Food: Proper Food Handling

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Proper Food Handling
Saturday, December 23, 2006

Food contamination is the basic problem encountered by those who are cooking. This is because of the less knowledge we have in proper handling the food. In preparing food we must consider cleanliness, food contamination and keeping the food at safe temperature. In this holiday season, we prepare food way beyond time of serving them due to volume and we do not consider the time spend by the food in the open. This can be dangerous since food can spoil overtime. It can even lost the freshness and the taste of the food in too much heat exposure. To prevent the risks of even having food poisoning or other food contamination of that in the end we suffer, we must take in proper procedures in serving the food.

Wash hands before any preparation done in the kitchen. Give at least 20 minutes in just cleaning the hands with soap and water. Remove the ring, bracelets or anything that might be not of use in preparing the food. Wash hands in different situation. Do not do cleaning while preparing the food at the same time or taking the garbage and returning to food preparation. If inevitable that you are sneezing or coughing, make sure you wash your hands or the germs will spread over the food. It is better to keep your hair in place so that to prevent you from touching your hair while preparing the food. Make sure that the utensils used are also clean and the work area properly managed. For injured hands, use gloves to prevent contamination from wound to the food.

During the preparation, while tasting the food always separate the tasting spoon and the food being tasted not directly to the pan itself. Do not use your finger in tasting the food and always handle the stem of the spoon and not to the scoop itself. Make that the utensils you are using during the preparation are not used for tasting. Do not return the tasted food into the prepared food after tasting them. Be cautious where you place the utensils you use rather than placing them anywhere in the table. When the food needs to be laid into the surface for decorative purposes, make sure that the surface is clean.

To prevent cross contamination, always separate the cutting board of meat, poultry and fish from vegetables. Make sure that the cutting boards are clean before using as well as the knife. To keep the boards clean, use 1 tablespoon of bleach to sanitize the board while for wooden cutting boards, grain vinegar is enough to clean the surface. Do not over use cutting boards, the longer the usage the more it is prone to contamination due to old stains stacked in the surface. When using sponges and dishcloths in cleaning the boards, make sure that the sponges are also clean.

Separate the utensils used in cutting or preparing the meat from the raw foods. After preparation, clean the utensils before using it in the prepared food. The kitchen counters must be kept dry after the cooking is finished. Do not let pets to crawl of the tabletop.

Consider the room temperature and temperature after handling the food. Bacteria grow in temperatures between 40 to 140 degrees. In this temperature, the food can hold bacteria the doubles its number every 20 minutes though it cannot affect the taste, appearance and even the smell however it can cause food borne illnesses.

To prevent this always refrigerate the food to prevent bacteria from developing in the food. Prevent overloading the refrigerator since it will not be effective in chilling the food completely and might spoil the food. Keep the refrigerator closed if possible at all times to prevent reduction of coldness. Do not place milk at the door of the refrigerator. Check the food in the refrigerator in terms of expiration dates to prevent from ever using it.

To cool the food faster is placing them in metal containers since it has greater conduction than that of plastics. Other method is placing them in an ice bath in a container that will speed up the cooling. To defrost the frozen food safely, make sure the meat is inside a leak proof bag instead of opening in the water. Place it in water filled container and occasionally change the water every 30 minutes. It is better to cook the food before refreezing them.

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