Food poisoning is a common issue in the United States. At least 48 million people become sick each year, with 128,000 hospitalized and 3,000 people losing their lives. You may not be able to entirely prevent food poisoning in your family, but you can certainly reduce the risk at home with these necessary food safety measures:
Buying Food from Reputable Sources
Type ‘why food industry use X-rays’ into a search engine, and you’ll learn that X-ray inspection machines can be important for detecting physical contaminants in food. Without such machines, there’s potential for consumers to consume inedible materials and become unwell.
The very best food producers and manufacturers use technology, trained employees, and safe food practices to reduce the risk of contaminated food ending up in people’s homes. As a result, you may be at a lower risk of consuming unsafe food by only buying from businesses and individuals with robust health and safety measures in place.
Make Cleaning Your Priority
Cleaning your kitchen and essential items within it is one of the first steps toward ensuring safe food consumption in your home. Always wash your hands in warm, soapy water for 20 seconds before and after touching food. It’s also important to wash all items that you’ll use to prepare food, like cutting boards, knives, and countertops. Don’t forget to rinse vegetables and fruit before use, but refrain from washing meat, fish, poultry, or eggs. The process of washing can cause bacteria to spread.
Cook and Chill Properly
Bacteria and germs have a chance to thrive and cause severe illnesses when food isn’t cooked or stored at the proper temperatures. Beef, pork, lamb, and fish should all be cooked to a minimum temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you’re cooking ground beef, lamb, or pork, ensure it has an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Turkey, chicken, and duck should be served only once it has reached 165 degrees. Once food is cooked, it should be put in a fridge or freezer within two hours. If you have to thaw food before cooking it, keep it in the fridge or thaw it under cold water or in the microwave.
Separate Raw Foods
You might not think twice about storing raw foods with cooked foods in your fridge. After all, most fridges don’t have dedicated compartments for each. However, contamination can result in sickness. Always keep raw seafood, eggs, poultry, and meat separate from other food items.
When the time comes to prepare raw and fresh foods, prepare them separately from items you won’t be cooking. This can mean that you’ll prepare fresh salad ingredients on one cutting board and raw chicken for cooking on another.
Pay Attention to Spoilage
Food is expensive, and most of us don’t like wasting it if we can avoid it. While you don’t always need to throw food away if it’s passed its use-by date, you should always pay attention to signs of spoilage. Spoiled food will have an off texture, odor, or flavor due to spoilage bacteria. While spoiled food may not make you unwell, it can be unpleasant to eat.
Food poisoning can be unpleasant and even dangerous for some people. You may be able to prepare safer meals for yourself and your loved ones by paying attention to these valuable tips above.
Photo by Phuc Long on Unsplash
