!#8# Basic Food Safety Precautions & Food Handling Tips

!±8± Basic Food Safety Precautions & Food Handling Tips

When you bring food home from the grocery store is when food safety becomes your responsibility.

Preparing food is not always cut-and-dried safety wise and you need to remember that food safety basically means "clean."

You can keep things clean by following these simple rules:

Dangerous bacteria can contaminate any part of your kitchen, including cookware, knives and cooking surfaces through contact with raw meat, fish, poultry and their juices. Keep these foods away from fresh, ready to eat food and thoroughly clean any surfaces and kitchenware with hot water and soap after use. Kitchen utensils, including cutting boards, knives, forks, spoons etc. should be washed immediately after use, preferably in the dishwasher.

Cutting boards are specially dangerous because they have many nicks and crannies in which bacteria can hide. You need to wash them specially well before and after use. It is best to use a separate one for meat, fish and poultry. If the grooves and nicks become hard to clean, you should promptly replace it. You can make a safe sanitizing solution with one tablespoon of liquid chlorine bleach in one gallon of water.

Kitchen surfaces should be cleaned with hot, soapy water using a kitchen towel, dish cloth or paper towels and wipe completely dry. Remember that "wet" means bacteria can develop. When you are done, discard the paper towels safely, treating them as you would raw meat. Kitchen towels and dish cloths should be washed in the hot cycle of your washing machine after each use. Do not reuse the dish cloth after you have used it to clean your kitchen.

Always wash your hands with warm water and soap after handling meat, poultry and fish.

Don't assume that vegetable and fruit are safe and lower your guard with regards to food safety. Know that damaged parts of vegetables and fruit can breed bacteria, so cut them out right away and discard before use. Wash fresh produce under cold, running water to clean any remaining dirt. Obviously, you do not want to use soap on veggies and fruit!

It is never safe to thaw meat, poultry or fish on your kitchen counter because bacteria can grow very rapidly at room temperature. The best way to thaw is in the fridge-take the frozen food out of the freezer and place it in the fridge with a vessel (plate or bowl) under it to catch any juices that may drip. Another safe way is to thaw submerged in cold water with the frozen food in a zip lock or watertight bag. And lastly, you can use the microwave but be sure to follow the manufacturer's directions on how to do this safely. In all circumstances, cook immediately after thawing.

Finally, you need to be careful while refreezing food that has been thawed once. If you have thawed the meat, fish or poultry in the fridge, it is OK to refreeze it immediately in the freezer but if you have thawed in cold water or microwave, you should cook the food fully before refreezing.