Food Safety: Preventing Food-Born Illiness
Food-borne illness can cause a variety of symptoms. These symptoms can be severe or life threatening to small children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems.
The prime cause of food-borne illness is bacteria, like E. coli, salmonella, staphylococcus aureus, and botulinum. Proper steps for food handling, storage, and preparation can prevent most food-borne illness.
Food Handling and Storage
Do not buy food in damaged packages or cans.
Look for expiration dates on food packages. Do not buy outdated foods.
Put perishable foods in the refrigerator or freezer as soon as possible after grocery shopping.
Keep raw meat, poultry, and fish in a separate shopping bag, so the juice does not drip onto other food.
Buy only pasteurized milk, cheese, ciders, and juices.
Food Preparation
Wash your hands with hot soapy water before and after preparing foods.
Thaw food in the refrigerator or microwave oven, not on the kitchen counter.
Prevent spreading bacteria (cross-contamination) by washing cutting boards, utensils, and countertops with hot soapy water after cutting raw meat and poultry products and before using them for vegetables, salad ingredients, and ready-to-eat foods.
Cook foods thoroughly to kill harmful bacteria. Do not eat raw, rare, or partially cooked meat, poultry, or seafood. Use a thermometer to check that meat is completely cooked. Red meat should be at 160 F and whole poultry should be at 180 F.
Cook fish until it is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.
Cook eggs until the white and yolk are firm.
Safe Storage
Keep your refrigerator temperature at 40-45 F and your freezer at 0 F.
Refrigerate leftovers as soon as possible. Divide large portions into small bags or containers for quick cooling in the refrigerator or freezer.
Do not leave perishable cooked food at room temperature longer than two hours.
Remove stuffing from poultry and meat and refrigerate it in separate containers.
Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
Storage Suggestions for Most Common Foods:
Fresh meats
3 to 5 days
Ground meats
1 to 2 days
Poultry
1 to 2 days
Lunch meats
3 to 5 days
Fish
1 to 2 days
Eggs
3 to 5 weeks
Milk
5 days beyond date
on carton
Cheese
3 to 4 weeks
For more information call the FDA’s Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Hotline at 1-800-FDA-4010 or view its website at www.fda.gov. You may also call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-800-535-4555 or view its website at www.usda.gov.
|
