Recently in food poisoning Category

Okay. I jumped the gun on the salsa.

The Salmonellosis continues, and now the FDA suspects jalapeno peppers or cilantro may be involved. And yet, I didn't see anything on their site just yet (probably because they tanked the tomato crop, perhaps for nothing, and don't want to affect any other crops until they know). The FDA does all that recalling, but the CDC -- the Centers for Disease Control -- well, they're all over this thing now because they investigate this sort of trouble and love making cool multicolored maps. They also advise against fresh jalapeno or poblano peppers for the moment.

Stay tuned...

Necessary implements for preventing food poisoning from your leftover food:

1 Sharpie pen

1 regular pen

Tiny Post-it notes

Refrigerator and Freezer storage chart from the FDA

Common sense

Can't remember if it was last Friday or Saturday (or was it Thursday?) when you put that leftover chicken salad in the fridge?

It's a good idea to break out a Sharpie pen and scrawl the date across the empty ziploc bag before placing food in it, or take a Post-it and tag that takeout container. Yes, yes, you don't' have time, you have to get a pen, it's a phenomenal pain. So is doubling over with diarrhea.

Keep the pens in the utensil drawer (unless you have a small child and don't care about your walls) with the sticky notes.

And remember, the refrigerator is not a time capsule, so almost no food will stay fresh there for a week. Raw hamburger, for example, needs to be used in 2 days max (if you're not going to use it get it to the freezer).

If you're playing a guessing game, don't go over 3 days for most open containers of cooked (but print the FDA chart for the exceptions).