I personally think it is more important to facilitate a healthy and balanced digestive track far more then it is to worry about bacteria within food. Eating fermented healthy foods, eating plenty of variety, probiotics, ect. I also believe in a reasonable exposure to bacteria on a day to day basis. I keep a decently clean kitchen, but its far from spotless. I do not use bleach or heavy cleaners, no chemical disinfectants, and I even avoid antibacterial soap (at least in my home). My biggest rule, I don't over think any of this.
An example of my exposure, I have fed raw food to my cats for almost 7 years now, which I prepare everything in my kitchen on my granite counters (which are supposed to harbor bacteria from recent comments I have seen). This means at least twice a day I am handling various raw meats, cutting them up, serving them on plates, using a scale, kitchen shears, ect. I do a super quick clean each time, but I am FAR from being a perfectionist, plus when you handle meat so often, there is a tendency to not pay attention as much to what you are doing (opening fridge, handles on the faucet, ect). I am sure unintentionally we have been exposed to raw chicken, rabbit, quail, turkey, on a pretty regular basis. My husband and I have never had a problem once from food borne illness. My cats who have eaten raw for that whole time have never gotten sick either, no bouts of diarrhea, nada.
Could something happen in the future? Sure, maybe...but I am never going to stop feeding my felines raw meat, their health is far too improved. Same goes for my foods, I will rinse my veggies and fruits (with water), I will keep eating raw eggs, raw fish, but I personally am not going to worry much about exposure. I know that mass farming has produced new strains of bacteria not seen through history, but I just do not feel a drive to stress over it.
My thoughts, keep your gut healthy, purchase what you can from local farms or from suppliers following some level of organic or more natural policies (for whatever that title is worth today), and I think your better off then avoiding every food that pops up on the news.
I wonder what was the normal diet and health status of those folks who do get infected with salmonella or E colli? Would be curious if there are more trends behind those stats then just '13,000 infected annually'. You start to wonder if the food 'alerts' are similar to the swine flu....just a hot button someone hits in the media to drive up sales on something else.....especially those clean and 'safe' looking prepackaged products.
