Have you ever had food poisoning? Get the down-low on the dirtiest foods.

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There are 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning related to deli meats produced by a Canada-based Maple Leaf Foods plant. 12 of those cases have resulted in death. Listeria, the bacteria that was found in all of the people who contracted food poisoning, was detected in two beef products made at the Toronto plant.

The plant in question is closed while health officials inspect and test product until they're sure it is safe to reopen the plant. Maple Leaf Foods voluntarily pulled 220 products that are produced at the plant, a safety move that cost the company roughly $19 million.

There are another 29 suspected cases of food poisoning related to the tainted deli meats and health officials expect more cases will surface in the coming days.

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British celebrity chef and TV presenter, Antony Worrall Thompson, discussed organic salads in a recent magazine article. Sounds great, right? It would be, if one of the ingredients he recommended wasn't toxic.

Worrall Thompson has a passion for organic foods and meant to recommend using fat hen, a vitamin-C rich, edible weed that is plentiful in the UK. Fat hen would be a fine addition to salads, though it is quite high in nitrates. Instead of the relatively harmless fat hen, Worrall Thompson mistakenly recommended henbane -- a toxic plant that can cause vomiting, hallucinations, convulsions, and (in extreme cases) death.

Oops! Sounds like a salad you definitely DON'T want to eat. The magazine, Healthy & Organic Living, printed a warning to its readers. Worrall Thompson apologized for his error.

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A friend of my mom's has been sick for weeks, with a case of possible salmonella poisoning. The culprit, she thinks, are the peppers she put on her build-your-own salad at a local restaurant. I'm not sure what kinds of peppers are to blame for her illness but I do know this: government inspectors have just issued a strong warning to consumers not to eat jalapenos, or fresh salsa made from them.

The warning comes as a result of one single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper found in Texas. This discovery, say officials, is the equivalent of a fingerprint. Still, it's cause for worry.

Perhaps the tainted pepper came straight from a farm, a plant, a packing house. It's all pretty unclear. But those involved realize the need to iron out the details of this scare soon, as parts of the country are entering prime hot pepper season.

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Although the Chinese-made toy recall is pretty much a second-tier issue in the media at this time, kids that have a lower exposure to the lead amount deemed safe by the U.S. government may still have lower IQs and other problems, according to a new report from the CDC in Atlanta.

The standard for lead poisoning exposure is not a new one, and it confounds me on why newer times don't dictate newer exposure guidelines for certain substances based on new rounds of evidence and research.

As more toys are "consumed" by parents for their kids, they'll still be made, by and large, in China. Are lead concerns going to vanish tomorrow? No -- and the questions and concerns should escalate from parents. Maybe change will happen.

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Dole has announced a bagged salad recall in the U.S. and Canada due to possible E. Coli contamination after a sample in Canada tested positive for the bacteria that can be fatal in some cases.

Although Dole reported this week that nobody had reportedly become ill or had medical complications from eating potentially tainted bagged vegetable products, it was being cautious be issuing the recall, according to the company.

The recall covers the "Dole Hearts Delight" salad mix with a "best is used by" September 19th date. So far, only this one product with that one expiration date has been singled out in the recall.

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Botulism hasn't been seen in commercially canned goods since the 1970s, but it recently reared its ugly head in some hot dog chili sauce products and sent 4 people to the hospital. Botulism is caused by the bacteria Clostridium and works by paralyzing muscles. All 4 people (2 kids in Texas and a couple from Indiana) are expected to fully recover.

The warning and recall apply to 10-ounce cans of Castleberry's, Austex and Kroger brands of hot dog chili sauce with "best by" dates from April 30, 2009 through May 22, 2009. They were canned in Augusta, GA, and Castleberry is cooperating fully with the FDA and CDC investigations.

This is scary -- why now, after all these years?

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Who would think that a darling little baby turtle could pose a deadly health risk? Well they can, and they do. Salmonella is often found in turtles as they can carry the bacteria without getting sick. This is nothing new as there was actually a law passed way back in 1975 that prohibited the sale of turtles with a shell smaller than 4 inches in the hope of lessening the risk, but there's no reliable way of telling whether any specific turtle is a carrier. It's possible to contract Salmonella poisoning, or pass it on to others, from simply coming in contact with the turtle itself or its feces. Sadly this issue has come to the forefront recently due to a tragic incident where a 4 week old baby died from Salmonella poisoning transferred to her from a pet turtle.

I'm not a big fan of turtles as pets anyway -- all too often they're scooped up out of the wild only to end up dying a slow horrible death in the hands of people who don't know how to care for them. I say if you're thinking about getting a turtle, don't, and if you've already got one then care for it carefully and wash your hands, etc. Whatever you do, don't go dumping it somewhere -- the little guy can't help it. If you must, find him a good home.

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The first few times I remember hearing about food poisoning it was always in relation to fast food. Some poor soul had eaten an improperly cooked hamburger and been haunted by it all the next day. In fact, I have an aunt who spent her honeymoon in the hospital after an unfortunate encounter with some pink fried-chicken.

According to this article, there are two types of food poisoning. There is the kind that makes you sick almost immediately and lasts for a day or two. These illnesses are often mistaken for a 24- or 48-hour flu. There is also a type of food-poisoning-infection that can make you miserable for days and even weeks.

The funny thing is that, according to the article, much of the food poisoning cases that occur now result not from fast food, but because of the cross-contamination of healthy stuff with nasty bacteria. Remember a few months ago when frozen spinach was all you could find because all the fresh stuff had been pulled from the shelves after an E. coli outbreak? It's a good idea to always remember to clean your hands before cooking and also to properly wash all fresh ingredients. Most importantly, always keep raw meat separate from veggies. While food poisoning isn't often deadly, it certainly isn't pleasant so it's worth the extra care and attention when preparing meals.

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When you get sick and blame something you ate, your first reaction is probably along the lines of "where did I last eat out?" Many of us automatically blame restaurants for food-borne illnesses, but the truth is that statistics show 1 in 4 victims gets sick from something they cooked themselves at home.

In all honesty, besides limiting how often you dine out and perhaps avoiding commonly contaminated foods like ground meat, there's really not much you can do about food-borne illnesses from restaurant food. But follow these 7 tips for ensuring the food you make at home is as safe as possible:

• Wash your hands frequently. Most people do when they first get started cooking, but to be safe you really need to wash your hands thoroughly every time you switch to working with a new ingredient or meal item.

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How many of you use that old sponge at your kitchen sink until it is about ready to crumble apart forcing us to get another one out of the pack under the sink? Guilty by admission. How many of you use the sponges on a handle that will dispense soap to wash dishes. I Used to. Dish washing sponges are full of concavities, millions of them and these concavities help produce foam but are also a breading ground for lots of different bacteria. Most of the bacteria nestled inside sponges comes from food when we wash dishes or wipe counters, especially raw foods, like meat or poultry and vegetables.

Some people put sponges in the microwave to kill bacteria. Well lets blow this myth out of the water. The spores that some kind of bacteria make to survive harsh conditions do not contain much water and they might survive microwaves. Bacteria that spill food may be killed in a microwave, but the toxins that they produce are the actual substances that make us ill, and they are not destroyed by microwaves. Improperly cleaned microwaves are a breeding ground for germs and bacteria also.

Wooden and poly cutting boards are full of crevices and if you wash them with a sponge that is full of bacteria you are just pushing bacteria deep into the board creating a risk for food poisoning or infection.

So how do you protect yourself from these bacterias and germs breeding around your kitchen sink and in your sponge. Start healthy habits when cleaning. Wash your hands even before you pick up the sponge to wash dishes. Leave your sponge very dry and without any residue of organic material by cleaning your sponge after you wash your dishes and by all means keep it away from your cutting board. Soak your sponge in vinegar which is a natural bacteria killer. Most important is to change your sponge every week. Oh come on, you can't complain about that. You can buy 4 sponges for $2. The cost of a trip to a hospital for food or bacteria poisoning is $200. Cost of the sanity to know you are safe.......... PRICELESS.

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To me this is just sad: in a new study published by the American Journal of Public Health many children diagnosed with lead poisoning continue to live in poisonous environments for as long as 6 months. And by "many" they mean as much as 82%! That's disgusting.

Apparently, the majority of the children dealing with these "long clean-up times" are living in low-income rental units and the landlords just don't have the money to take care of the situation. The number of homes taking 6 months or longer to become lead-safe has dropped in recent years, but it still remains a significant problem.

There are currently no government programs available to help landlords or homeowners make their buildings safe if they're not able to do it on their own. I'm not usually one to advocate government funding, but in this case maybe they should step in and help out -- for the kids.

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