If you have been keeping up with z blog, you’ll know I just posted my first recipe in Breakfast Sausage 101. Now my, socially conscience, conscience is nagging me to share some best practices for food handling.
You’ll notice the practices in this post center on proteins. Meat, poultry, dairy products, fish/shellfish/seafood, and even beans are proteins. Ready to eat foods are any foodstuff that will not be cooked before serving. Food borne illness is caused by bacteria like salmonella and e-coli. I share cause I care…about your tummy and because it is no fun to get the cross contamination (raw protein juice mixed with ready to eat foods) blues.
- Don’t store raw proteins above anything in the refrigerator
- Don’t leave proteins between 40° and 140° “The Danger Zone” more than four hours, this includes prep time, cooking time and serving time. If any bacteria is present it will thrive between those temps.
- Don’t thaw protein items at room temperature or with water: hot or cold, running or submerged.
- Always wash with warm soapy water; your hands, knife & cutting boards before, between and after cutting meat(cooked or raw) and ready to eat foods.
- I like to use paper towels & not cloth towels to avoid cross contamination when cleaning up after raw/cooked proteins.
- When reheating previously prepared foods, its best to reheat to 140° to prevent food borne illness.
- Boneless Chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°
- Whole chicken, leg quarters and wings should be cooked to an internal temperature of 180°
- Home cooked leftovers can last up to 7 days BUT take out and doggy bags shouldn’t go past 4.
- When in doubt, throw it out! If you are unsure of how old something is or how long it has been left out at room temperature, chuck it.
Visit http://www.essortment.com/all/foodsanitatio_rvvk.htm for a complete, in-depth list of Sanitation Tips for the kitchen.
~ Marla
