Food Safety Tips

Food-borne illness can give you stomach pain, vomiting or diarrhea and can even be life-threatening. To avoid this, always practise the following food safety tips.

1. Be Clean: To stop spread of bacteria.

- Wash hands with warm water and soap before and after handling food.
- Wash food-contact surfaces (cutting boards, dishes, utensils, countertops) with hot, soapy water after preparing each food item.
- Rinse fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water.
- Do not rinse raw meat and poultry before cooking (bacteria will spread to sink and countertop).

2. Separate: To avoid cross-contamination.

- Keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood and their juices away from foods that won’t be cooked (while shopping in the store and while preparing and storing at home).
- Use separate cutting boards for foods that will be cooked (raw meat, poultry and seafood) and for ready-to-eat foods (raw fruits and vegetables).
- Do not put cooked meat on an unwashed plate that has held raw meat.

3. Cook: To kill harmful bacteria.

- Use a food thermometer to make sure meat, poultry, and fish are cooked to a safe internal temperature.
- Bring sauces, soups and gravies to a rolling boil when reheating.
- Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm. (If using raw eggs in a recipe, ie.eggnog, use pasteurized shell eggs, liquid or frozen pasteurized egg products, or powdered egg whites).
- Don’t eat uncooked cookie dough, which may contain raw eggs.

4. Chill: To halt bacteria growth.

- Refrigerate leftovers and takeout foods within two hours.
- Set your refrigerator no higher than 40ºF or 4.5ºC and the freezer at 0ºF or -18ºC.
- Never defrost food at room temperature. Food can be defrosted safely in the refrigerator, under cold running water, or in the microwave. Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately.
- Allow the correct amount of time to properly thaw food. (For example, a 20-pound turkey needs four to five days to thaw completely in the refrigerator).
- When in doubt, throw it out. Don’t eat food that looks or smells questionable.