Food Safety Talk 188: Cook a Pizza With a Pizza

Added on August 2, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with the guys talking about the recent IAFP meeting, as well as the usual assorted miscellanea. Ben wants to talk about when to discard cutting boards, what to do about a broken wrist watch, and a food worker with MRSA. From their the guys clear out all of the backlog of listener feedback, including storage of fancy candied cherries, a recent article flies, E. coli, feedlots and produce, the risks of sous vide, other podcasts about food safety, the risks posed by leaving foods out-of-doors, cooking "en papillote", high-tech sensors for food shelf life, the risks of fecal transplants, the risks of salt in your rice, the potential for bacteria to evolve heat resistance, FDA bashing by the far right, monitoring your refrigerator and freezer in the case of a power outage, and old-fashioned and newfangled ways of measuring vibrio risk from shellfish. Somewhere in all of that they also talk about the title topic.

If you're in the greater Seattle area on Tuesday, August 6 2019, and you want to attend a free live recording, please join the guys at 7pm on Tuesday, in Blencoe Auditorium on the Renton Technical College campus, Renton, WA 98056.

Food Safety Talk 187: Must Split and Toast

Added on July 30, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben do their annual live from IAFP show. This year, from the dungeons of the Kentucky International Convention Center, the guys are joined by listeners coming from as far at New Zealand. The show starts with a discussion of IAFP meeting happenings, symposia and back room chatter. The discussion goes to some listener feedback on Chipotle, English muffins, donut walls and ignoring voluntary recall guidance. And papayas. A few in-studio listeners then join Don and Ben at the mic and ask questions (and get asked questions).

Show notes so you can follow at home:

Food Safety Talk 186: This is a free snake!

Added on July 4, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with Don asking Ben to buy him some gift cards. Ben is having a holiday party, and the guys spend a little bit of time talking about the media they are watching before the talk turns to food safety. Listener feedback leads to a discussion of the risks posed by the traditional method of making Chinese master sauce, which foods pose an increased risk of harboring Listeria, appropriate labeling advice for doggy bags, and the safety of multiple component foods being left out of temperature control. Ben livens things up with a discussion based on an interesting reddit post, as well as a question about which months are safe for consuming raw shellfish. The guys mention two recent restaurants they visited before a brief dip back into music and media, and conclude with plugs for their live shows at IAFP and in Seattle.

Food Safety Talk 185: Hot Diapers

Added on June 19, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben are joined by friend, listener and co-host of Do By Friday, Max Temkin. The show starts when Don surprises Ben with our special guest. Max brings the guys a bunch of great food safety questions about tomato paste and the nuances of expiration dates, sous vide, jerky and grinding your own meat. They talk about frozen berries, what triggers recalls and what they look for in a company or industry that is doing good food safety things. The episode ends on a story on how Cards Against Humanity became a food processor (sort of).

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake

Food Safety Talk 184: Pull Your Pork Properly

Added on June 5, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with some brief news about the recent Apple keynote. From there the discussion turns to books about food safety and Don's recent travels. Then the guys jump right into listener feedback talking about fictional petfood safety, food fraud, school gardens, cooking pasta inside a cheese wheel, using pressure cookers to sterilize microbiological media, conservative views on food safety and the FDA, electrolyzed water as a cleaning agent, the role of lawyers in the food safety system, and inexpensive high-quality folding microscope, FDA's upcoming frozen berries sampling assignment, the safety of expired foods, water temperature for handwashing, bacterial transmission from splashing water and insects, and quaternary ammonium compounds and cotton cloths. Ben wraps things up with his discussion about making a video that combines his love of hockey and food safety, as well as his recent adventures at the CSTE meeting.

Food Safety Talk 183: Raw Raw Raw Almonds

Added on May 29, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben are joined by longtime friend and colleague, podcast downloader (and sometimes listener) Linda Harris. The three nerds talk about other podcasts, Kardashian indices, Erdos numbers, berries, and the long and progressive food safety story of raw almonds. The almond story touches on what should happen when an industry has a major outbreak, how working with extension and research academics can lead to solutions and ripples of managing food safety risks.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 182: Is It Their Last Tuna?

Added on May 9, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

This week's episode features surprise special guest Dr. Larry Goodridge from the University of Guelph. After a brief discussion of Dr. Goodridge is outstanding sartorial style, the guys get right into it with a discussion of a Dr. Oz video, with the counterpoint video from Dr. Goodridge. the discussion widens a larger conversation about how to talk to the news media and the general public about safety. The conversation segues into other Twitter inspired topics like the safety of raw marmot liver, and space tuna. From there the conversation turns to the safety of plant-based "hamburger" products and produce safety in general. The produce safety talk turns into a discussion about climate change and flooding before wrapping up with talk about the differences between US, Canadian and UK shelf-life requirements. The show ends with a discussion about hockey and merchandise including T-shirts and mugs. In the after show Don and Ben talk about Ben's MacBook woes and the time the President (no not him, the good one) came to Rutgers University among other things.

Food Safety Talk 181: Hot Pants!

Added on April 30, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

In this super long episode (sort of a double album) Ben and Don talk about their recent travels, PowerPoint as a performance and river cruising. The conversation takes a food safety turn into raw milk goat cheese, bull pizzles and veggie washes. They talk through some listener questions on surviving in the wild, foods they eat (and avoid) and pet food bowls. The show ends with some quick hits on phone cleaning, deli slicer-linked illnesses and geographical differences in pathogen exposure (and how the demise of the Aztec population is like Ontario beef farming).They answer the age-old question of what to do when there's no paper towels in the restroom. They don't talk about how the Toronto Maple Leafs are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 180: That's the Question I'm Asking!

Added on April 9, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with nonfood safety talk, including Skype, hockey, and Philmont Scout Ranch before dipping into food safety and a discussion of Purell VF 481 (they are not a sponsor). Ben asks Don about fresh produce food safety, and they talk about agricultural water, and Ben mentions about an upcoming talk to high school students about food safety in their greenhouses. Listener feedback inspires the guys to talk about the ongoing feud between the Washington Post and USDA FSIS. More listener feedback brings a discussion about safe recipes, and more computer terminology that might be relevant to food safety. The guys talk about restaurant leftovers, which leads to a discussion about restaurant buffets. The show ends with a discussion of packaging innovations that improve food safety, and the safety of roadkill (with a brief digression into podcasts), before ending up on the topic of third-party delivery services and the kind of food safety training they need. It's a long after-show after the outro music for those who are into that kind of thing.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 179: My Oven is 1200 W

Added on April 1, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben record a special podcast as part of an American Frozen Food Institute webinar series. The guys walk through the AFFI Food Safety Zone website, talk about their food safety experiences with frozen foods and do some listener feedback on microwaves and meal delivery services and meal sharing.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 178: Search for the Word "Vomit"

Added on March 21, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The guys want to let everyone know up front that they will be recording a special frozen food themed episode next week with the sponsorship of the American Frozen Food Institute. The audio recording of the show will appear in the regular podcast feed, but if you want to listen and watch in real time you can register on the AFFI website at the link below.

The regular show opens with a discussion about Ben's upcoming relay race across the state of South Carolina, and the reason for the early-morning reporting of the podcast. From Palmetto relays to palmetto bugs, the show dips quickly into food safety, Ben's favorite thermometer, and how smells can make both of your hosts feel queasy. There's a brief musical interlude while Ben goes to look after his dog, and after he returns he shares his adventures with a chainsaw. The food safety starts in earnest with a remembrance of Pete Snyder, and then Don talks about pesticide food safety. Then brings things back to microbial food safety by talking about a recent botulism outbreak in New York City. From there the guys transition to listener feedback where they talk about blanching versus cooking, how the FDA model food code and the food code Annex are developed. The next bit of listener feedback the guys revisit microbiological safety of citrus rind, as well as the effect of ethanol on microorganisms. There's a brief technical digression into pushing and pumping things off of stacks before a return to food safety. The guys talk a little bit about gluten-free flour, and its microbiological risks and how they might be controlled before wrapping up quickly to mention a novel technique for not spitting on your birthday cake.

Food Safety Talk 177: Toilet as a Research Device

Added on March 7, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

In this episode, the guys jump right into a discussion on why Ben is late and how bourbon, lead and the Indy 500 might all be connected (and have a food safety thread). The discussion goes to feedback on citrus slices; using AI for diets and journalism; and, farmers' markets. Ben and Don go on to talk about cooking through slapping, the double turns out story of MSG and how magic temperatures get decided. The episode ends where it started - in the bathroom - with smart toilets and dumb soap dispensers. Oh, and a dirty, dirty salad robot.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 176: Bug Book

Added on February 21, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with a discussion about privacy, whether you should cover the microphone on your computer, or how you can scare your kids using Alexa. The guys talked briefly about what they're watching, Ben's trip to Athens Georgia, and celebrity feet. From there the show moves into listener feedback talking about the safety of eating Canadian seaweed. Listener feedback makes a interesting segue into failure, and the things we can learn from it. The show returns to listener feedback with a discussion about citrus safety and infused water. For some reason Don wants to talk about smoke detectors, before returning again to listener feedback and "Contamination Corner", and ways to learn about stuff you don't know about (like filibusters). Ben and Don talk about an interview that Don did for Cooking Light, before Don wants to talk about fixing his broken software. Ben ends the show with a long discussion regarding safe cooking directions for frozen vegetables, and why no one can agree. Show notes so you can follow along at home are below:

Food Safety Talk 175: Dodransbicentennial

Added on February 14, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben talk about UK author Nick Hornby (not to be confused with the non-Canadian Bruce Hornsby). Before they get into food safety stuff the discussion goes to the origins of hip-hop, the Beastie Boys book and Ben Folds. Don’s ongoing bit of talking about British TV comes up and then the guys discuss recent food safety talks they’ve given and Ben’s upcoming bridge tour of Athens, GA. The real food safety starts with a conversation on a Fox News host’s handwashing habits and top 10 lists of foods (and their click-bait). The guys also discuss tea water safety, Goop, how to become a process authority and software to manage food safety in restaurants. The episode ends with a phenomenal rap video on vitamins.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 174: No Borscht Collusion

Added on January 30, 2019 by Don Schaffner.

The show starts with a discussion of Ben’s vocal fry, which leads to an interesting digression regarding fried fish. Ben follows up with a discussion about emptying his inbox and what sparks joy. This leads to a semi-deep dive on productivity before a short segment on television recommendations. Food safety talk begins with discussion about flour safety, which moves on to a viral video on leftover pasta safety tied to food poisoning incident from more than a decade ago. There is a discussion about the safety of fast food left out of temperature control for several hours before the guys move on to listener feedback. Listener feedback covers handling wedding leftovers, canning borscht, and the benefits using aseptic technique when pouring milk. Listener feedback is interrupted by more discussion of food safety in the news, and a recipe for overnight cooking, and crockpot safety. Ben discusses pet food safety, before returning to listener questions on the proper sanitary technique for disinfecting a spatula left behind the stove for a year, and confusing deli meat labels, before the show ends with a brief chat about microbiological risks from sinks and how they are spread. Link so you can follow along at home are shown below:

Food Safety Talk 173: Paper Towel Tongues

Added on January 14, 2019 by Ben Chapman.

Ben and Don chat about student mentoring philosophies and the stuff they are watching/reading and then run through some listener questions. Topics include hot-holding, toilet plumes and good samaritan laws and where they cross-over with food safety. The episode then goes to working on food safety for federal administrations and the impacts of the government shutdown on public health and inspection.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 172: Math is Hard

Added on December 28, 2018 by Don Schaffner.

Part two of the holiday extravaganza was recorded the day after Christmas. The show opens with Ben providing an update on his NC State Kitchen installation while Don imagine’s 1980’s music videos. The rest of the show covers the listener feedback left over from the last episode and finishes with brief critique of ESPN’s stadium food safety story.

Food Safety Talk 171: 350 Million Caesars

Added on December 25, 2018 by Ben Chapman.

It’s a Christmas miracle as Don and Ben finally align schedules after snow kept Ben from his microphone and Don’s travel. After a little bit of banter on construction noises, and Canadian cocktails, the guys talk about egg nog and the effects of alcohol on Salmonella. The conversation goes to eating human flesh and brains (the guys are not fans) and mycotoxins in a fermented Chinese tea, puerh. Don and Ben chat about cleaning retail stores after recalled produce has been on display and whether Romaine lettuce is now worry-free.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 170: Pants Pants Pants!

Added on November 26, 2018 by Don Schaffner.

The show opens with a discussion of technology and cyber Monday, before segueing to Ben's missing tooth. From there the guys do a deep dive into the recent E. coli O157:H7 in romaine lettuce outbreak before turning to listener feedback. They cover heating breastmilk, putting bleach on the food of homeless people, temperature monitoring devices, proper methods for thawing turkey, reconditioning cutting boards, and air quality of dairy processing plant all based on listener feedback. Buckle up, this is a bonus sized episode.

Food Safety Talk 169: Panel of Plonkers

Added on November 15, 2018 by Ben Chapman.

The episode starts with a quick discussion of books the guys are planning on reading this week, and a book that arrived mysteriously at the offices of many other food safety folks (including Don and Ben). The food safety discussion goes to a story of a Chicago bus driver pooping on his bus and trying to clean it up with the contents of a coffee cup; Don and Ben chat about the pros and cons of this approach. The guys tackle the safety of storing breast milk, pickling eggs in miso, and what levels of contamination may have led the Romaine-linked E. coli O157 outbreak earlier this year. The show ends on raw flour, TTIs (not STIs) and raw chicken thingies.

Show notes so you can follow along at home.