Food Poisoning To Overtake Sharks As Most Popular Irrational Fear About Florida
Florida tops the nation in food poisoning outbreaks traced to restaurants, according to the website HealthInspections.com. Not surprisingly, the top five states — Florida, California, Ohio, Michigan and New York — also happen to be the most populous, as this wasn't done on a per-capita basis. We doubt this information will make anyone think twice about where to eat out, as the article suggests, but the numbers are interesting:
Florida restaurants were responsible for making more than 300 people sick in 77 separate outbreaks of "food poisoning" – which is the term most people use for getting sick from food.
Seafood and ethnic foods were the leading culprits for making Florida restaurant customers sick.
The Florida outbreaks also raise questions about the cleanliness of those popular all-you-can-eat buffets. They were the third leading cause of food poisoning in the Sunshine state. And half of the outbreaks traced to buffets were cause by "ethnic buffets" according to the CDC.
This makes sense. We've got a lot of ocean down here, so seafood's a favorite, and if cooked improperly (or served rare improperly), there can be problems. As for "ethnic" foods, we're not sure what to say about that, except that the term casts a very large net. Perhaps we should be dining only at Applebee's?
We wonder if Florida's high percentage of retirees plays a role in this business, as the elderly are more susceptible to disease from improperly prepared food. Mostly though, we think this is just a function of having so many people here; 300 people out of the millions of residents, tourists and snowbirds isn't bad.
EXCLUSIVE: The Most Dangerous States For Eating Out. Florida Tops The List [Health Inspections]
