Avoid unnecessary illness with these X food and safety tips
Avoid unnecessary illness with these X food and safety tipsEach year, millions of people become ill from food that's been improperly cleaned, stored or cooked. You may think you're down with a 24-hour flu, when in fact you may be suffering from food poisoning. Food poisoning can be mild or severe. You can end up in the hospital from a simple lack of knowledge on food and safety precautions. Here we go over the basics of food and safety, starting with your kitchen, moving right through shopping, storing and preparing foods. The tips provided below will help you prevent illnesses caused by bad foods.
At the root of all food illness is that well-known culprit, the germ. Germs multiply rapidly, particularly at room temperature. While meat, fish and poultry are most quickly susceptible, dairy products and produce can also make you ill. Never rely only on appearance or smell to decide whether a food is still good. Good food and safety practices are your best bet. Let's start in the kitchen.
1.Keep your kitchen clean. Make a practice of wiping counters and all preparation surfaces with an antibacterial spray, or a solution of 1 teaspoon of bleach to a gallon of water.
2.Wash your hands thoroughly with warm, soapy water before you begin cooking and after handling any meat or eggs.
3.Thoroughly rinse fruits and veggies before eating, preparing or cooking them. Produce attracts germs and may also have a residue of pesticides.
4.Use two separate cutting boards: one for meats and eggs, and another for produce. Always clean your cutting boards before using it for another task. If you use the hard plastic cutting boards, after several months, you'll notice that the board becomes more difficult to clean, as well as knife cuts on the board's surface. That's when it's time to toss it and get a new one.
5.Now for food and safety concerns at the grocery. Always shop for refrigerator, freezer and hot deli items last. The idea here is to keep that food as close to proper temperature until you get home. In the summer months, it's a good idea to keep a large cooler with flat, plastic re-freezable ice packs in the car. Ask the checker to bag perishables together. When you load your stuff into the car, put perishables in the cooler as an extra food and safety precaution.
6.When you shop for canned goods, inspect the cans for dents. For bottled foods, such as mayo or dressings, be sure the seal around the neck opening is undamaged. Open cartons of eggs and flip through them, using your thumb and forefinger, two at a time, to be sure none are cracked or broken.
7.Before buying meats, stop in the produce section for several plastic produce bags. Have you noticed that sometimes chicken or hamburger meat have a tendency to drip juices? Don't allow this sort of contamination to occur. Put each meat package inside a plastic produce bag and seal it with a twist-tie. This food and safety tip precludes contaminating other food in your cart, while not interfering with the bar code reader at the checkout.
8.When you arrive home, get your perishable foods into the frig or freezer as soon as possible. Keep an indelible marker handy and use it to mark plastic bags containing your perishables with the purchase date. This makes it easy to spot foods which should be used soon. Transfer mushrooms and tomatoes from the plastic produce bags to small brown paper bags. Both of these items will keep in good condition for several days when stored in brown paper bags.
9.Although most frig manufacturers have those plastic egg baskets in the door, never store eggs on the door. This is the warmest spot in the frig. Instead, store your eggs on a middle shelf. They'll stay cold and fresh.
10.The proper handling of meats is one of the most important concerns of food and safety practices. When thawing meats from the freezer, never set them on the kitchen counter. Billions of germs can accumulate before that meat is thawed not to mention that Rover or Kitty-kins might come along and have a snack! Depending on the size of the meat product, you may need 1-2 days to thaw your meat in the frig. If you want to defrost meat in the microwave, keep in mind that chicken and fish thaw nicely in the nuker, but other meats, particularly beef, don't fare well they become tough. Once thawed, cook right away, or put it back in the frig to be cooked the same day.
11.Cook all meats until they're done. No pink allowed in your burgers! Check with a meat thermometer. The center of a fish steak or filet should not show any translucency it must be opaque and flake apart easily with a fork. As for that sunny side up egg, forget it. Salmonella may still be present in a runny egg.
12.Pack up and refrigerate or freeze meal leftovers right after eating. In the case of a roast which is still hot, you can let it cool for half an hour before refrigerating, to avoid warming up the rest of the frig contents. Never leave meat out for more than an hour. Use your marker and a strip of masking tape to 'date stamp' your container or plastic bag. Use or freeze your leftovers within three days.
Illness is no one's friend. Use these food and safety tips to keep you and your family safe from food caused illnesses.
