Handling Food Safely

When you prepare food for yourself and your family, follow these steps to help ensure that it’s safe to eat.

Clean

• Wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.
• Wash all fruits and vegetables. If the skin still isn’t clean, peel it off. This will help remove dirt and leftover chemicals, such as pesticides.
• Packaged lettuces have often already been washed. The packaging will tell you. It’s still a good idea to wash prewashed lettuce again right before eating it.
• Remove and throw away the outer leaves of leafy green vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach.
• After washing fruits and vegetables, dry them with a paper towel or clean cloth towel to cut down on bacteria.
• Wash utensils and cutting boards with hot soapy water after each use. Avoid using wooden cutting boards since they can have more germs than other kinds of boards.
• After preparing food, clean countertops with hot soapy water.

Separate

• Use one cutting board for raw meat, poultry and seafood. Use another one for salads and ready-to-eat foods.
• Keep raw meat, poultry and seafood and their juices apart from other food in your shopping cart and at home.
• Store raw meat, poultry and seafood in containers or on plates so that juices can’t drip on other foods.

Cook

• Use a food thermometer. It will help you cook food to a safe temperature. Remember: You can’t tell if a food is cooked safely by how it looks. You can buy these thermometers at hardware or home-supply stores.
• When microwaving, stir, rotate the dish and cover food. This can prevent cold spots where harmful bacteria can grow.
• When reheating sauces, soups and gravies, bring them to a rolling boil.

Chill

• Keep the refrigerator at 40 degrees or below. Use an appliance thermometer to check the temperature. You can buy these thermometers at hardware or home-supply stores.
• Refrigerate all produce that has been cut or peeled.
• Chill leftovers and takeout food within two hours. Put food into shallow containers so that it cools quickly.
• Thaw meat, poultry and seafood in the refrigerator, not on the counter.
• Don’t crowd the refrigerator. This may make it hard to keep food cool and safe.

Much of the information in this article is from the Be Food Safe program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Partnership for Food Safety Education.

May 2008