A question about danish , paper, and germs...

[aKyRN81]

This isn't an earthshaking or vitally important nursing question but I'm curious to know if I'm being a bit overboard in this! Saturday morning I went to the bakery to get my weekend supply of danish and the clerk grabbed each one with a piece of paper, then threw all the papers in the box with the danish! Am I just too goofy for asking her to get all that paper out of the box? All I could think of were creepy-crawly bacteria all over my goodies! The nurse in me kept repeating clean to clean, dirty to dirty, etc! I know it might be standard bakery practice but......... Would love your input! Does this bother anyone else?

[Aneroo, LPN]

There is such a thing as food-borne illness...

And the dude in line behind you could have the flu or pertussis...

If you wanna freak out over something in the restaurants, don't worry about the workers not washing hands after using the bathroom. Freak out over them handling money and then messing with your food. You'd be amazed at where money ends up (ask any guys who has ever gone to a strip club).

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

:yeahthat:

[aKyRN81]

Hey, thanks for your interesting points of view! I did enjoy the danish and haven't died yet, so I guess it worked out alright................ might have been the massive doses of vanc I took after I left the bakery:smokin:

Just wondered what y' all thought!

Thanks!

[pattymac]

I have to admit that the more I eat out, the less I want to eat out. Some days I can't even MAKE myself go to a salad bar. And public restrooms????? Don't get me started. I would rather hold it. I even have bad dreams...really.

[cursedandblessed]

guess i'll just have to take the risk, after 9-12 hours, i'm not cooking!!! (heck yes, i'm yelling). nor am i going to hold it either, lol.

[markuskristian]

man i feel blonde! i saw the thread title and thought danish... germs... denmark and germany? if thats right, what the hell is paper? haha! been studying german tonight

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

According to the CDC, there are an estimated 76 million cases of food borne illness in the US each year. With a population of about 306 million, that's nearly 25% of the population. That seems significant to me.

Although, only about 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths occur each year, which is 0.1% and 0.0016% respectively, so the odds of serious harm seem pretty small.

Also keep in mind that most food borne illness is from contaminated food sources such as raw meat, unpasteurized milk, and raw fruits and vegetables. While it's plausible that a food handler neglecting to wash their hands after using the restroom, then using papers to place pastries in a box, leaving potentially contaminated papers in the box with the food could cause infection, again, the odds don't seem very significant.