Listeria on Caramel Apples - 28 cases, 5 deaths over 10 states

Not exactly what you want to be thinking about when enjoying a caramel apple, but a recent outbreak of Listeria has created illness in 28 individuals over 10 states, and has resulted in 5 deaths.  You can check-up on the statistics at the CDC.gov website as things continue to develop.

The caramel apples were commercially produced, so investigators are thinking that the apples were washed appropriately, and the caramel is normally not a carrier for bacteria, so perhaps the manufacturing locations where the apples were produced had some level of contamination.\

What is listeria?
Listeria is the bacteria (lots of subspecies for this one so we'll just stick with the genus name) that causes the rare bacterial disease, Listeriosis.  You get listeriosis by eating food that was contaminated with the listeria bacteria... which I feel kind of dumb spelling that out, but hopefully it clears up any possible confusion for some non-science people out there.  Listeria is the most dangerous for pregnant women, children and the elderly as these groups are the most likely to have a weakened immune system.  It can be killed by cooking, so when you see an illness caused by it, typically it is attributed to a food item that doesn't undergo cooking, or has been cooked and prior to packaging may have come in contact with a surface that was not properly cleaned & sanitized.  The most common culprits are things like hot dogs, deli meats, milk, soft cheeses, and any raw meat, poultry, fish, vegetables and fruit.  Listeria loves to hang out at temperatures like those found in a refrigerator, but then also likes your body temperature.

The trickiest thing with Listeria is how long it can take to show signs that you ate something that was contaminated by it.  According to FoodSafety.gov, the incubation period is 3-70 days!  Incubation means how long after ingesting it the bacteria needs to hang out in your system before you start to get sick.  Can you imagine trying to remember exactly what you ate 3 days ago, let alone 70 days ago?  So you can see why it's quite possible that more people became ill than are presently reported by the CDC.

What can you do to avoid this sort of thing?  Not a lot.  I mean you could just make your own candy apples, I guess.  I think what's more important is for you to assess your own health.  If you are very healthy, then even if you were to come in contact with something like Listeria or another food pathogen you are still going to become ill, but it's less serious than if you have a weakened immune system.  If you are often ill, or pregnant, you need to take precautions to avoid food sources (as mentioned above) that are the most common carriers of this type of bacteria because the mortality rate (odds of death from coming in contact with it) is incredibly high at 20%, as compared to Salmonella around 1%.  And if you have eaten something you suspect wasn't good, or your start developing symptoms or fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and especially symptoms of meningitis (which Listeria can present with), contact your family doctor immediately.