Kathryn Rem: Food Network shows have spotty food-safety record

I cringe a little when I see Food Network hosts like Paula Deen and Rachael Ray dig into raw ground beef with wedding rings on their hands. I assume they have washed their hands, but there could be a petri dish of organisms living under those rings.

It also bothers me when the hosts don't wash fresh herbs and produce. Some of them will mention that it has been washed, but not always. Pathogens transmitted from garden to cutting board to plate can cause serious foodborne illness.

So I was interested when I received a news release last week about a study that analyzed the food-safety practices displayed on the Food Network, the nation's most popular cooking teacher.

At Texas Tech University in Lubbock, food microbiologist Dr. Mindy Brashears and Dr. Cindy Akers and Erica Irlbeck from the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications watched 49 episodes of programs aired on the Food Network. They coded the food-safety practices they observed.

The trio found 118 positive food-safety measures and 460 poor food-handling incidents. The shows viewed were "30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray," "The Essence of Emeril" with Emeril Lagasse, "Everyday Italian" with Giada De Laurentiis, "Paula's Home Cooking" with Paula Deen and "Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee."

"A lot of schools have gotten rid of home economics and as more parents work and fewer cook, where are people learning how to cook?" asked Irlbeck, one of the researchers. "I think a lot of people are learning how to prepare a dish on these TV shows. If they're not told how to make a safe meal, they may not know these things."

She saw hosts storing perishables like milk and meat on the counter, serving raw oysters and beef, not washing produce, not using a thermometer, inadequately washing equipment, sampling food and then licking fingers, cross-contaminating food and not washing hands after touching the face.

None of the hosts were shown washing their hands at the beginning of a show or using a meat thermometer.

Irlbeck acknowledged that not every step can be shown on a 30-minute TV show and "it's not entertaining to watch the host clean equipment," but she the study findings still surprised her.

Most egregious to her eye was not washing herbs, fruits and vegetables.

"I don't know about you, but my dog walks through my backyard herb garden. There are all kinds of critters in there."

She also noted how some hosts pinched salt from a saltcellar, touched raw meat and then put their fingers back into the salt dish, essentially contaminating all of the salt.

On the other hand, the positives included hand washing, cleaning equipment, washing fruits and vegetables, adequate refrigeration and using a thermometer. Lee and Ray, she noted, are especially conscientious about pulling perishables out of the fridge and not storing them on a counter.

There are an estimated 76 million cases of foodborne disease in the United States each year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Most, the researched noted, is caused by improper food handling in the home, not by highly publicized commercial errors.

Study results have been submitted to the scientific journal "Food Protection Trends," where it is under review. The university also sent it to the Food Network and parent company Scripps Networks with a request for a meeting, but the network has not responded.

I contacted Carrie Welch, vice president of public relations for the Food Network, and sent her the study results.

"We have no comment at this time," she said.

The Food Network is distributed to more than 85 million households in the U.S.

"The lesson is maybe they could do a few more things to be instructive, such as always washing hands before preparing food or having a graphic pop-up to explain safe procedures," Irlbeck said.

Kathryn Rem can be reached at (217) 788-1520 or kathryn.rem@sj-r.com .