
Why do I feel strongly about that? Well I'm scared about food contamination and last night I was watching the news and was saddened to hear that a lot of kids were food poisoned from the food they ate in the school canteen. If we practice safe food preparation then we lessen the risk of food-borne diseases.
Here some important safe food preparation practices:
- Keep it clean to avoid cross contamination. Make sure your countertop, kitchen tools and your hands are clean. It's good to use a separate chopping board for meats. Try using glass or acrylic since its easier to clean.
- Store food at proper temperature. Check your refrigerator and freezer temperature. Refrigerator should be at 38F (not exceeding 40F) and freezer should be at 0 degrees
Farenheit. When you are in grocery, get frozen items last.
- Defrost safely. Bacteria multiply rapidly at 40 - 140 degrees Farenheit. The best method to defrost food is in the refrigerator, micrwave or a cold water defrost. Make sure to cook the food immediately.
- Make sure the food is cooked well. A food thermometer will provide valuable help.
- Leftovers should be refrigerated immediately. Don’t leave cooked food at room temperature for more than 2 hours, or for more than 1 hour in hot weather. It is okay to allow food to cool slightly before putting it away so as not to raise the temperature inside the refrigerator to unsafe levels.
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