I noticed during many of the recent food “scares” (spinach, pet food, beef recall, etc.) how little it concerned me anymore, now that I have so many direct farm-to-fork sources (CSA, direct farm sales, home-prepared pet food, etc.). Doesn’t mean that there is absolutely no risk (everything has some risk), but potential problems are minimized, are quicker and easier to trace, and there is less “shelf time” for bacterial contamination to multiply.

The main lingering concern I have is about eating out, because restaurants of all sorts now increasingly use massive amounts of “prepared” and semi-prepared labor-saving raw ingredients, which adds even more layers of potential contamination and exposure to raw foods. I try not to dwell on it (not very appetizing digging into a salad and thinking, this came from a bag and a factory plant, not from a freshly washed head of lettuce from a farm) and keep my fingers crossed. Even an enthusiast cook like me likes to eat out now and then.