Food Safety
November 16, 2009 at 6:17 am 5 comments
The last thing you expect after an evening of great food and entertainment is to get food poisoning. Food safety is very important, especially in the fast pace college setting. Getting sick will make it difficult to attend class and even more difficult to complete homework assignments on time.
The Fight Bac campaign was designed to prevent the spread of bacteria through four basic steps: clean, separate, cook and chill. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted these basic food safety guidelines in light of holiday cooking. As the holidays approach it is especially important to remember to practice safe food handling.
I’ve also found that FoodSafety.gov is a wonderful resource for questions regarding food safety. You can ask their experts specific questions and even watch videos.
Here are some of their basic guidelines
- Clean
Wash hands and food-contact surfaces often. Bacteria can spread throughout the kitchen and get onto cutting boards, knives, sponges, and counter tops.
This doesn’t mean simply running your hands briefly under water. Use both soap and warm water to prevent the growth of any bacteria.
- Separate
Don’t cross-contaminate–don’t let bacteria spread from one food product to another. This is especially true for raw meat, poultry and seafood. Keep these foods and their juices away from ready-to-eat foods.
If you enjoy cooking, you possibly have a favorite knife you work with. It sounds silly but it’s true. The temptation to use that knife to prepare all your ingredients is tempting, but should be treated with caution. Wash your utensils when switching from raw foods, to ready to eat foods such as lettuce.
- Cook
Cook to proper temperatures. Foods are properly cooked when they are heated for a long enough time and at a high enough temperature to kill the harmful bacteria that cause food borne illness.
- Chill
Refrigerate promptly. By refrigerating foods quickly, you can keep most harmful bacteria from growing and multiplying. Refrigerators should be set at 40 F and the freezer at 0 F. This should be checked occasionally with a thermometer.
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1.
morganjs | November 16, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I love this idea for a post. Just from watching my roommates, I think that a lot of college students are not aware of the safe way to prepare food. It’s kind of scary how easily illness can happen in the kitchen. I think it’s a wonderful Public Health move to inform your readers about this!
2.
elizabethcjones | November 17, 2009 at 3:09 am
Scary is what an apartment looks like when the dishes are not cleaned up… and there is who knows what all over the counters.
But I love that the girl in the picture has curlers in her hair. haha. Some day I’ll be getting ready at 5p.m. and cooking dinner, waiting for my husband to come home from work too! haha
3.
kelseyo332 | December 17, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I never realized how important it was to refrigerate things immediately! I guess that should have been obvious to me…clean, separate, and cook were…
Thanks for the information!
4.
bellagerald | December 18, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Great topic you’ll be surprise in how many people do not follow those easy step to keep clean and avoid all sort of microbial disease!
5.
jessica1234567 | December 19, 2009 at 7:21 am
This is something that is very important to realize. I think that all college students should read this post. So many different sicknesses and such can be passed through unclean environments. Plus, it makes it harder to even want to cook and eat anything when your kitchen is a mess.