With summer weather, comes a greater risk of food borne illness. Warmth and humidity are great for bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella to multiply to dangerous levels. If food is not handled safely, BBQs and picnics can make people sick.
There are some basic steps you can take to
protect your family.
The
first one is to Clean: Wash your hands and work surfaces often to avoid the
spread of bacteria
Wash
hands with soap and water before handling food and after handling raw meat
or poultry, or even just packages of raw meat. Hand sanitizer doesn’t do a good
job when your hands are dirty: they have to already look clean for it to work!
In a pinch, moist towelettes followed by hand sanitizer can work.
Your counters and cutting boards can
harbour bacteria: wash those items with soap and water. Next wipe with a weak
bleach solution (1/4 tsp bleach in 2 cups of water), that you let sit on the
item for about 1 minute.
Veggies
and fruit need a good rinse under the tap, since you can’t see or smell the
bacteria on them.
The
second step is to Separate - Keep raw foods separate from cooked foods to avoid
cross-contamination
You don’t want raw meat juices flowing onto
other things. In the fridge keep meat at the bottom so it can’t drip onto other
food. If you are storing meat in a
cooler, keep it well wrapped or in a separate cooler.
If you carry the raw meat out to the BBQ on
a plate, use a clean plate to carry the cooked meat back in. An extra plate to
wash can save a world of trouble. Don’t depend on just wiping a used plate with
a paper towel to do the job!
 |
| Since I can't defrost or store raw meat at the bottom of my fridge, I keep it in a bowl or dish to collect the raw meat juice. |
The third step is to Cook- make sure you kill the harmful bacteria by properly cooking food.
It turns out that colour is not a reliable
indicator of whether the food is cooked.
Hamburger for example can look brown even though it’s not cooked to the
right temperature. Using a food probe thermometer can help you ensure that
meats are cooked
to the right temperature. The
thermometer itself needs to be cleaned between uses as well.
Chill
out! Keeping food cold is the final step. Keep cold food cold by thawing
meat in the fridge on the bottom shelf, not on the counter.
A picnic cooler must keep food at or below
40 C. Never leave perishable food that is normally kept in the
fridge out for more than 2 hours. Leftovers should be put back in a cooler
quickly. If you are in doubt about eating any food, throw it out. Better safe
than sorry.
Have a healthy summer. Visit www.pdhu.on.ca for more info, links and videos.
Dan Singleton
Public Health Inspector
Comments
Post a Comment