What Can We Do to Prevent Contamination on Food?

Preventing food contamination means preventing food-borne illness. Paying attention, especially when handling, storing and cooking raw meats is an essential part of kitchen safety. While contamination can happen in the cooking process; proper storage, heating and cooling all factor into preventing food contamination. By keeping to safe handling practices, the food you prepare and serve should remain safe when it arrives at the table.

At the Store

• Contamination prevention begins at the supermarket. If you are buying raw meats or fish, make sure they are well wrapped in plastic and not placed in the same bag with raw fruits or vegetables. If juices from raw meat do drip onto other food products, it's best to just throw those foods away instead of risking illness. At home, make sure raw meats are stored in a container away from other foods in the refrigerator or frozen immediately. Raw meat and other perishable foods need to be refrigerated at once. Occasionally check that the temperature of your refrigerator is holding at 41 degrees Fahrenheit; the temperature to properly store perishable foods.

Preventing Cross-contamination

• When working with food in the kitchen, make sure your utensils and cutting surfaces are clean. Wiping cutting boards down with a sanitizing solution of bleach and water will ensure a safe cutting surface. If you need to prepare raw meat, cut it on a surface that won't be used for any other food preparation until it has been thoroughly sanitized.

  Raw eggs should be considered as if they were raw meat. Clean up any spills from yolks or whites before they have the chance to contaminate other foods.

Proper Cooking Temps

• Meats, fish and eggs must be cooked to a minimum internal temperature in order to be eaten safely. Use a meat thermometer regularly for checking temperatures. Roasts, steaks and fish need to be cooked to 145 degrees F; ground meat to 160 degrees F, poultry and leftovers to 165 degrees F. Eggs should not be eaten when they are raw or runny, but cooked until the white and yolk are firm.

  When serving hot foods, they must stay at a holding temperature of 140 degrees F. or higher. Cold foods must stay at 41 degrees F. or colder.

Cooling Foods Down

• Cooling foods properly is just as important as heating them to their safe temperature. Do not cover foods until they have cooled down to 41 degrees. Food must drop from their serving temperature of 140 degrees F to 70 degrees F within two hours; and to 41 degrees F within four hours in order to prevent bacteria from forming on the food. Place hot foods immediately in the refrigerator after serving is completed or place the storage container of hot food in an ice bath to speed up the process.

Personal Hygiene

• Maintaining good personal hygiene while preparing food is an important step in food safety. When working with any food product, it's important to make sure your hands are clean and that you are not touching, cooking or serving food when you are sick. Wash hands frequently while working in the kitchen and dry them with disposable paper towels.