The biggest single cause of food poisoning is people touching food ingredients with their hands. Hepatitis is a whole other issue. My friend Johnnie Huang had a battle with Hepatitis after a trip to Papua New Guinea. That is why he asked about my having hepatitis shots. After that I did. If you are traveling to the tropics you should too.
Food poisoning isn’t something you worry too much about at your wine group gathering, but it is a risk whenever and wherever you eat. The old line is if someone asks you how your meal was, you can answer I’ll let you know in 6 hours.
Food born illnesses can take between a few hours and a few weeks to incubate. A common denominator for feeling the effects of food poisoning is the 6 hour time frame. Having worked with many food scientists and microbiologists over my years with Kraft foods I know more than I want to about food poisoning and pathogens.
I ran a Coconut company in the Philippines and traveled there quite a bit over a period of 20 years. Franklin Baker Company has been producing the highest quality coconut products for over 100 year. On one of my first trips there I traveled with a microbiologist who scared the daylights out of me. Of course hearing about all the possible issues seemed to lead to a case of “Marcos’s revenge”. Getting sick overseas is just no fun.
I do have a supper club story connected to my Philippine travels. I was at a restaurant in Manila and saw someone who looked familiar but couldn’t place where I knew him. Sure enough a few months later I see the same guy at a supper club dinner party. I go up to him and say “Two months ago I saw you in Manila”. He gave me that “Oh shit what was I doing look”. Oops
As far as a real message for someone preparing food for a wine group gathering, make sure you wash your hands, a lot!
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