If you’ve been following the news recently, you may have read stories about food contamination and recalls. Most recently, the CDC released an update about an E. Coli warning they issued connected to romaine lettuce sourced out of Yuma, Arizona. That news came shortly behind another recall of more than 200 million eggs from a North Carolina farm after they were linked to salmonella.
In cases like these, avoiding the foods altogether is the best plan to stay as safe as possible. Still, it also calls particular attention to our need to properly wash and prepare our food before we cook with it—and how to cook safely in the kitchen without cross-contamination. Fortunately, the CDC has their own guide to food safety outlining how to stay as safe as possible when it comes to avoiding food poisoning.
With that in mind, here’s a complete guide to cleanliness and food safety from the grocery store to your home kitchen.
At The Grocery Store
1. Pick fruits and vegetables that don’t have any bruises or sore spots.
Aside from being cosmetically appealing, avoiding vegetables and fruits with cracks and bruises is another way to ensure that you’re getting the freshest produce possible. Anytime a fruit has an open slice, that’s an opportunity for germs from the outside to seep inside. Similarly, bruised or soft spots can sometimes be places where the produce has started to decay and pathogens have begun to take hold. It’s best to avoid or cut around these areas whenever possible.
2. Keep your meat products and your produce separate—even at the store.
If we’re not conscious of it, we can easily mix up our bags of fruit and our raw meat products we may have gotten from the butcher’s counter. Make sure you remain conscious to keep your food separate in the cart and in the bagging area until you get home.
At Home
1. Before you start preparing your dinner, wash your hands thoroughly!
Although everyone thinks they know how to wash their hands, it’s important to follow a step-by-step routine to ensure you’re really getting all the germs and not just getting your hands wet. According to the CDC’s guide, you should first wet your hands with warm water, lather your hands all over with soap and then scrub them for at least 20 seconds—be sure to get the backs and under the nails as well! Finally, rinse your hands and dry them in the air or with a clean towel.
2. Keep your fruits and vegetables separate in the fridge.
Just like in the grocery store, your food needs to stay separated for health reasons rather than for convenience reasons. Make sure your fruits and veggies get in the fridge within two hours of buying them (or one hour if its 90 degrees outside or hotter). Keep them below 40 degrees in the fridge and keep your meats far away from your fruits and veggies!
3. When preparing food, use separate cutting boards.
No matter how tempting it may be to do a quick wash of your cutting boards between uses, it’s better to use separate cutting boards and knives for raw meats vs. your other ingredients. Be sure to keep counters clean as well and watch where you set different things down to avoid cross contamination.
Washing Vegetables and Fruits
1. Remove your food from its packaging and rinse it.
Before anything else, get your food ready to be rinsed and remove any stickers or wrappings. Be sure your hands are clean during this process and trim away any bruised or damaged areas in this stage.
2. Use a colander for loose or small fruits and veggies.
Though it’s fairly straight forward to wash an apple, washing a bunch of grapes or beans may be trickier. In these cases, using a colander and washing them several times can ensure that you’ve gotten them fully cleaned.
3. Scrub or soak your rougher produce.
When it comes to certain mushrooms and potatoes, some scrubbing—gentle or rough—may be necessary to get excess dirt and grime off. For other fruits like grapes or vegetables with uneven surfaces like broccoli, soaking them in a bath of water, straining them and rinsing again can be a more effective way to get the germs off.
4. Dry everything off!
At the end of this process, remember to dry off your produce with a clean paper towel to pick up any remaining pathogens.
Although these steps may not always prevent against all food-borne illnesses, they are a good guide to practicing good kitchen safety and becoming more aware of the risks we can face in the kitchen. Especially during times when food scares are in the news, it’s important to return to the cleaning basics.
Be sure to check out the CDC’s website for more guidelines on food preparation!
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