Food Safety Tips
Keep Your Family Safe and Healthy with Proper Food Handling
Handling and Cleaning Food Safely
- Wash hands thoroughly before and after every food preparation task, especially when you are handling raw meat and then cutting vegetables. Don't forget to wash under rings and fingernails. Avoid wearing rings while handling and preparing food.
- Wash all produce, even packaged salad mixes and vegetables. This includes those labeled "prewashed" or "triple washed" and those that will be peeled like bananas, oranges, melons and avocados, especially if they aren't going to be eaten right away. The skin could be contaminated and when the fruit is cut, food-poisoning organisms could be spread to the flesh.
- After you handle raw meat, eggs and seafood, wash your hands, utensils, and surfaces thoroughly with hot soapy water.
- If possible, have at least two cutting boards. Dedicate one (preferably not wood) to raw meats, poultry, and fish. Immediately after use, wash it in hot soapy water or in the dishwasher. Periodically sanitize cutting boards with a solution of chlorine bleach and replace it when it develops significant grooves. Use a second board (this can be wood) only for cutting bread, vegetables, fruits, and other foods that aren't cooked.
- Frequently wash kitchen cloths and sponges in hot water. Disinfect sponges in a chlorine bleach solution or by microwaving them on high for one minute. Replace them when worn.
Refrigerating and Defrosting Food Safely
- Refrigerate or freeze both raw and cooked meats, poultry, fish, and eggs as soon as possible after purchase. Do the same with leftovers and with foods you prepare in advance.
- Use a refrigerator thermometer. Your refrigerator should be between 34 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Your freezer should be around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not put highly perishable foods in the door. Milk and eggs are best kept in the body of the refrigerator (leave eggs in their carton).
- Thaw meats, poultry and fish in the refrigerator - never on the counter. You can also thaw it on the defrost setting in the microwave or in a sealed package in cold water that is changed every half hour. Read and follow the "safe handling instructions" now required by the USDA on all packages of raw poultry and meat. Also, marinate raw foods in the refrigerator.
- Keeps hot foods hot (above 140 degrees Fahrenheit) and cold foods cold (below 40 degrees). Microorganisms thrive between 40 and 140 degrees, and subsequent cooking or reheating may not destroy the toxins.
Cooking Food Safely
- Never eat shellfish like oysters, clams or mussels unless they've been thoroughly cooked. They could contain bacteria and viruses that cause hepatitis or gastroenteritis.
- Don't serve the marinade unless you've cooked it thoroughly. And don't base your food with uncooked marinade.
- Stuff raw poultry just before cooking it, or better yet, cook poultry and stuffing separately.
- Cook meats thoroughly, but don't overcook them. Heat kills bacteria, but too much heat causes meat, poultry, and fish to form possibly carcinogenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA's).
- Use a food thermometer to test temperature (an instant read meat thermometer is best - but don't leave this kind of thermometer in the meat while it's cooking). Insert the thermometer into the thickest part away from the bone and gristle. The USDA says to cook your meat to at least the following internal temperatures:
- Beef, pork, lamb, veal - 160 degrees F.
- Poultry - 180 degrees F.
- Stuffing - 165 degrees F.
- Boneless turkey roast - 170-175 degrees F.
- Sprouts provide ideal environment for microorganisms. "The FDA issues advisories saying that people with compromised immune systems and the elderly shouldn't eat sprouts unless they are cooked."
Author and Sources
Author: Laura Pole, RN, MSN, Chef
Sources:
Brody, Jane. "Clean Cutting Boards Are Not Enough: New Lessons in Food Safety", The New York Times, January 30, 2001.
CDC. "An Ounce of Prevention Keeps the Germs Away". For further information consult the CDC website: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/op/food.htm.
Lehmann, Robert. Cooking for Life. Dell Publishing, New York, 1997.
Schardt, D. and Schmidt, S. "Keeping Food Safe", Nutrition Action Newsletter, April 1995.
Hise, Phaedra. Orange Alert: Protect Yourself from Foodborne Illness. Vegetarian Times; April 2004, pp. 79-83.
