WASHINGTON---Think you’re savvy about food safety? That you wash your hands well, scrub away germs, cook your meat properly?
Guess again.
Scientists put cameras in the kitchens of 100 families in Logan, Utah. What was caught on tape in this middle-class, well-educated college town suggests why food poisoning hits so many Americans.
People skipped soap when hand-washing. Used the same towel to wipe up raw meat juice as to dry their hands. Made a salad without washing the lettuce. Undercooked the meat loaf. One even tasted the marinade in which bacteria-ridden raw fish had soaked.
Not to mention the mom who handled raw chicken and then fixed her infant a bottle without washing her hands.
Or another mom who merely rinsed(冲洗) her baby’s juice bottle after it fell into raw eggs---no soap against the salmonella(沙门氏菌) that can lurk(潜伏) in eggs.
“Shocking,” was Utah State University nutritionist Janet Anderson’s reaction.
Specialists call this typical of the average U.S. household: Everybody commits at least some safety sins(罪恶) when they are hurried, distracted by fussy children or ringing phones, simply not thinking about germs. Even Anderson made changes in her kitchen after watching the tapes.
The Food and Drug Administration funded Anderson’s $50,000 study to detect how cooks slip up. The goal is to improve consumers’ knowledge of how to protect themselves from the food poisoning that strikes 76 million Americans each year.
“One of the great barriers in getting people to change is they think they’re doing such a good job already,” said FDA consumer research chief Alan Levy.
Surveys show most Americans blame restaurants for food-borne illnesses. Asked if they follow basic bacteria-fighting tips---listed on the Internet at www.fightbac.org---most insist they’re careful in their kitchens.
Levy says most food poisonings probably occur at home. The videotapes suggest why. People have no idea that they’re messing up, Anderson said. “You just go in the kitchen, and it’s something you don’t think about.”
She described preliminary(初步的) study results at a food meeting last week. Having promised the families anonymity, she didn’t show the tapes.
For $50 and free groceries, families agreed to be filmed. Their kitchens looked clean and presumably(perhaps) they were on their best behavior, but they didn’t know it was a safety study. Hoping to see real-life hygiene, scientists called the experiment “market research” on how people cooked a special recipe.
Scientists bought ingredients for a salad plus either Mexican meat loaf, marinaded halibut or herb-breaded chicken breasts with mustard sauce---recipes designed to catch safety slip-ups.
Cameras started rolling as the cooks put away the groceries.
There was mistake No. 1: Only a quarter stored raw meat and seafood on the refrigerator’s bottom shelf so other foods don’t get contaminated(污染) by dripping juices.
Mistake No. 2: Before starting to cook, only 45 percent washed their hands. Of those, 16 percent didn’t use soap. You’re supposed to wash hands often while cooking, especially after handling raw meat. But on average, each cook skipped seven times that Anderson said they should have washed. Only a third consistently used soap---many just rinsed and wiped their hands on a dish towel. That dish towel became Anderson’s nightmare. Using paper towels to clean up raw meat juice is safest. But dozens wiped the countertop(台面板) with that cloth dish towel---further spreading germs the next time they dried their hands.
Thirty percent didn’t wash the lettuce; others placed salad ingredients on meat-contaminated counters.
Scientists checked the finished meal with thermometers, and Anderson found “alarming” results: 35 percent who made the meat loaf undercooked it, 42 percent undercooked the chicken and 17 percent undercooked the fish.
Must you use a thermometer? Anderson says just because the meat isn’t pink doesn’t always mean it got hot enough to kill bacteria.
Anderson’s study found gaps in food-safety campaigns. FDA’s “Fight Bac” antibacterial program doesn’t stress washing vegetables. Levy calls those dirty dish towels troubling; expect more advice stressing paper towels.
Anderson’s main message: “If people would simply wash their hands and clean food surfaces after handling raw meat, so many of the errors would be taken care of.”
【小题1】Where did this article most likely come from?

A.The Internet. B.A newspaper.C.A Textbook.D.A brochure.
【小题2】 What is the purpose of Paragraphs 4 through 6?
A.To present the author’s opinion about the study.
B.To explain how the study was conducted.
C.To state the reason for the food safety study.
D.To describe things observed in the study.
【小题3】 What prevents many Americans practicing better food safety in their kitchen?
A.They don’t trust the Food and Drug Administration.
B.They’ve followed basic bacteria-fighting tips on the Internet.
C.They think they are being careful enough already.
D.They believe they are well-informed and well-educated enough.
【小题4】 Which of the following would prevent most cases of food poisoning in the home?
A.Washing hands and cleaning surfaces after handling raw meat.
B.Strictly following recipes and cooking meat long enough.
C.Storing raw meat on the bottom shelf in the refrigerator.
D.Using paper towels t clean up raw meat juice.
【小题5】 What is the main purpose of this article?
A.To discourage people from cooking so much meat at home.
B.To criticize the families who participated in the study.
C.To introduce the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety campaigns.
D.To report the results of a study about the causes of food poisoning.

Europe’s deadly outbreak of a rare form of E. coli bacteria (大肠杆菌) has brought new attention to food safety issues. One of the problems when people get sick from food is that the simplest question is often difficult or even impossible to answer. Just what did the people eat that made them sick?
Of course, one way to avoid these medical mysteries is to keep dangerous organisms out of the food supply. This is easier said than done, but scientists keep looking for new ways.
Scientists in the United States have developed an experimental system that uses a high-tech optical scanner. The system is designed to identify the presence of contaminants(致污物) like soil or animal waste on fresh produce. These can be sources of E. coli. E. coli bacteria naturally live in the intestines() of humans and many animals. Most kinds of E. coli are harmless but some can make people sick.
The new scanner can also show damage and imperfections that might make the produce unappealing to shoppers.
Scientists designed the system at a Department of Agriculture research center in Beltsville, Maryland. Moon Kim of the Agricultural Research Service led the team.
MOON KIM: “We were requested, we were asked, to develop a method to detect contamination in produce. So we started with the apple as the model sample.”
The scanner uses a high-speed camera placed over the conveyer belt that moves the produce along. As the apples move along the belt, the scanner captures images of each piece of fruit.
Moon Kim says the team hopes the system will be available before long.
MOON KIM: “We are targeting for development in commercial plants for the next several years.”
The scanner can direct a sorting machine to separate the bad apples from the good ones. The system is currently able to show the surface of only half the apple as it speeds by. The inventers hope to improve the process so it can show the whole surface.
1.What is the main topic of the text?

ABacteria.?? BA high-tech scanner.

CA camera??? DFood safety.

2.E. coli bacteria ______.

Abroke out all over the world????????????? Bcomes from soil or animal waste

Cis extremely harmful to health????????????? Ddoes not cause illness

3.The high-tech scanner ______.

Acan help to sort out different fruits

Bmake the produce appeal to shoppers

Ccan only capture images of the whole apple

Dcan identify the presence of contaminants

4.What can be inferred from the text?

AThe scanner needs to be improved.

BThe scanner will be available in the next several years.

CMoon Kim is unwilling to develop the scanner.

DThe scanner is connected to a sorting machine.

 

At least 10 million hectares of cultivated(耕作)land in China are polluted, which makes a grave threat to the country’s food safety, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.

The polluted land,which is mostly in economically developed areas,accounts for one-tenth of the country’s total arable(可耕种的)land,according to an incomplete survey by the State Environmental Protection Administration,China’s top environment watchdog.

Pollution on cultivated land threatens the environment,food safety and the sustainable development of agriculture,the administration said.

Because of continual,too much use of chemical fertilizer, pesticide and agricultural plastic sheeting, as well as irrigation using polluted water, a large amount of contaminants(污染物)remain in the cultivated land.

The contaminants affect the soil’s ecological structure and function,leading to decreased soil productivity, lower crop yield(产量),and lower quality of agricultural products-

It also leads to worse water quality in rural areas.

Less than 9 per cent of drinkable water passed checks for bacteria in243 rural water supply stations across the county.

Another survey, which took samples of drinking water and groundwater an 69 small towns。 in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province of North,China, showed that more than half of the water contains too much nitrate(硝酸盐),which may cause diabetes(糖尿病)and damage the kidney.

The administration estimated at least 1 90 million farmers are drinking water that contains harmful substances.

Many villagers drink unfiltered water taken from shallow water wells or water cellars, which are reported to have poor sanitary conditions·

1.The author writes the passage to            .

A.1et the readers examine their mistakes

B.present the readers a new idea

C.come up with a solution to ending farmland pollution

D.inform the readers of the importance of fighting farmland pollution

2.The underlined word “grave” in Paragraph 1 probably means

A.serious           B.certain            C.big               D.terrible

3.Pollution on cultivated land leads to the following outcomes EXCEPT       .

A.a threat to China’s food safety

B.worse water quality in rural areas

C.a variety of diseases

D.the sustainable development of agriculture

 

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