Kitchen-Safety

Are You At Risk?

Kitchen-Safety ~ Natures Health Foods

Think restaurants are scary?

Turns out you're also at risk in your very own kitchen.

Most people worry about food poisoning, except when they're doing the cooking.

But here's a shocker: Nearly 25% of victims of food-borne illness get it from a home-cooked meal.

Research proves that people are not as careful handling food as they need to be.

Many of them believe they're doing a good job, but when their behavior was studied, they're not.

Find out where you might be tripping up and how easily you can make changes that'll keep your family safe.

You Wash Your Hands Before Cooking

Yes, it's a good first step, but research shows you need to wash several times while cooking to stay safe.

Try to wash up every time you switch to a new component of the meal, like when moving from meat to veggies to spices.

Most "violations" occur when you go back and forth between meat (or poultry, egg, or seafood) and ready-to-eat foods such as salad fixings without washing hands in between, suggests a recent food-safety study.

Extra kitchen-safety: Don't wash up on autopilot.

Count to 20 while rubbing hands under water.

And use soap because rinsing alone won't get rid of bacteria.

You Wash Produce As Soon As You Get It Home.

It's nice to have fresh herbs and veggies cleaned and ready for you to begin cooking.

But if you wash produce before you stash it in the fridge, mold and other microbes can grow in moisture left behind.

Instead, clean produce right before you prepare it.

Extra kitchen-safety: Discard the outer layer of lettuce and cabbage, where contamination is most likely to occur.

Then rinse the rest of the head (skip the soap, it could leave a residue, which you don't want to eat).

You Rinse Only Fruit With Edible Skin

Surprise: Fruits with inedible peels or rinds, such as bananas and melons, can be as risky as those you eat whole because bacteria on the surface can be transported inside by a knife when you slice through it.

Rinse while using a scrub brush to remove dirt, debris, and germs; toss the brush into the dishwasher afterward.

Extra kitchen-safety: Cut stems from tomatoes, strawberries and peppers after washing so bacteria can't seep inside.

You Clean As You Cook

Good move.

Unless you're too free with your dish towel, chopping a potato, wiping the cutting board, then using the towel to clean your serving bowls too, where it could spread germs that can make you sick.

Use dish towels only to dry clean hands, and rely on paper towels and an antimicrobial disinfectant to wipe down countertops and cutting boards.

Extra kitchen-safety: You'd never put raw meat, which can be loaded with bacteria, directly on the counter.

So don't set unwashed produce down there either, put it on a dish or cutting board you can wash later.

You Leave Meals Warming on the Stove Top or in the Oven

Bacteria can thrive when food is anywhere from 41°F to 135° F., which when you think about it is a surprisingly large range.

So setting aside a meal, say, in a still warm oven or on the stove top for a family member to eat later may allow it to spoil.

"Even foods that seem harmless, like rice or pasta, could become dangerous.

And don't think reheating a dish that's been sitting out will make it safe:

Some toxins that can form when food is left out too long are resistant to heat.

A good rule of thumb: If your loved one will be more than 2 hours late, stick the dish in the fridge until it's ready to be warmed up.

Extra kitchen-safety: Store hot leftovers in small, shallow containers; that allows food to cool more quickly.

Don't stack too many containers together, a tightly packed refrigerator doesn't cool as efficiently, allowing bacteria to grow.

You Set Your Fridge Temp to "Cold"

You'd think that would be cool enough to slow the growth of bacteria.

But because built-in control dials don't tell you what the actual temperature is, you can't be sure you're keeping food between 35°F and 40°F, which is where it needs to be to do the job.

Buy a thermometer that attaches to the inside wall or sits on a shelf and check it once a month.

Extra kitchen-safety: Buy a thermometer for the freezer also and it should read 0°F, the temp at which food freezes solid.

You Cook Burgers Until the Pink is Gone

Think that if a burger looks well-done, it must be germ free?

Kansas State University research shows the eyeball method doesn't work, a meat thermometer is the only way to tell if it's been cooked to a safe 160°F.

Thawed meat can turn a little brown, so it might look done before it really is, while some lean burgers might still look pink when they hit 160°F.

To check a burger's doneness, insert the thermometer into the center of the meat, and chow down only if the reading is 160°F or higher.

Extra kitchen-safety: If the burger's not hot enough and you have to cook it longer, be sure to wash the thermometer before you test the meat again to avoid cross contamination.

Did you know?

Produce is responsible for almost twice as many cases of food poisoning as poultry and almost three times as many as beef, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

And on that note, "let's all try and be a little bit safer in the kitchen."

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