I used to be a happy person. That was before I took a FOODSAFE™ course, a comprehensive safe food-handling training program developed here in the Province of British Columbia. Suddenly, newly educated, I became exquisitely aware of deadly food pathogens lurking everywhere.

Those soggy dish cloths, my Baba’s apron I wipe wet hands on, the knife used to cut (horrors!) first the raw chicken and then the green peppers, the creamy puddings left out on the counter a bit too long – each of these past sins made me nervous about eating virtually anything prepared in my own kitchen. I became just a wee bit obsessive about bleaching my chopping boards. I wondered how on earth I’d managed all those years to avoid poisoning my two children.

And don’t even start on the hidden health perils of eating out . . . Continue reading →