Handling Food Safely - How Safe Is Your Food: Healthy Eating A Guide To The New Nutrition

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Handling food safely

You can prevent most cases of food poisoning in your household by preparing and storing your foods safely. These precautions will help kill germs that are present in the meat and eggs you buy and help you avoid introducing new bugs to your food at home.

Rinse foods. Rinsing can wash off some germs from meat, poultry, and fish and pesticide residues from produce. Rinse all meat, poultry, and fish under running water before cooking. Rinse all fruits and vegetables under running water before cooking or serving them.

Wash your hands. Frequent handwashing helps prevent you from passing germs from one food to another. Use soap and water to wash your hands each time you handle a raw food. Don't wipe your hands on a dishtowel without washing them first.

Use separate utensils. Don't prepare meat and fish on the same surface that you use for other foods — otherwise, you risk contaminating those foods with bacteria from the meat and fish. Use one cutting board for meats and fish and a second one for produce. Be sure to wash the cutting boards with soap and water after each use. Use different knives to cut different foods to prevent cross-contamination.

Cooking. Cook all meat, poultry, eggs, and freshwater fish. Don't rely on color alone to indicate whether meat is fully cooked. The USDA recommends that everyone use a meat thermometer. Different temperatures are required to kill off germs in different kinds of meat. It's also important to cook hot dogs and other precooked meats and fish, to destroy bacteria that may have contaminated them in the processing plants.

Storing. Don't leave any foods, before or after cooking, at room temperature for more than two hours (one hour if the air temperature is above 90° F). Put them in the refrigerator or freezer. The temperature inside your refrigerator should be 40° F or below; your freezer should be at 0° F or below. If you have large amounts of leftovers, divide them into small batches when you put them away in the refrigerator or freezer. That way, the temperature of each batch will reach a safe level faster. Keep in mind that freezing does not necessarily kill bacteria; wash meats and poultry thoroughly after thawing, and handle them the same as you would fresh meats (see Table 5).

Last updated:	January 23, 2007