its burden! Then there’s the trend for excessive oil use in Filipino cooking, but I think I covered that in my cholesterol article…naman!

Baon is definitely distinctly Filipino, but it can be dangerous.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is the Government of Canada’s science-based regulator for animal health, plant protection and, in partnership with Health Canada, food safety. Their website (www.inspection.gc.ca) has a lot of useful information on issues related to food, including a list of allergy alerts and food recalls. You can search on it by country—there was a list of products from the Philippines that the CFIA considered unsafe. I remember going into severe withdrawal when they pulled the Nata de Coco jelly cups off the shelves—I’d loved them so much it was hard to hear that kids were choking on them! The CFIA site also provides a useful Food Safety Fact Sheet on Leftovers that I am quoting below. You can also find food safety information on the Health Canada and Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education Web sites respectively at www.hc-sc.gc.ca and www.canfightbac.org/en/.

FOOD SAFETY FACTS ON LEFTOVERS
What is foodborne illness?
Food contaminated by bacteria, viruses and parasites can make you sick. Many people have had foodborne illness and not even known it. It’s sometimes called food poisoning, and it can feel like the flu. Symptoms may include the following:
* stomach cramps
* nausea
* vomiting
* diarrhea
* fever
Symptoms can start soon after eating contaminated food, but they can hit up to a month or more later. For some people, especially young children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, foodborne illness can be very dangerous.

Public health experts estimate that there are 11 to 13 million cases of foodborne illness in Canada every year. Most cases of foodborne illness can be prevented by using safe food handling practices and using a food thermometer to check that your food is cooked to a safe internal temperature!

Storing leftovers
* Store leftovers within 2 hours of cooking. Discard leftovers if the food has been sitting at room temperature for more than 1 hour. Cold food should be stored at 4ºC (40ºF) or colder.
* Before and after handling and preparing leftovers, wash your hands and sanitize all utensils, dishes and work surfaces with a mild bleach solution (5 ml/1 tsp. bleach per 750 ml/3 cups water).
* Never remove a large pot of food (such as soup, stew, or pasta sauce) from the stove and place it in the refrigerator. Large masses of food can take hours or days to chill properly. A slow cooling process provides an ideal environment for the growth of harmful bacteria.
* Very hot items can be cooled at room temperature, until they stop steaming, prior to being refrigerated. Frequent stirring accelerates the cooling at this stage. Food will cool faster in an uncovered, shallow container.
* An effective way to cool and store hot leftovers is to lay them flat in zipper-type plastic bags. Although the bags must be closed securely, food cools quickly due to the greater surface area exposed to the refrigerated air.
* Refrigerate or freeze leftovers in covered, shallow containers.
* Place containers on wire refrigerator shelves to allow air to flow across the bottom of the container. This practice allows food to cool twice as fast as sitting on a solid shelf.
* Do not overcrowd your refrigerator. Leave airspace around containers to allow circulation of cold air. This will help ensure rapid, even cooling.
* Date leftovers to ensure that they are not stored too long – eat leftovers within 4 days. For frozen leftovers, eat within 4 days of being taken out of the freezer.
* Always put leftovers in clean containers and never mix them with fresh food.

Reheating leftovers
* Reheat solid leftovers to at least 74ºC (165ºF).
* Reheat soups, sauces and gravies to a rolling boil.
* Follow the manufacturer's instructions when reheating commercial foods in a microwave.
* Discard uneaten leftovers after they have been reheated.

NEVER use your nose, eyes or taste buds to judge the safety of food.
You cannot tell if a food may cause foodborne illness by its look, smell or taste.
And remember: "If in doubt, throw it out!"
***
Now, some of you may know that I am quite interested in the experience and health of Filipino immigrants, particularly Live-in Caregivers, “nannies”, and health care professionals—whether recognized in their profession or not (credentials, fair and equitable pay, respect, etc). In my Public Health training, I’ve come across some research (some flaws in research design, etc) that talks about the Healthy Immigrant Effect—basically that some immigrants tend to be healthier than Canadian-born but then after several years in Canada, their health deteriorates to the level of their Canadian-born controls. I’ve started researching the health of Filipinos across Canada and spent some time in Ottawa and Montreal as well as locally talking to people about their experiences coming to Canada. I want to hear from you—please, tell me your stories: email me at askdrdenise@mts.net or add your story as a comment to this article or take the questionnaire (to set up)—if you wish certain parts of your story to be confidential, please use my email address and outline which parts, if any, you are okay with me sharing on my blog or in this column.

The questions I’m particularly interested in:

1) Name, sex, and contact information
2) Age, Year of Birth, Year of immigration to Canada, Dates of any other Caregiving experiences in other countries (including the Philippines)
3) Languages (including dialect, if necessary) spoken and read
4) Process of Immigration to Canada: Were you in the Live-In Caregiver Program, other categories of immigration
5) What type of work do you do? If you are a Caregiver, what field/area are you in? Ie: what training did you have in the Philippines, Canada, elsewhere? Did that translate into what you are doing now?
6) Health status/concerns in the Philippines compared with in Canada
7) Do you believe that being Filipino makes you healthier or less healthy than non-Filipinos? Why? What are the key factors you believe determine Filipino-Canadian health (eg, language, where born, credentialing, education, discrimination/prejudice, connection to community, family, etc)?
8) What are your concerns regarding the health of the Filipino community in Canada and in the Philippines?
9) What are your suggestions for dealing with these issues?
10) Any other comments are greatly appreciated. Salamat po!

So please remember that your health (not just physical/body, but also emotional, spiritual, and mental health) is foremost in your own hands; health starts at home. Alagaan ninyo ang katawan at kalusugan ninyo! Take care, and mind your health!