1. Make sure to Wash your Hands
You should wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, one should do this before and after touching food. You must know that germs can be easily transferred from hands to food while preparing food. Good hand hygiene should be your first priority always to prevent foodborne illness.
2. Avoid Cross Contamination
Separate vegetables and raw meat, because there are many chances that germs can spread from one food to another. You should use one cutting board, utensils, and spoons for raw meat, and seafood and another one for things that are not boiled such as bread, and fruits. Make sure that you store poultry, raw meat, and seafood in sealed containers or packages so the juices don’t leak onto other foods.
3. Clean Your Grill
Make sure that you properly scrub the grill, and make it clean. An uncleaned grill can make the food unhygienic, and as a result, it can make you ill. To clean the grill you just need a few things including water, soap, and paper towels.
4. Clean refrigerator once a week
At least once a week, you should throw out refrigerated foods that should no longer be eaten. Clean the refrigerator utensil with water dry them and then reassemble all of them properly. This will make the refrigerator clean, it won’t have any oder. It happens you store some food for a longer time and when you keep some newly cooked food in the refrigerator the new food gets the smell of the previous food and also does not taste good. The leftovers also should be discarded after 4 days.
5. Give Fruits & Vegetables a Bath
Washing is a must whether it’s hands or fruits or vegetables. As washing prevents from spreading of bacteria to food preparation surfaces. The vegetables and fruits that should be peeled must be washed first.
6. Cook to the right temperatures
You should cook the food at the right temperature, the food is cooked safely and properly when the internal temperature is high enough to kill all the germs, which can obviously make you ill. To Make sure your food is cooked properly at the right temperature, use a thermometer when you think your food might have cooked, then place the food thermometer in the thickest part of the food. In this way, you will understand whether the food is been cooked or need more time.
7. Pay close attention to expiration dates
You should keep track and check regularly all the packed food so that you can know when the packed food is going to expire and can use it before the date. Checking regularly will actually keep you safe because it happens when you are rushing you’ll not pay attention to all these small details and can use the packed expired food mistakenly, which can affect the health of one. Everyone should know the difference between use by, best by, and expired by dates.
8. Refrigerate and Freeze Food Properly
Ya! freezing does not destroy harmful germs, but it may keep food safe until you can cook it. The food should be kept properly so that it will be safe. Food poisoning bacteria can multiply quickest between 40°F and 140°F. Make sure your refrigerator is set to 40°F or below and also the deep freezer is 0°F or below. The perishable foods should not be kept out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours. Whenever you want to keep leftovers, check whether it is being covered properly.
9. Allow leftovers to cool before storing them
There are actually certain steps to store the leftovers. The leftovers should not be kept out at room temperature for longer than two hours. If you want to store it, distribute the food in smaller airtight containers, which will need less space as compared to big containers. The food is also get cooled down before putting it in the fridge, if you keep the hot food in the refrigerator then it can spoil the glass or freeze vessels.
10. Thoroughly Cook Frozen Meat
Even if all the frozen products may appear to be browned or pre-cooked, they should be cooked properly. Eating half-cooked meat can lead you to become sick. Meat can have bacteria that can cause many diseases and can also cause food poisoning. So it’s better to cook the meat for more time and on a high flame, even if the frozen products have labels such as Ready to Cook, Oven Ready, or Cook and Serve must be cooked.