Despite the major outbreak of food poisoning earlier this week, it seems most of the cases could have been prevented if the food had simply been cooked long enough. What with the different cooking directions on frozen food labels and all the different types of microwaves, how do you know if yours kills bacteria?

A mother of two, Sioux Falls resident Nina Ulrich says she uses her microwave for a variety of things.

"Frozen chicken patties, frozen chicken for my kids, vegetables, frozen vegetables," said Ulrich. She knows if uncooked foods aren't microwaved long enough, pathogens could make you sick. "Well, I just want to be sure. I know that, you know, foods have to be up to certain level to kill all bacteria not just salmonella."

That's not always an easy task when directions often say "Microwave times may vary." It seems microwaves are kind of like cars. Some are more powerful than others, so how do you know where yours fits in?

"The only real way to tell is open up the door and look at the model serial tag," said Chris Kahny, who sells and repairs microwaves for Karl's Appliance of Sioux Falls. He says the tag will tell you how many watts your microwave operates at.

"Most recipes that you look at are based on a 1,000 watt microwave.," said Kahny. He says the lower the wattage, the longer it will take to cook your food. "Let's take popcorn for example. If you take a popcorn and you stick it in and it says, you know, a minute and a half and you only have a, you know, a six, seven, 800 watt microwave, that's not going to be accurate."

Making sure microwaved food is done is one thing Ulrich wants to be sure of.

Drew Sandholm welcomes your calls at (605) 373-7372 or contact him by e-mail.