I was camping out at Yellowstone last weekend, trying hard to synchronize my food safety concerns and the limited resources of a campsite.

We arrived early morning, started setting up the tent and unloading the truck when I popped open a bag of mini rice cakes. The three boys I was camping with (shown at the left) quickly joined to share the treat.

I starred wide-eyed when I saw their dirty hands digging into the food. No offense to the guys but, I knew there wasn’t soap in the bathroom of the campsite, which doesn’t really matter, because they probably went in the woods anyways. In conclusion, there was most likely no hand washing before digging in.

I didn’t want to be a food safety geek, and I wasn’t going to start acting like all of their moms, so I sucked it up, looked the other way, and kept eating.

Luckily we all survived the trip safely.

Today a news story was published about 20 people getting sick at a wedding reception in Minnesota after eating from a bowl of chips. The chips were contaminated with norovirus, possibly spread through poop.

Ok next time, I promised myself, I will be that geeky mom and order everyone around to wash their hands before sticking them into that bowl of chips.