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Keep
Your Food Clean
and Properly Prepared
Even though
Labor Day signals the winding down of summer, you still need to
think about food safety. Whether you're having end-of-season picnics
and cookouts or doing your daily cooking and food handling at home,
how you handle and store your perishable food makes a big difference.
Shopping, storage,
handling, preparation and food transportation are all important
areas when it comes to food safety, says Lorie Ann Phillips, registered
dietitian with the Duke University Health System.
Here are some
suggestions she put together:
- When you
go to the grocery store, buy your frozen food last, just before
you get the checkout counter. Always check food expiration dates.
- As soon as
you get home, refrigerate or freeze perishable foods. Keep all
foods well away from household cleaning products.
- Keep everything
in your kitchen clean. That includes food containers, cutting
boards, and utensils.
- Wash your
knives and other utensils after cutting raw meat, and don't use
the same platters for raw and cooked meat and poultry.
- In warm weather,
be especially careful with foods made with raw or partially cooked
eggs or mayonnaise. "That includes potato salad, chicken
or tuna salads and macaroni salads," Phillips says. "You
want to pay special attention to these kinds of dishes. Keep them
in the cooler as much as possible because of the risk of salmonella."
- Cook all
meat and poultry thoroughly and keep them hot until you serve
them.
More information
The U.S. government
has recently placed greater emphasis on getting information out
about food safety. This page from the Food and Drug Administration
highlights
a number of programs to help ensure a clean kitchen.
Reference
Source 101
For
more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
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