Coincidence and Presliced Peppers

How could coincidence have something to do with presliced peppers? In life as well as in health, anything goes. Our practices in food preparation may have been proven very risky somewhere else.

CALL IT coincidence.

When the family had supper in a food court somewhere in Talisay City, we opted for the more oily middle-eastern inspired rice treat (the first time I tasted one) instead of the familiar steamed rice. Topping that with a sunny fried egg makes the taste and texture superb.

While the attendant prepared the food, I noticed his use of presliced raw spices—onion, tomato and all—and kept in the refrigerator, until fully used up, I supposed.

Coincidentally, I earlier had a research report on a Salmonella infection outbreak in Texas, which involved the use of precubed spices, particularly raw jalapeño peppers.

The good thing was I haven’t read the study beyond the abstract when I put the first spoon of the tasty dish into my mouth. I can imagine my reservations had I read the report in full.

The diarrheal outbreak had 25 confirmed cases of Salmonella enterica serotype Stpaul infection obtained from a Mexican-style restaurant in Wichita Falls, 5 percent of which were females, and nine percent got hospitalized. Meanwhile... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 14 December 2011.

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