Foodborne Illness: Staying Safe and Preventing Food-Related Diseases At Home

Food safety is something we hear about a lot in connection with restaurants, but not so much when it comes to the household. After all, there’s no health inspector knocking on everyone’s door making sure they’re preparing food safely for themselves. While restaurants have an accountability system in place to protect the public, when it comes to foodborne illness in your own kitchen, it can feel like you’re on your own.

4 steps to prevent foodborne illness at home:

1. Clean hands and surfaces often

2. Separate ingredients to avoid cross-contamination

3. Cook to proper temperatures

4. Chill promptly in the refrigerator

Here are some simple tips to follow to be your very own health inspector, and make sure you’re safely handling food in your home to prevent foodborne illness:

• Always wash your hands with warm, soapy water

• Use gloves if you have a skin abrasion or infection

• Clean ​​all surfaces that come in contact with raw meat, poultry, fish, and eggs with hot soapy water between each step of preparation

• Wash cutting boards with hot soapy water after each use

• Don’t use the same plate that held the raw product to serve the cooked product

• Wash the food thermometer probe after each use

• Keep pets, cleaning supplies and other chemicals away from food and surfaces

• Bring lots of clean utensils and cleaning supplies for hands and surfaces when eating outside

When keeping these tips in mind, you should be a clean and safe home cook. If you are looking to outsource the task of cooking, consider getting matched with an Easy Platter chef who is Food Safe certified.