Food Safety

Food Safety

The 4 Basic Rules To Keep Food Safe:

Clean

Separate

Cook

Chill

You must wash your hands with soap and water before cooking, during cooking and after. Use disposable paper towels or a clean cloth to dry your hands.

Clean:During cooking, wash hands after handling any raw meats, eggs, seafood and poultry! Don’t forget to clean your counter tops, cutting boards, appliances, handles and utensils with hot soapy water before during and after any food preparation. A real good way to sanitize cutting boards and counter tops is by using a solution of 1-teaspoon chlorine bleach in 1 quart of water.

Separate:

To prevent food cross-contamination, separate raw meats and eggs from ready-to-eat foods. Not doing this is a major cause of food poisoning. Make sure that raw meats in the refrigerator can’t drip on any produce, etc. Remember to wash your hands after handling any raw meats, eggs or seafood. If your preparing raw meats, eggs or seafood on a platter, don’t put the cooked items back on the same platter without thoroughly washing it first or better, use another platter.

Cook:

If you don’t have a cooking thermometer, it is highly advised that you get one!

You need to cook foods to a safe internal temperature to destroy bacteria. Not doing so will result in a good chance of becoming sick.

Here is a guide for minimal internal cooking temperatures for various foods to make them safe:

Ground beef should be heated to at least 160 °F

Any beef cut to at least 145 °F (that’s medium rare)

Poultry to at least 180 °F

Solid cuts of pork to at least 160 °F

Eggs thoroughly cooked too! It’s recommended to not have them over-easy

Make sure to sever hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Serve hot foods at least 140 °F or warmer and cold foods held to 40 °F or colder.

Always bring canned soups and other heated canned items to a rolling boil before serving.

Chill:

Bacteria can start to multiply between 40 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make sure that the temperature in your refrigerator is 40 °F or lower and that your freezer is at 0 °F or lower. Check temperatures with a freezer/refrigerator thermometer.

Here’s Some Chilling Rules:

Use raw meats 1-2 days after purchase or freeze them for longer storage.

Thawing in the refrigerator is a safe way. Faster thawing can be achieved by putting frozen items in a leak-proof bag and placing it into a sink filled with cold water. Change the water ever thirty minutes until thawed. Thawing in a microwave requires immediate cooking afterward.

Make sure to sever hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Serve hot foods.

Always refrigerate perishable foods within 2 hours (1 hour when the temperature is above 90 °F). Otherwise, throw it out!

Hot cooked foods need to be placed into shallow containers and refrigerated right away to cool quickly. Cover foods after they cool.

When shopping, buy your refrigerated or frozen items last and don’t lollygag. Get home and take care of them.