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| Mom never stops being your mother |
It's sometimes easy to forget how important cooking food safely is. It's a busy, rush rush world, especially with all the take-out choices.
When fixing a quick meal at home, you want to be sure that the food is cooked and stored safely, because you want to kill harmful bacteria in food.
If bacteria survives in food because it is not cooked properly, it could make you, your family or a guest sick when you first eat and also when you store leftovers and reheat later. Yikes! Not good. Here’s a quick review:
Here are 5 basic cooking food safely tips:
1. Never serve food that is not properly cooked
2. Serve cooked food immediately or keep it hot until ready to serve
3. Cool and store cooked food as soon as possible
4. When using a microwave, check that the food is cooked evenly throughout
5. Reheat food to steaming hot
Important! When you serve hot food, keep it on the table or in the kitchen for up to two hours.
Warming. Food cools down, so do not freeze food that has been sitting out for longer than 2 hours: Throw it away. It is not even good for the dog.
Food Poisoning
Improper cooking, time and temperature are common causes of food poisoning. It's so easy to avoid trouble by simply using a food thermometer, which is really inexpensive.
Most good ones are less than $15 and they last forever.
Foods such as meat, poultry and eggs, need to be cooked thoroughly to kill food poisoning bacteria.
Food Storage
The way food is stored is as important as the way food is cooked.
Under ideal conditions, cooked food can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days. If you want to keep cooked food longer, freeze the food immediately after cooling in the refrigerator.
Cooling means to wait until the steam stops flowing, cover the food and put it in the refrigerator right away. "Cover" means use a tight seal, not plastic wrap that is loose or can become loose.
Do not let cooled food sit on the kitchen counter at room temperature before freezing. When you freeze food after cooling in the refrigerator, it helps keep the food out of the temperature danger zone as fast as possible.
Large portions of food cool faster when you store in shallow dishes or divide them into smaller portions.
Always store cooked food separately from raw food, especially raw meats, poultry and fish. Keep raw meats and poultry at the bottom of the fridge to avoid raw juices dripping onto other food. Ensure that all food is covered tightly, or store in a container with an airtight seal.