Green living: Food safety risks are hard to see | The Coloradoan | coloradoan.com

There is an old aphorism that “You have to see it to believe it.” This phrase embodies the notion that if you can’t see it, perhaps it’s not true. The idea serves us well in many everyday experiences, but it does not apply well in the selection of safe foods.

There are, of course, some very visible potential food-safety hazards. You are well advised to not eat moldy foods. If you eat fresh vegetables, especially root crops, you want to wash off dirt because it’s quite likely a bird, cat or a dog has visited the garden bed even if it’s your own beautiful garden. If you are Elmer Fudd and shoot rabbits to eat, you will want to pick out the shotgun pellets, even if steel pellets only break your teeth (instead of giving you lead poisoning).


Most of the things in food that can harm us are quite invisible. There are potential chemical contaminants that include those things that are used to kill insects, rodents, molds and bacteria. Then there are potential microbe problems. These include a bewildering array of bacteria, viruses, bacterial and fungal toxins and other micro-organisms way too small to be seen.