by We all love to savor every part of the food we eat. From experimenting with our cooking skills in the kitchen to preparing new dishes every day, gorging on those delicious meals sure feels like a treat. However, no one eats food with the idea of getting food poisoning. It ruins our whole experience of partaking in the food. A floppy or unhealthy tummy as a result of eating contaminated food is not a pleasant experience. But, in most cases, it is inevitable that we pay attention to certain precautions when cooking food or be careful when eating outdoors.
Read on for some of the common ways to learn how to avoid food poisoning.
How to avoid food poisoning?
Food poisoning is a common problem that can lead people to experience an upset stomach, diarrhea, and vomiting. It can drain people out of energy and leave them dehydrated. Here are some precautions you can take to prevent food poisoning at home.
1. Keep your hands and work surfaces clean
This is invariably the first and foremost way to maintain hygiene while cooking. Before you start cooking, be sure to wash your hands and clean work surfaces before, during, and after preparing food. The kitchen is often the breeding ground for germs, and they thrive in countless places around your kitchen. That includes your hands, cutting boards, countertops, and utensils.
2. Separate your food properly
Properly separate poultry, meat, and eggs from other ready-to-eat foods. Use different cutting boards and keep most poultry items away from other foods in your shopping cart or refrigerator.
3. Get ready to cook
Prepare and cook your food to a temperature good enough to kill harmful bacteria in your food. You can also take advantage of using a food thermometer.
Also read: Do you refrigerate everything? 7 foods you should stop putting in your fridge
4. Keep it cool
Once you’re done cooking and eating, you can refrigerate your food to 40 degrees Farhenheit or below. It is recommended to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours of cooking or within 1 hour if food has been exposed to very high temperatures.
5. Check the expiration dates of the products
As we fill our shopping cart with the necessary food products, we often tend to overlook the expiration dates of the products. Any type of expired food that is cooked and eaten can easily make you sick. You can use the sight or smell method to check the freshness of food. If the food smells bad after opening the seal, you can return or throw it away, but never use your sense of taste to judge the quality of the food.
6. Always wash your food before cooking or refrigerating it
When we buy freshly produced food, we must remember that it can be a source of foodborne illness. Fruits and vegetables are contaminated by animals, in various growing conditions or by the people they come into contact with before finding their place in our kitchen. Washing the food removes all harmful bacteria from the surface. Even if the skin of food must be separated, it is important to wash it so that bacteria do not get into the meat of the knife when you cut it.
The bottom line
Following the aforementioned steps rules out the concern of food poisoning. Food when cleaned and prepared correctly provide the best of all nutrients to our body in a healthy way.
