Daily HealthBeat Tip

What�s that?

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

When the Smithsonian Institution throws its annual Folklife Festival on the National Mall in the heat of a Washington, D.C. July, people and food both bake.

Now, people can adapt. For instance, these chanting, drum-beating dancers from the Middle Eastern sultanate of Oman are used to it.

Food, though, can't adapt. In the heat, it can go bad fast. However, this year's festival focused on food safety as well as singing and dancing. And consumer safety officer Amy Green of the Food and Drug Administration told people how to protect their food when temperatures on the backyard deck rival Oman�s desert.

"Even cut fruit salad should be refrigerated. Any kind of meats. Even cut vegetables. Anything that's refrigerated in a grocery store, probably." (Seven seconds)

Beats looking at your perished perishables and asking, "What�s that?"

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July 25, 2005

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