How to Practice Food Safety
Preventing food borne illness from effecting the health of your family starts in the kitchen. The most common incidents of bacteria happen when food products are improperly handled, cooked or stored, resulting in E coli or Salmonella making a person sick. By practicing common food safety, these occurrences are avoidable.
- Wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly before eating or cutting them into already cooking food.
- Wash your hands well before and after handling food.
- Don’t touch your face or other body parts when cooking. Your hands could transfer germs from you body to the food.
- Disinfect the counter top after cooking or spilling raw solutions, spray or wipe a product that kills 99.9 percent of germs or bacteria.
- Soak your faucet filter in white vinegar overnight once a week to kill bacteria.
- Wash your cutting board in hot soapy water and rinse, spray a mixture of one teaspoon of bleach and 16 ounces of water in a labeled spray bottle then rinse with hot water. Think about purchasing a glass or plastic board, which are known to be cleanlier than wood. They are nonporous and most resistant to germs.
- Use paper towels when cooking with raw food and toss them after. Then, wash hands with soap and water immediately.
- Scrub your knives with dishwashing liquid and hot water after cutting food, than rinse with a dry cloth before putting them into the knife block.
- After cooking with raw meat, eggs and poultry in the sink, disinfect with bleach and water.
- Soak your sponge in a bowl of water and a teaspoon of bleach. Heat the dirty sponges in a bowl of water for two to three minutes in the microwave.
- Cook food at the proper temperature. Commonly, people eat uncooked food without knowing it.
- Preheat the pan or oven to reduce the time needed for things to cook. Microorganisms are less likely to grow with fast cooking food.
- Leaving food out after cooking can promote bacteria growth. Place leftovers in the fridge right away. Keep the lid off to chill food faster. Bacteria will grow faster in 40 to 140 degrees F; food needs to be below 30 degrees to kill bacteria.
- When reheating stir food, and use a thermometer to make sure they're 165 degrees, that temp at which bacteria is killed.