How to Make Food Safer

Steps You Can Take

Wash. Be sure to wash your hands in hot soapy water before preparing each dish. Always wash after using the bathroom, dealing with a baby's or a child's hygienic needs (such as changing a diaper or wiping a nose), or handling any animal, including household pets. Wash any utensils, cutting boards, and countertops with hot soapy  water after preparing each dish-especially after handling raw meat, poultry, or seafood.  "Wash fruit and vegetables in lukewarm water," suggests Test magazine, to get rid of insects and pesticide residue. In many cases skinning, peeling, and boiling are the best ways to cleanse foodstuffs.  With lettuce or cabbage, remove and throw away the outermost leaves.  

Cook thoroughly.  If the internal heat of food exceeds 160 degrees Fahrenheit, even briefly, almost all bacteria, viruses, and parasites will be killed. Poultry should be cooked even more than that, to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, or it should be hot and steaming. Avoid eating poultry that is still pink inside, eggs with runny yolks  or whites , or fish that is not yet opaque and that you cannot readily flake apart with a fork.

Keep foods separate.  Keep raw meat, poultry, or seafood separate from other food at all times-when shopping for it, storing it, and preparing it.  Do not let the juices flow or drip onto other foods. Also, never put cooked food onto a dish that formerly held raw meat, fish, or poultry, unless that dish has been thoroughly washed with hot soapy water.

Store and chill food properly.   The refrigerator can inhibit the growth of dangerous bacteria, but the temperature should be 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The freezer should be 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Put perishable food items away within two hours. If setting out food before the meat, cover all washed dishes to keep flies away. 

Be cautious when dining out.   By one estimate, from about 60 to 80 percent of the cases of food-borne disease in some developed lands originate in meals that are cooked  and bought outside the home. Make sure that any restaurant you visit satisfies  the health standards required by law. Order meat well-cooked. When it comes to take-out food, make sure to eat it within two hours of the time you buy it. If more time elapses, reheat the food to a temperature of 165 degrees  Fahrenheit.

Throw out questionable food.   IF you are in doubt as to whether some food item is good or spoiled, err on the side of safety and throw it out.  Granted, it is unwise to waste good food. Still, getting sick from bad food may prove even more costly.

Dr. Iain Swadling, food information officer for the International Food Information Service, about 90 percent of all cases of food-borne disease are caused by "probably less than two dozen" species of micro-organisms. How do the various disease-causing agents - the viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxins,m and so forth find their way into food?

Dr. Swadling lists five of the most common ways that food is contaminated:  "Using contaminated raw foodstuffs; infected/ill people preparing meals; inadequate storage combined with the preparation; insufficient cooking or reheating of food." Grim though that list may appear to be, it conveys  a potent  bit of good news. Most instances of food-borne illnesses are readily preventable. 

Next time: How to Make Food Safer-Making Balanced Choices

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2001