DrGreene Content
You're having a great time at a summer picnic, where you've brought some dry-cured salami or country ham. It's been stored for weeks in a cupboard at home, and it traveled in a hot car on the way to the park. No problem. But this can give you a false sense of security. Once you break the seal on the meat, food-poisoning-causing bacteria can invade and begin to multiply. With every passing hour, the risk of food poisoning increases. According to the July 2000 issue of Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter, you do need to keep dry-cured foods cold once they are open, whether or not their packages say "refrigerate after opening".
Alan Greene MD FAAP
Originally published: August 13, 2001
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