How to prepare and cook food safely
Bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter enter the kitchen in our hands, and raw foods through pets. It can spread quickly if not careful.
If the food is cooked, stored and handled properly, it can become a disease people food poisoning, colds, flu and other illnesses.
Wash your hands
Our hands are one of the main roads and the spread of germs, so it is important to wash well with soap and warm water before cooking, after touching the box, and using the toilet and after handling raw foods.
Raw meat, including poultry, and may contain harmful bacteria that can easily spread to everything it touches. This includes other food, worktops, tables, and cutting boards and knives.
"Many people think they should wash raw chicken, but no need," says nutritional health expert Adam Hardgrave. "Any germs would be killed if it is cooked well. Indeed, if you do not wash the chicken can be sprayed on the bacteria to the sink, countertop, dishes or anything close."
Take special care to keep raw foods away from ready to eat foods such as bread, salads and fruits. There will be cooking these foods and eat them before they get any germs to be killed.
"Use separate cutting boards for raw and ready to eat foods," says Hardgrave.
When storing raw meat, and always store it in a clean, sealed container and put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge where you can not touch or drip onto other foods.
cooking
These foods should be cooked thoroughly before eating:
Poultry, including liver
pig
Offal, including liver
burgers
sausages
Laminate joints of meat
Kebabs
They cook to the proper temperature to kill harmful bacteria. Make sure the food is piping hot throughout before eating.
When cooking burgers, sausages, chicken and pork, cut into the middle to make sure the meat is no longer pink, juices run clear and well hot (steam is coming out).
When cooking a whole chicken or other bird, pierce the thickest part of the leg (thigh and the thigh between) to ensure that there is no pink meat and the juices are no longer pink or red.
Do not eat pork joints and rolled joints or rare pink color. To check whether such details ready to eat, and put a skewer in the center of the meat and check that there is no pink meat and the juices run clear.
It is safe to serve steak and cut the rest of the meat rare lamb (not cooked in the middle) or blue (seared on the outside) as long as they are sealed properly (quickly cooked at high temperature just outside) to killing bacteria in the meat surface.
If you do not eat cooked food immediately, cool to room temperature (ideally within 90 minutes), and stored in the refrigerator. Put hot food in the refrigerator is not cooling means uniformly, which can cause food poisoning. More information on storing leftovers safely.
Tips Hardgrave is storing food in the refrigerator below 5 ° C (41 ° F). "If the refrigerator has an internal freezer iced up, the fridge might be struggling to maintain its temperature," he says.
Wash fruits and vegetables
It is advisable to wash fruits and vegetables with cold water before eating. This helps eliminate the dirt and germs that may be visible on the surface.
You can peel fruits or vegetables, cooking and also remove these germs.
Never use liquid laundry or other household cleaning products, as they may not be safe for human consumption, which may inadvertently leave food on this product.
cleaning
Wash all work surfaces and cutting boards before and after cooking, as they may be a source of cross contamination.
The average kitchen cutting board has about 200% of fecal bacteria for a toilet seat.
Sponges and wet clothes are the perfect place for bacteria to multiply. Studies have shown the kitchen sponge has the largest number of germs in the home. Wash clothing and replace kitchen sponges and dishcloths often.