FROM THE COAST

Diane Sawyer and her “Sixty Minutes” crew were first on the scene to warn us that our seemingly innocent package of chicken thawing for dinner had a good chance of being contaminated with salmonella. It didn’t take long for the market to fill this niche: now consumers who want to be absolutely certain that their birds and beef are bacteria-free can use the Chik Chek kit developed by Diversified Diagnostic Industries of Moraga, California. The simple fifteen-minute test uses an enzyme to detect salmonella; other tests take two or three days, but think of the appetite you’ll have by then. The $5 kit contains materials for five tests.