Always, wash your hands!
A few years ago, I traveled to my home state, Tennessee to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, brother, nieces and nephews.
It was your typical Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. Everyone enjoyed the dinner, but the next day, everyone, was sick, and I suspect it was a case of food poisoning.
The only people who did not get sick were my baby niece, my husband and myself.
I cannot tell you what went wrong, but I can tell you what you should do to insure that nothing like this ever happens to you. There is nothing worse than seeing children sick and not being able to do anything to help them.
Keep the food poisoning bugs at bay by following these simple food safety practices.
1. Wash your hands. Wash your hands with soap and hot water for at least 20 seconds. Make sure you wash your hands after handling uncooked meats. Do not ever forget to wash your hands after using the restroom.
2. Do not cross contaminate your foods. If you are preparing vegetables, then make sure that is all you are doing. Never prepare raw meat on a cutting board and then follow with vegetable preparation. The juices from raw meats contain bacteria that can make you sick. Always use a separate cutting board or make sure you wash, rinse and sanitize the cutting board between uses.
3. Food storage. Always store meat products on the bottom shelf in your refrigerator. Never store meat products above produce. Because juices from the raw meat products could possibly drip onto produce which is source of cross contamination.
4. Keep foods at the proper temperature. Always keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot. Hold cold foods at 41 degrees F or less and hot foods at 140 degrees F or more. You can purchase a food thermometer at a local Wal-Mart.
5. Cook potentially hazardous foods at the right temperature. Potentially hazardous foods are those foods that have the potential of causing a food borne illness. And those foods are eggs, dairy, chicken, fish, poultry, pork, and beef. You can usually find the temperature at which these foods should be cooked on the label.
6. Do not cross contaminate utensils. If you use a knife to cut up raw meat, do not use the same knife to cut up fresh vegetables for a salad. This is a food-borne illness waiting to happen.
7. Have left overs one to two times. Leftovers are fine, but do not have them repeatedly and do not heat the whole container of left overs (unless it is for the whole family), just take out what you need. When in doubt about a certain food, just throw it out.
These are some ways you can insure that your family will not have a food-borne illness. Children and the elderly are the most susceptible to food-borne illnesses because their immune systems are not as strong.
Be safe and be sure you maintain good food safety practices. Always take care!
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It is funny I was in an argument with my Mom the other day about this. She had the stance she was doing the same thing for years and we never got sick but there is more of a danger these days I believe as well. I am a little neurotic when it comes to cleanliness in the kitchen and are constantly washing my hands and use only paper towels except when drying dishes, but I use a new one everyday. These are great rules to go by. Sorry your family got sick good for yours though for not!
Hi Mike,
You are right, there is more danger today. My mother did what she normally does on that Thanksgiving, but whatever else she did, caused a food-borne illness outbreak.
Hand washing is a good practice. It helps keep the germs to a minimum.
Take care,
Evelyn
Washing hands properly before eating is very important, parents must check that their children wash hands nicely before eating, otherwise improper washing can leave soap on hands, let alone bacteria.
I think many of us are guilty of cross contamination. For the ease of use, most people do not keep separate boards or knives and ends up using the same knife on vegetables as meat, without even properly cleaning it.
I guess food storage is not really a big issue with two door refrigerators being so common these days, unless you own anything that is 40 years old, this should not really be an issue.
Great suggestion about the proper cooking of certain foods, after all the swine flu and bird flu virus around, half cooked foods can be a big problem.
Also, great to see the mention of the immune system. We should also look to improve the immune system of our body. Eating certain foods that improve the immune helps a lot, then we don’t have to just avoid everything, our body will be capable of fighting those food bugs and defend us.
Hey Uttoran,
Thanks for chiming in and sharing more good points.
Take care,
Evelyn
Hey Evelyn nice food safety and storage tips. These are things that health departments check in restaurants too.
I hate my small counter space and complain about it often. I should be thankful with respect to food handling. I’m fortunate in that the sink is so close because I constantly wash my hands and cooking utensils!
Your point about cutting boards is really important especially if one uses wood or bamboo cutting boards. Those surfaces seem to mark up very easy thus holding bacteria filled juices!
Hi Kathy,
Funny you’d mention the health department, because that’s what I use to be a health inspector inspecting restaurants and other facilities.
You’re absolutely right about the wood cutting boards, because they tend to hold onto the germs even more.
Take care,
Evelyn
Hey Evelyn nice food storage tips. These are things that health departments check in restaurants too.
I hate my small counter space and complain about it often. I should be thankful with respect to food handling. I’m fortunate in that the sink is so close because I constantly wash my hands and cooking utensils!
Your point about cutting boards is really important especially if one uses wood or bamboo cutting boards. Those surfaces seem to mark up very easy thus holding bacteria filled juices!
Hi Evelyn :
An Awesome post as usual. Actually I have done a credit course on this topic. So I know the temperature of the fridge and food cooking temperatures and how to keep different foods, in the best form.
But time takes over and today reading your blog post, made me do a review. Thanks for a post that we all can use.to better care.
Fran A
Hi Ms. Fran,
That’s great that you know the temperatures. I use to conduct food safety classes and enjoyed it a lot.
Stay safe!
Take care,
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
These are awesome tips that are often overlooked. Especially the cross-contamination tip! I can’t tell you how often I see people use the same cutting board for greens and meat! Ironically, it’s eating contaminated greens that make people sick more than anything else.
Cleanliness is key in the kitchen.
Hi Marlee,
Thanks for chiming in. You’re right about the contaminated greens.
Take care,
Evelyn
Thanks for the tips, Evelyn! It’s amazing how easily some of these can be forgotten or neglected, especially during a busy time like Easter, 4th of July, or Thanksgiving. We’re in a hurry to get things done, so we do things we wouldn’t normally do. It’s good to get these tips committed to memory!
Hi Tia,
So true!
Thanks for chiming in!
Take care,
Evelyn