 Right now, an invisible enemy may be ready to strike. You can't see him. You can't smell him. You can't feel him. Known as BAC. Alias Bad Bacteria. Alias Salmonella. Alias Listeria. Alias E. Coli 015787. His handiwork is not a pretty sight. Let's look at the files. Citizens of the Southwest can rest a little easier tonight knowing that scientists like Dr. Mike R. Scope are watching vigilantly over the safety of our food supply, tracking the bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses ever ready to warn you of a bad back attack. Yes, indeed. He's our Sherlock detecting a microscopic Moriarty. Our Muldare searching for insidious Salmonella. Our Superman battling the forces of evil E. Coli. Our hero of health and food safety. It looks like our hero is training another agent to help spread the word on food safety. Let's see what they're saying. Remember, anyone can fight back using these four basic principles. Clean, wash hands and surfaces often. Separate, don't cross contaminate. Cook, cook to proper temperatures and chill, refrigerate promptly. It takes warm water and soap and at least 20 seconds of scrubbing to really clean your hands. You might even want to use a brush to scrub back away. And here you can see the types of environments where bacteria grow most rapidly. They light things warm and moist. Dishcloths and hand towels should be washed often to kill bacteria. Don't forget the towels in your bathroom. In the same way that bacteria spread from your hands to food, it can also move from uncooked meat or poultry to food that you've already cooked. So for example, when you barbecue, you should put cooked meat on a clean dish. Back can't take the heat, so be sure to cook perishable foods thoroughly. And bacteria like to grow in food left sitting at room temperature more than two hours. So you need to refrigerate perishables promptly. Cook to kill and chill. I'm looking at a site on the Navajo Reservation. Conditions point to a possible back attack and we need to be ready. Head out. I'll give you instructions on the way. I've got to go. I'll take care of things here, back man. The Navajo Nation covers the four corners where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. In this starkly beautiful landscape, the Navajo people keep alive their traditions by raising sheep and other livestock, weaving on traditional looms, holding ceremonies and other celebrations, and preparing recipes handed down from generation to generation. Because a typical drive to a grocery store is 60 miles, and many homes and summer sheep camps are beyond the reach of power lines and plentiful water sources. Citizens of the Navajo Nation face some difficult challenges in keeping their food safe. Listen, I think I'll try the squash stew, but I'd also like to try a little bit of that roast mutton. Clean hands go a long way in keeping harmful bacteria from entering food. And thoroughly cooking foods and keeping them hot before serving will kill dangerous bacteria. Yachty, back man. Yachty, hello. Hey, it's good to see you. Thank you so much for inviting me. I've always wanted to go to sheep camp. It's very nice to meet you. When you're camping, or in any situation where refrigeration is a problem, use perishable foods while they're still cold. Once they have warmed to room temperature, they provide the perfect place for bad bacteria to grow. There's always danger that harmful bacteria may contaminate meat when it is handled during processing. To make sure that the bad back doesn't contaminate other food, use one cutting board for raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Use another one for vegetables. Then be sure to clean cutting boards and utensils carefully. Even in places where water is scarce, you can get the job done with a paper towel, a few drops of soap, and a little water. If you haul in drinking water to your campsite, make sure that the containers are clean before you fill them. Wash them thoroughly with hot, soapy water and rinse well with clean water. Also, only use containers appropriate for water. Don't use containers which have held household chemicals or other potentially poisonous substances. Yeah, this is back, ma'am. Well, it looks like everything is under control there. Yep. It seems that most people are pretty careful when it comes to food safety. But with only a little extra watchfulness and a little extra effort, we can put back in its place. Let's review those back-fighting words. Clean. Good to see food handlers keeping their hands clean. Cook. Food is cooked thoroughly and is kept hot until ready to serve. Chill. Make sure that perishable foods are kept cold. Separate. To avoid cross-contamination, make sure that uncooked meats are prepared separately from vegetables and prepared foods. Thank you, Bachman. It's not about me. Everyone can fight back. Good day, Bachman. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye. Santa Ana Pueblo, a 500-year-old community that still practices many ancient traditions. Hi, Mary. How are you doing? Just fine. Thank you. How are you? Great. Many families still use an orno outdoor oven for baking. Oh, we bake our bread in here. We bake cookies. We bake pies. Ovens in all shapes and sizes have been used for generations to cook food. Modern slow-cookers or crock-pots simmer food gently, but at temperatures high enough to kill dangerous bacteria. It's a good idea to check the temperature of food to make sure your crock-pot is hot enough. Food should be at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Also cut up roasts or chickens into chunks or pieces so that it will heat up quickly. Use the oven for whole roasts or poultry. But it's not a good idea to use your oven as a slow cooker. Be sure the oven is always set at at least 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure meat and poultry baked in the oven are cooked thoroughly. Poultry needs to be cooked to 180 degrees. Check the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh. If you cook a roast in the oven, be sure that the internal temperature is at least 145 degrees before serving. Ah, Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city. The city and nearby suburbs have more than 2,500 restaurants featuring all kinds of cuisine. At Alpinto restaurant we seat over 1,000 people. Sometimes on a busy day we'll turn that over three times. The fact that we will serve almost 3,000 guests in one day gives us every example or every opportunity for us to really fight back ourselves. You know, I think our biggest opportunity is in training and developing our employees. The very first step is in washing hands. We make a big point of that here at our restaurant. You know, with as many services and opportunities for bacteria to infect other tools and agents in the kitchen, we find that surface cleaning is very, very important. A very critical step for us because of the potential risk in cross-contamination. We also have certain areas that we've segmented in our restaurant that are not able to support any raw meats at all. So in our production areas where we do the sopapias, the doze, some of the things that aren't going to be cooked immediately, we have signs and information up there where we don't allow them. We also have cutting boards that are designated cutting boards for each one of the different products that we use. It's very important that every one of our managers and supervisor are trained also in intervention tactics. It's not uncommon for any manager, any one time to walk through and do our own line checks. We're able to pull some pans out, take some internal temperatures, and it's really amazing that one of the simplest instruments that we have is probably one of the most effective tools that we have in our kitchen for being able to ensure that our food is at the proper temperature. Since we do a lot of large batch cooking, we have to chill a lot of food. We felt the best way for us to do that instead of using the shallow pans in ice baths that although work great and it's a great technique, we have actually converted one of our walk-in refrigerators into a giant blast chiller that recirculates air. The air that's circulated in there cools down the products and we have them in rolling racks. So for us, we're able to bring our temperature down on our food very rapidly or more rapidly than we would even if we had the ice bath. So for the chill and refrigerate part of the back campaign, that's something that we are very aggressive with. Not all restaurants are this careful. In choosing where you eat out, make sure the place looks clean. When you order food, ask that it be thoroughly cooked. No raw burgers or runny eggs. If you get a doggy bag, make sure that you put it in the refrigerator within two hours of when the food was served. If you suspect a food safety problem at a restaurant, don't eat the food and let the manager know. If you suspect that you got sick from eating at a restaurant, call your state health or environment department. Your call may help them find the source of an illness outbreak. So you'll be doing us all a favor. This is Backman. Oh, no! There's another back alert. I guess I'd better go. See you. Bye, bye. Bye for now. Texas. Land of cattle in the old west cattle drives. Cowboys and ranches and ranch barbecues. Howdy, all. Right on. Sounds great to me. Cook ground beef to at least 160 degrees. You can check the temperature by inserting a digital meat thermometer into the center of the patty. Here we go. Here we go. When you're serving foods outdoors at a picnic or cookout, make sure that you keep cold foods cold 40 degrees or colder and keep hot foods hot 140 degrees or hotter. It's also a good idea to protect the food from flies that can carry bacteria from elsewhere. And when the party's over, divide large amounts of leftovers into shallow containers for quick cooling in the refrigerator. If food has been out at room temperature for more than two hours and has not been kept hot or cold, throw it out. If the air temperature is over 90 degrees, keep food out no more than one hour. Backman. It's not about me, ma'am. Everyone can fight back. We may be pushing back into a corner with people everywhere becoming more and more careful when they prepare and handle food. Back in his cohorts are having more and more trouble finding places to do their dirty business. Let's look at the files. The key to fighting back here is cooking to proper temperatures. Soups and stews should be cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Roast 145 degrees. A whole chicken should be cooked until the inside temperature reaches 180 degrees, measured in the thickest part of the thigh. Mmm. It looks like scope has chosen a safe place to eat. Not all restaurants are as careful as this one. Clean. Check. Cook. Check. Chill. Check. Separate. Check. Not many places left for back to hide there. Everyone loves to cook out. We need to remember that foods like ground beef are especially attractive to back in his buddies. Use a thermometer to make sure your hamburgers are cooked to 160 degrees. When you're putting away big batches of leftovers, place them in several shallow containers so that they'll cool more quickly in the refrigerator. And get them into the refrigerator immediately. In disease, it's important to wash your hands after handing a soil diaper. Always wash your hands carefully before you eat, especially after using the toilet or changing a dirty diaper. E. coli bacteria can be very dangerous. Small children are especially susceptible to food-borne illness. They can even die. So, if you're going on an outing, bring water for washing hands. Thank you, backman. It's not about me, ma'am. Everyone can fight back. Whoa! I'll be right there. Arizona. The Grand Canyon State. Get us some muscles, the other one. You know, a lot of times when there's construction, there's also trouble. And I can see what you've got here. We'll sort you out in just a second. Wait, I'll be right back. At least once in your life, you're going to find yourself without power and maybe without safe drinking water. It might be because of a construction problem or maybe a storm. If you're ever unsure about the safety of your drinking water, boil it for five minutes or use bottled water until the problem is fixed. For washing dishes, a small amount of water and a few drops of soap will get the job done. If the power is out, keep your refrigerator and freezer closed as much as possible. A little dry ice will help keep things cool. If the temperature of foods goes above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours, be on the safe side and throw it out. It's a good idea to keep some canned goods and other non-perishable foods on hand for emergencies. Thank you, Beckman. It's not about me. Everyone can fight back. Colorado. This beautiful scenery attracts thousands of skiers, hikers, bikers and campers every year. Oh well, it's no big deal. Who likes to have fish with their eggs anyhow? I do. Breakfast, come and get it. I don't think it's cooked enough. Go catch a fish. Raw eggs can harbor salmonella bacteria, a potential source of foodborne illness. To be safe, cook eggs until the yolks and whites are firm. So let's try this again. I hope you're hungry. Wow, everything smells so good. Wow, Mom, this looks great. Oh, I hope you enjoy it. I'm sure glad that we had eggs this morning since you didn't catch any fish. You forgot your fork. Did everybody have a great weekend? You bet. All right. You gotta do this again sometime. Well, I guess I better be going. Well, thanks, Beckman. It's not about me, folks. Everyone can fight back. Bye-bye. Well, Scope, another mission accomplished. Glad to have you back. Let's see how you saw the four fight back principles put to work on the last part of the mission. Number one, clean. Wherever you are, wash your hands before handling food. Even when water is scarce, you can wash up with a few drops of soap and a small amount of water. Number two, separate. I sure like seeing that cooked sausage go on a clean plate. A lot of times, when people cook out, they put cooked meat on a plate that still contains juices from uncooked meat. That's just an invitation to back in his buddies. Number three, cook. Make sure that eggs are cooked so that the whites are firm and the yolks aren't runny. Number four, chill. If you are without electricity, keep your refrigerator door closed as much as possible to keep the cold air inside. If there's any doubt about the safety of perishable food, go for canned goods and other non-perishable items. And so we leave our hero, Mike R. Scope, knowing that he will continue to help carry on the mission. And you'll rest a little easier tonight knowing that you are now equipped to be part of the fight back team. All right! Let's hear it one more time.