In this article I’m going to get into the reasons why food safety is more important to certain individuals.

They’re called “Highly Sensitive Populations” and there are different reasons why some people are more susceptible to foodborne pathogens.

We’ll start with elderly folks.

Among the many blessings of old age is also found the increased danger from foodborne illnesses.

Older folks have immune systems that are slowing down and not performing as effectively. Many times acidic food is harder to tolerate, and more antacids are consumed.

These antacids, as it says in their name, reduce the acidity of the stomach, which may also be getting lower as a natural result of aging.

Unfortunately, bacteria thrives in low acid environments, preferring a neutral to low acid range to flourish and grow.

Other senior body systems slow down too, with food taking longer to get through the digestive tract and some organs getting more sluggish in finding and ridding the body of bacteria and other pathogens.

With aging, more medications may be prescribed to regulate body functions and these medications too can weaken the immune system as a side effect.

So it is very important for seniors to be vigilant in what they are consuming. Seniors should be careful in how they are cooking and handling food and watching the temperatures, both for cooking and for storage.

Next, let’s consider babies and children.

The immune systems in our babies and young people are not yet established. They have not had the exposure to various pathogens and the body defenses have not been geared to activate to protect juvenile bodies.

A pathogen introduced via food could potentially cause a severe or life-threatening illness.

One of the first most tragic incidents on record was the Jack in the Box hamburger outbreak in 1993 which resulted in four children’s deaths due to an E.coli infection.

Our young populations can obviously easily compromised by foodborne pathogens.

Finally, we have to consider other folks who may have compromised immune systems.

A weakened immune system could occur in people on chemotherapy. Many drugs used to combat cancer are strong and have a definite weakening effect on the immune system.

Other people who need to be very vigilant about their food safety would include people with diabetes, organ transplant recipients and people with autoimmune diseases.

So how do you help to protect yourself from a foodborne illness if you fall into one of these groups?

Here are some suggestions:

Make sure all food that is cold is kept under 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Buy a thermometer that you can easily see in the refrigerator. Cold food should be kept cold until consumed.

For hot food, chicken and poultry and anything stuffed should be cooked to 165 degrees F. Hamburgers should be cooked to 155 degrees F for at least 17 seconds now, according to the 2017 food code.

Fish, steaks, chops should reach 145 degrees for 15 seconds. Plant materials, vegetables, rice etc. should reach 135 degrees F.

Anything that you cook in the microwave should reach 165 degrees F, no matter what it is. Let it sit two minutes to even out the temperatures too.

When you reheat food that you’ve made to serve right away, you can re-heat this to any temperature. But, if you are reheating the food and then plan on keeping the food warm for a longer amount of time, reheat it to 165 degrees F and then hold it over 135 degrees F.

If you are cooling food in order to save it, cool this food quickly. You should have food that is reading at 135 degrees F cooled down to 41 degrees F in six hours. Don’t sit hot food out on the counter to cool, it just doesn’t get through the temperature danger zone of 41 degrees F to 135 degrees F in enough time.

Also, watch for contamination of surfaces from raw meats. Don’t use that cutting board for lettuce after you’ve just trimmed the fat off of a raw steak unless the cutting board is washed, rinsed and sanitized.

A capful of bleach in a gallon of warm water is a very good sanitizer.

Another thing — don’t let sick people handle food! Keep them out of the kitchen and wash hands, wash hands, wash hands!

Additionally, buy your food from approved suppliers that are licensed and reputable.

I hope these suggestions help so that you never experience a foodborne illness. There is also much information on the FDA and USDA websites to help with food safety if you’d like to read more.

Jennifer Heller is the environmental health specialist for the Brown County Health Department. She is responsible for restaurant inspections, septic installation inspections, vector issues, farmer’s markets and home base vendor questions and complaints. She also chairs the Terrorism and All Hazards Preparedness Committee for the Indiana Environmental Health Association and will be the president-elect of that organization in 2022. She can be reached by at [email protected].