Food Safety 101

I went to culinary school, worked in restaurants for 15 years and have worked in the food safety field for the last 6 years. How to properly prepare, cook and handle food is second nature to me, but if you haven't worked in a kitchen, you may not know the rules to keep you and your family safe from a foodborne illness.

I want to share some of my knowledge and give you the basics of food safety! This will be your introductory course and resource to prepare, cook, cool and store all of your food safely at home.

Some basic terms:

Temperature danger zone: 135°F-41°F. This is the zone where bacteria grows the fastest so you want to keep food out of this zone as much as possible. To reduce risk of foodborne illness, food should not be allowed in the zone for more than 4 hours total throughout prep, cooking and cooling.

TCS. This is the term used for all food food that requires either time or temperature control to keep it safe. This includes meat, dairy, cooked grains and veggies, cut tomatoes and melon. Basically this food must either be kept hot (above 135°F) or cold (below 41°F) at all times.

The Golden Rule

Wash your hands! When in doubt just wash your hands. Before handling food, after handling raw meat, between changing tasks, anytime you touch something dirty or your hair or clothing.

Prep

Wash your fruits and veggies. Rinse or soak your your produce in cool water. You can make or buy a producte wash but properly rinsing and soaking with water will effectively remove bacteria. You can also use a brush to remove excess dirt on root veggies like potatoes and turnips.

Prevent cross-contamination. Cross-contamination is accidentally transferring bacteria from one thing to another. The biggest risk in a home kitchen is not properly cleaning utensils, cutting boards, counters and hands after handling raw meat, soiled dishes or unwashed produce.

Monitor your time. You want to minimize the amount of time you keep TCS (see definition above) food at room temperature. The the rule of thumb is 30 minutes or less. For example, let's say you are having a party later today and are making salsa and a cheese plate. Instead of pulling everything out at the same time to prep, finish making the salsa and put that into the fridge before you pull out the cheese to cut and plate.

Cooking

Cook your food to the proper internal temperature. To make sure bacteria such as E. Coli and salmonella is killed, you should cook meat and other foods to specific internal temperatures. Here are the cooking temps for the most common foods:

Seafood/fish: 145°F

Pork/Lamb: 145°F

Beef: 155°F

Chicken:165°F

Leftovers: 165°F (even if initial temp was lower, always reheat to 165°F)

Invest in a digital thermometer. Yes, temp your food! To be 100% sure your meat has been cooked enough to be safe you have to take the temp. This is a good one that is reasonably priced.

Thawing

Forget what your mama (or papa or grandpa or....) taught you. How many of us grew up in a house where your parents left meat sitting on the counter all day to thaw??? I'm surprised I didn't get sick more often as a kid! Safe thawing options are in the refrigerator, under cool (70°F or less) running water or as part of the cooking process.

Cooling

Again, forget what your mama taught you. You don't want to leave that soup sitting on the stove top too long. Proper cooling means getting your food from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours and from 70°F to 41°F within another 4 hours. The best and easiest ways to do this is to get your food into your fridge as fast as possible after you are done cooking. Leave the lid ajar on the container to allow the hot air to escape. If you have a lot of food to cool, spread it out into several smaller containers to help it cool faster (and fit in your fridge better).

Storing

Prepared foods is good for 7 days. TCS food is safe to keep in the fridge for 7 days after being cooked or prepared. The day food is prepared is counted as day 1. If you made that soup or salsa on October 12 then you should use-by October 18.

Store raw food on the bottom. Store raw food below other food to prevent possible contamination in case any juices drip. Best practice is store chicken and poultry below everything because it has the highest internal cooking temperature of all meat. If chicken juices drip onto raw beef, you will not cook that beef high enough to kill salmonella that could have been present in the chicken.

I hope these basics help you keep your kitchen extra safe. Leave a comment with any questions you may have!