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Frightening the public with half-truths and innuendo is not the way to teach them about food and nutrition.
As a food scientist, I feel it is depressing to read the newspaper or browse the Internet. So many food-related articles are loaded with misinformation, innuendo and half-truths that it is almost frightening. Not frightening in the sense that I am personally concerned, but frightened as to how these articles will affect the average consumer.
For example, a testing laboratory was hired to collect poultry from supermarkets and test the product for pathogens. It reported 69 percent of the samples tested were positive for Campylobacter jejuni and 19 percent contained Salmonella. The study also reported that a large number of samples contained S. aureus. It was almost an afterthought when the author mentioned poultry is usually cooked prior to consumption, a process that would kill these pathogens.
If the same laboratory swabbed the hands and nasal passages of 10,000 people, it is very likely it...