COMIC: How long do leftovers last? 6 honest questions about food safety : NPR

MARIELLE SEGARRA, HOST:

You're listening to LIFE KIT...

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SEGARRA: ...From NPR.

Hey, everybody. It's Marielle. All right, I've got a scenario for you. You just got home. It's dinnertime. Your hunger started creeping up an hour ago, and now it's entering hanger territory. And you're still not sure what you're going to make for dinner. You open the fridge and, oh, right, there's that lasagna I made the other day. When did I make that lasagna? Was it Monday? Tuesday? Probably still good, right? You open the Tupperware. Smells OK. It's probably safe to eat. Francine Shaw is a food safety expert, and she's going to burst our bubble here a little bit.

FRANCINE SHAW: You cannot see or smell some of these bacteria - or taste all the bacteria that's going to make you sick or kill you.

SEGARRA: Francine runs a food safety company, wrote a food safety book and co-hosts a food safety podcast called - are you ready for this? - "Don't Eat Poop!" And she's not kidding around with that title.

SHAW: You can't wash your hands enough. I mean, that is the No. 1 cause of foodborne illness.

SEGARRA: Norovirus is the leading cause of disease from contaminated foods in the United States, according to the CDC. And, yes, it's spread through the stool and vomit particles of infected people. And those often get around from people touching contaminated surfaces. Wash your hands, everybody. And look, nobody wants to get food poisoning and spend the night throwing up or sitting on the toilet or curled up in the fetal position because of cramps. Also, that's not actually the worst-case scenario.

SHAW: Some people have lifelong ramifications from foodborne illnesses. They never fully recover.

SEGARRA: The FDA reports that an estimated 1 in 6 Americans get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die every year from foodborne illnesses. So the problem of foodborne disease is a real one. But there's also a lot you can do to protect yourself.

SHAW: We can all take steps to minimize the risk of foodborne illness at home, at picnics, at social gatherings. And a lot of it is just things that we should do every day.

SEGARRA: On this episode of LIFE KIT, reporter Andee Tagle will walk you through the must-knows of food safety. She's going to help us as we head into the holiday season to keep our gatherings as safe as possible, to learn the ins and outs of kitchen and food prep and also how to store your leftovers safely.

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ANDEE TAGLE, BYLINE: All right, if you're anything like me, you've come to this story with the same burning question - is the five-second rule real? If I drop a pretzel on the floor but I pick it right back up again, no bacteria, right? We're good?

NAMANDJE BUMPUS: (Laughter) It's not, you know, you drop something, and then there are bacteria waiting and they sprint over, and it takes them five seconds to get there.

TAGLE: Namandje Bumpus is the principal deputy commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And before this gig, she was their chief scientist, which is just to say, as much as it pains me to let go of the fantasy, she really knows what she's talking about when she says...

BUMPUS: I would say there's no five-second rule, and that's one reason why we say, for instance, for surfaces where you'll be preparing food, to make sure that, before you do any prep, you're washing really well because bacteria, dirt and dust and all types of things that we don't want on our food - it's about the contact itself.

TAGLE: And this brings us to takeaway one - clean. The first step to food safety and avoiding foodborne illness - you need clean food handlers, a clean workspace and clean food.