>Sure bacteria can grow, I guess. I'm no food scientist but since it's not a
>meat dish (which has started out with g-d knows what) beans PROBABLY won't
>have anything harmful grow on them during a normal cooling down process.
But there is a developing problem here -- there are increasing numbers of
serious food-bourne illnesses which are traced back to vegetables instead
of meats., e.g. e coli from berries, and salmonella from alfalfa sprouts
(it arrives on the seeds). On the bright side, things like beans and grains
get cooked more thoroughly than berries or sprouts, but the dark side is
that most vegetarians have come to feel that they don't need to follow the
rigorous food-handling guidelines that are recommended (if not followed)
for those who allow meat into their kitchens, and bacteria can be arrive
toward the end of the cooking process...
This is not just a matter of individual kitchen habits -- it also a
legislative problem, exacerbated by decrease of funds for food-safety
inspections, both at borders and in domestic food production/processing. If
you're concerned by the fact that these organisms are showing up in
vegetables as well as meats, it's up to you to contact authority figures in
the public and/or private sector, whichever you feel has the motivation and
authority to respond.
I know there is an kind of bacteria which lives on rice and doesn't seem to
be killed by cooking -- this is why rice spoils so rapidly. Can anyone
remind me of its name? And are there similar organisms on beans or other
grains?
Noel
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