The bottle contained a mixture of water, hand sanitizer, and Tomcat mouse poison.
This is my routineI do it one to three times a week.
He has a history of mental illness.
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Thankfully, an employee at Whole Foods noticed Bessemer spray something on the hot food bar on April 24.
Management shut the entire area down, discarding all food and cleaning all the locations before restocking the containers.
Sadly, theres no knowing how much food was contaminated.
Weve also been complaining to each other that we feel like crap for the past few weeks.
Mood, body, all of it.
Nosebleeds arent uncommon for me.
However, hour-long nosebleeds and blowing out blood every time I use a tissue are new developments.
I told my friends and family Idcall a doca couple weeks ago.
This morning, I did.
I also know my body.
The slightest changes in my routine can throw my system out of whack.
I assumed I was flaring these past few weeks, or experiencing a bout of heightened pain.
Now, Im not so sure.
(It’s complicated.)
Its not easy to find out what goes into monitoring the food in your grocery store.
So, I dug deeper.
The more I dug, the more complex and layered an issue I discovered food safety to be.
So basically, weve got 50 differentsets of codes and regulations, one for each state.
According Holton, its extremely hard to explain food safety systems because they are so complex.
(Totally no, but it doesn’t hurt to be vigilantand wash your hands.)
Holtons biggest concern was that this very isolated incident would cause mass panic.
I agreed this is something we absolutely want to avoid.
Is there a madman running around your local grocery store attempting to poison everyone via the food supply?
I dont believe that and neither should you.
That said, as Holton reminded me, food safety is a team effort.
MDARD suggests flagging employees or strangers in your grocery store who look suspicious.
I also think that the sheer volume of regulations shows that people are trying to protect the public.
Im sure Ill eat from a salad bar again.
All in all, however, I did learn some important lessons.
You have to be smart.
You have to be cognizant of everyday riskswithout letting fear rule your life.
Realize that were all responsible for the health and safety of others in some way.
Beyond that and most importantly, were responsible for our own individual health and safety.
Help others be safe, and make wise choices foryou.
Youre the one who has to live with them.
