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I read many of the articles posted to this topic of kitchen safety. All are very good and very timely. I am adding some advice of my own and taking it several steps further. At first reading, some of you may think I am nuts or that my advice is excessive. That is okay with me, but really think about what I am saying here in regards to sanitation.

I want you to really think about disease prevention, which goes further than just the common cold. Did you know that hepatitis-C can live outside the body for 28 days on any surface? That is but one of the nasty super deadly diseases out there that defy normal logic. You cannot protect yourself against every possible germ, but you can use common sense.

If you have not been inoculated against all the forms of hepatitis for which vaccines are available, now is the time to do it. Just like you can lower the risk of your daughters getting cervical cancer, you can lower your risk of getting hepatitis. I add this caveat because I was deathly ill with Giardia, Campylobacter, and E-coli 157 (I think that's the one) from contaminated water. With that illness and recovery came my education on hepatitis and all the vaccines I received.

Food safety starts at the grocery store the minute you come in the door from the grocery store. It does not start in the kitchen.

When my husband and I go shopping, we wipe down all surfaces of the cart with antibacterial wipes. You see, I have a compromised autoimmune system (see above), and it just makes common sense. You don't know whose hands have been on that basket before you got it. Did the people shopping with that basket before practice good hygiene after using the bathroom? You don't know!

We never use the child seat part (our children are grown). Think before you put your purse there or fresh vegetables: How many dirty, diaper-clad bottoms have been in that seat recently? We lay grocery ads or boxes in the bottom of the cart. Again, consider how many children's shoes/feet and bottoms have been in that cart just prior to your using it. Do grocery store sanitize the carts?

Okay, jumping forward. I am not telling you to wipe everything down before you put it away, although that would be a good suggestion, but I am suggesting that you wipe down the doorknobs with disinfectant since you just came in from the great germ-infested world, and when you have completed putting foods away, wipe down the refrigerator handle and the cabinet handles. And, wash your hands. There, now, you are starting with

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