Getting serious about food safety.

In director John Bello's 1978 comedy cult classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, a group of scientists band together to save the world from mutated tomatoes turned murderous. In a frightening and tragic twist of life imitating art, European governments recently announced an emergency plan to combat a deadly outbreak of E. coli poisoning by spending $300 million Euros for farmers to destroy entire harvests of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini.

With thousands sickened and more than two dozen killed by one E. coli strain in Europe, including three suspiciously related deaths in the US, the importance of food safety everywhere has been drawn into sharper focus.

While governments look to drastic measures to prevent the spread of the bacteria, what steps can the family cook take to improve the household's food safety?

Cleanliness is clearly the number one defense. Bacteria can be spread throughout the kitchen and get onto hands, cutting boards, utensils, counter tops, and food. From to the Partnership for Food Safety Education, here are the precautions every cook should follow

• Wash hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food (and after using the bathroom, changing diapers, or handling pets).
• Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go on to the next food.
• Consider using paper towels to clean up kitchen surfaces. Cloth towels should be laundered often in the washer's hot cycle.
• Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water, including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten.
• Rub firm-skin fruits and vegetables under running tap water or scrub with a clean vegetable brush while rinsing with running tap water.

Keeping different foods separate and cooking or chilling them are also smart food safety measures. For more information, two very informative sites are fightback.org and foodsafety.gov.