Maintaining food safety in your kitchen is vital to your family’s health. You certainly don’t want to have to get life insurance quotes because of poor kitchen habits! Here are a few food safety tips.

  • *Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. This sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But what are the temperatures? Hot foods should be kept at levels of 150 degrees F. or above. Cold foods should be kept at levels of 40 degrees F. or below. Anything in between will allow dangerous bacteria to begin growing in the food.
  • *Do not cross-contaminate. Wash your hands frequently while you’re preparing foods. Keep your surfaces clean and sanitized. If you use a knife to cut up some chicken, wash and sanitize it before using it on vegetables, or get another knife. I have two cutting boards - one for meats and one for vegetables - and I sanitize them both after each use. A weak bleach and water solution will work for sanitizing surfaces.
  • *Thaw frozen meat in your refrigerator overnight or quick-thaw in the microwave. Never leave meat sitting out to thaw. By the time the inside is ready to cook, the outside has already begun decomposing and harboring bacteria.
  • *Store frozen foods at proper temperatures. Your deep freezer should maintain a temperature of 0 degrees F. or below.
  • *If you live very far from the grocery store, use a cooler to transport frozen and refrigerated items. This will help to keep your cold foods at a low enough temperature so they are still safe to use when you get home with them.

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