WOW! A really good segment that everyone should take the time to listen. There was a lot I thought I knew that was wrong.... and that was considered “popular knowledge” .

Warning: this segment is about a half-hour long.

It was a very informative segment, I agree that everyone should hear it.

I seldom thaw anything other than whole birds or frozen fruit if not using it as substitute for ice. Meat retains their juices if seared while still frozen.

There may be religious reasons for those dunk in water or soak in water methods. Some groups, not necessarily Jewish only, that believe soaking removes the extra blood from meat making it acceptable for the whole family to consume.

I thaw things, like a steak or a single burger in warm water. I put the item securely sealed in a plastic bag into a pan of water that is about 100 degrees, and when the water gets cold ( 6 or 7 minutes) I warm up the water....I can thaw meat to be grilled, enough to grill, maybe a bit solid in the very center in about 20 minutes....or less.

Even if the recommended safety guidelines have been followed, there are clear differences for me in taste and texture between foods that are fresh versus foods that are home frozen. We find some commercially frozen items, like raw veggies and some kinds of seafood, to be acceptable but little else. We try to buy only in quantities we will use up and we don't freeze what's "unused".

There's no substitute for fresh.

On a somewhat different but distantly related topic - in days gone by, before fast nationwide food transportation and large home freezers and refrigerators were common, Americans "ate locally" following what was available by region and by season. During the depression, the federal WPA had "make work" projects (many of which of great lasting value) in all kinds of fields to give people employment. One such program employed writers to produces works on varying topics and one of which was to describe regional food practices in the US.

Mark Kurlansky, an author whose books "Cod" and "Salt" I highly recommend, found these WPA manuscripts on regional food practices somewhere in a library or other archive and put them together into a book "The Food of a Younger Land". The title explains it all. It's an interesting book for those looking for an insight into Depression-era food and cooking practices.

Pretty basic stuff but I've done extensive study since the melamine scandal in 2007.

I get the FDA recalls via e-mail. Have learned so much from that steady list.

Could have gone another hour or two rather than the elementary but that is common I suppose in snippet pod-casts. I'll welcome any information that gets people thinking.

Shocking sometimes how clueless the basics are for some. Like a poster here a couple years ago that thought a FoodSaver system would preserve food for shelf-life. Seal the food like raw chicken and it would be pantry shelf stable, room temp, like canning.

It did not go into depth as it should have.

When I bring up steak or a fish fillet from the freezer, they go in the sink while I think about prep. 10-15 minutes. Fish goes into a pyrex bowl of cold tap water. (in the freezer wrapper/food saver bag) Like any 'ice cube' it cools the water quickly. Before 20 minutes or so it goes into the fridge in the water bath as is. Steaks come out of the FoodSaver package and thaw in the fridge open on a plate to thaw 'air dry' to remove any surface moisture. Sears better in a cast iron dry.

The worst offenders in the kitchen/home is standing water at room temp. Electric drip coffee makers, fridge ice makers, steam ovens, travel water bottles...standing water as in flooding basements, storm tragedy, ...we all know that drying out immediately is key to prevent mold. Why no one thinks about standing water in appliances.

25 years ago our old white Braun elec drip coffee maker seemed fine and I did the vinegar cleanse every month. I stopped drinking coffee for a year or so thinking it was irritable to my system. Further inspection it was pink inside...pink mold is not good. Electric drips are now mostly black now. Manufacturers do not give a hoot about health. Good healthy gut can handle all minor bacteria. But why stress even a healthy system.

Two very healthy co-workers with young children use daily water bottles but never clean them. Our own spittle is a breeding ground for bacteria out of our own mouth. Shocking they are so oblivious to 'microbial soup' that multiplies at room temp. Some people feel ill daily for years not knowing the basic culprit. Even if just a bit uncomfortable thinking it is ok normal. Rack their brains looking for dietary solutions for gut health.

Love coffee now using our own roasted beans and a pour over Chemex.

Re frozen vs fresh and eating locally. I am lucky enough to live where locally raised, pastured meat is available. However, while I can buy poultry at the farm where it has just been processed (since farm processing of poultry is legal), lamb, pork and beef are processed in small processing facilities; in these cases the grower brings the animals to the facility, then picks up the meat which has been frozen there. The law requires that this meat be sold ONLY frozen. (In fact, people who bring in one animal to be processed for their own use also receive their meat frozen, and I think this may be required by law as well.)

I will always choose the locally raised, pasture raised (though frozen) meat over the fresh at the supermarket. And while I pick up my poultry fresh, it's an hour drive each way to the farm, so I don't buy one at a time and must freeze several birds when I get home. Still the best chicken you've ever eaten.

We've beat this subject to death before. So far NPR sounds like they agreed with the idea that American's WASTE WASTE WASTE food due to advertisers or misleading labels.

True, but here and in the past people were expressing their opinions. They differ as would be expected.

I think people should feel free to eat or not eat, keep or throw out, any food they have no matter what, as they prefer. Don't you? If hypothetically you keep food and eat it under all circumstances and I throw out anything that's more than one day old, we're both happy and we can choose as we wish for ourselves.

Someone wastes food? It's a personal decision as to what is and what isn't waste.

Some of the questions were interesting to me. The guy who asked about 10 year old canned turkey for example. What? I didn’t even know there was such a thing, and then I was rather horrified they said yes it was ok! Of course they had the usual clarifiers about dented or bulging cans. I just couldn’t.

And there was another comment about how the schools didn’t teach home economics anymore so many people misinterpreted the ‘Best By’ date labels. What might be intuitive to most of us, is just black and white to many people.

The only thing I freeze after using, is the legs/thighs/wings from a grocery store rotisserie roasted chicken. I put them in ziplock bags and put them in the freezer to use in soups and omlets, or with black beans and rice. Otherwise, I eat what I cook or eat the leftovers a couple of days later. I do buy frozen veggies - just easier for me.

You're missing the point about the cans. I've seen commercial cans fail over time, especially if there's an acid, like tomatoes in them. Without visible defects, they start leaking. This is why inspection is so important. If goo can get out, then bacteria can also get in. Whether it's harmful bacteria or not, I couldn't tell you. Throw it out. But if it's intact, and you've carefully inspected it, what's inside isn't any more likely to kill you at 10 years than six months. Would you want to eat it? Only if you were starving maybe. People will eat poison when they're starving, because they're starving. But it's not poison. It's actually food, and for all it may have settled and separated and all that, it won't have harmful microbes.

That's what the man was saying. That's his field. I believe him. Throw the old can away because you're creeped out, but don't panic if someone eats it.

How on earth have I managed to live this long and not harmed any of my family or friends? Common sense.....and the sight and smell test .

None the less my kids are best by date , don't thaw outside the fridge, never refreeze fanatics......go figure