Safe Food Practices are always important but is often overlooked when you are trying to save time. It is dangerous to ignore these food safety practices and it can be good to look them over from time to time.

When dealing with food you want to keep in mind a few things.

Safe Food Practices

Temperature

Some foods are meant to be hot and some are meant to be cold. It’s important not to mix these up. Cold food (milk, cheese, yogurt) should be kept cold to slow the growth of bacteria. Hot food (cooked meat) should be kept hot while being consumed and should only be cooled when ready to put leftovers in the fridge.

Your fridge should be set to 4ºC (40ºF) and your freezer to -18ºC (0ºF).

You should NOT defrost food at room temperature. Use the refrigerator, microwave or submerge in cool water (replaced every 30 minutes.)

Separation

Raw meats including poultry and seafood should be kept away from other foods in your grocery cart, in your fridge, on the counter and on cutting boards. Never use the same cutting board for raw meats and produce as you will be spreading bacteria. When you defrost meat in the fridge, put it in a bowl to keep meat juices/blood from leaking onto other foods.

Keep Clean

Clean and sanitize any area that was used to cut or prepare raw meats, poultry or seafood with a bleach solution (5 ml household bleach to 750 ml of water), store bought sanitizing product or at the very least, hot water and soap. Rinse are with water and do NOT use sponges as bacteria clings to them.