Spotlight Topic

The spotlight topic for the month of May is Foodborne Illness. The following information is from fightbac.org: Partnership for Food Safety Education.

Four Simple Steps to Food Safety

Clean: Wash hands and surfaces often

- Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food and after using the bathroom, changing diapers and handling pets.

- Wash your sutting boards, dishes, utensils and counter tops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go on to the next food.

- Consider using paper towels to clean up kitchen surfaces. If you use cloth towels wash them othen in the hot cycle of your washing machine.

- Rinse fresh fruits and vegetable under running tap water, including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten.

- Rub firm-skin fruits and vegetables under running tap water or scrub with a clean vegetable brush while rinsing with running tap water.

Separate: Don't cross-contaminate

- Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs from other foods in your grocery shopping cart, grocery bags and in your refrigerator.

- Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs.

- Never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs.

Cook: Cook to proper temperatures

- Use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of cooked foods. Make sure that meat, poultry, egg dishes, casseroles and other foods are cooked to the safe internal temperature.

- Cook ground meat or ground poultry until it reaches a safe internal temperature. Color is not a reliable indicator of doneness.

- Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm. Only use recipes in which eggs are cooked or heated thoroughly.

- When cooking in a microwave oven, cover food, stir and rotate for even cooking. Food in done when it reaches the safe internal temperature.

- Bring sauces, soups and gravy to a boil when reheating.

Chill: Refrigerate promptly

- Refrigerate or freeze meat, poultry, eggs and other perishables as soon as you get them home from the store.

- Never let raw meat, poultry, eggs cooked food or cut fresh fruits or vegetables sit at room temperature more than two hours before putting them in the refrigerator or freezer (one hour when the temperature is above 90 degrees F).

- Never defrost food at room temperature. Food must be kept at a safe temperature during thawing. There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave. Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately.

- Always marinate food in the refrigerator.

- Divide large amounts of leftovers into shallow containers for quicker cooling in the refrigerator.