Is your kitchen safe?

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I’ve just found out I’m a food safety slob.

This comes as a shock, because my parents (who live in England) are convinced I have become a food safety zealot, what with my admonishments not to leave fried fish out at room temperature overnight and a meddlesome habit of going through their refrigerator and tossing foods that are weeks past their sell-by dates.

‘Darling, that’s only the sell-by date,’ my dad protests.

‘She lives in California -- you know how fanatical they are about health over there -- and, of course, in the summer it’s so much hotter in California,’ says my mother, indulgently making excuses for her child.

Then there was the infamous eggplant incident of 2005, involving the inexplicable (and wasteful) disappearance of half an eggplant that had slime all over the cut end. My mother asked if I knew what had happened to it. I lied.

Yet by the yardsticks of the International Food Information Council Foundation, a group funded by food, beverage and agricultural industries, I am a slattern. Do I use a meat thermometer when using the microwave? (No. Wouldn’t the metal create those alarming electrical flashes and zapping noises?) Have I ever checked my microwave’s wattage? (No. People do this?)

The council’s food safety survey involved interviews with 1,000 U.S. residents over a 2.5-week period during February and March. ‘More than three-quarters of Americans (82%) say they are confident in their ability to safely prepare food, yet many report not following simple procedures to reduce the spread of bacteria in their kitchen or ensure safe cooking temperatures,’ says a news release about the findings.

The stats:

92% say they wash their hands with soap and water when preparing food. (Good!)

79% store leftovers within two hours of serving. (Pretty good!)

48% report using separate cutting boards for raw meat or poultry and produce. (Do they mean dedicated separate cutting boards?)

29% use a meat thermometer.

15% check the wattage on their microwaves. (Sorry, but this sounds remarkably high.)

7% say they use a meat thermometer when using their microwaves.

What about you? Have you checked the wattage of your microwave lately? Do you eat off the floor -- or hose down the kitchen with bleach at the end of each day?

And please, come to dinner any time. (No -- really? You’re busy?)

--Rosie Mestel

P.S. For food safety tips from the government, go here.