5 Pro Tips for Food Safety

For anyone that is in the food service industry or simply prepare meals at home, making sure that all people that eat the food are safe is very important. To do this, there are a variety of food safety tips that should be followed.

Keep it Clean

If you are going to prepare and handle food, you always need to make sure that you are as clean and sanitary as possible. Whenever you are going to prepare food, you will want to make sure that you are going to clean your hands, all plates, and other utensils as much as possible. If you are going to be preparing produce or other items that will not be cooked, you should also make sure they are rinsed free of any chemicals.

Be Wary of Raw Meat

Having meat is very common with any meal as it can provide you with a great sense of protein. When you are looking to handle meat, it is important that you are very wary of the use of it. Most importantly, you need to make sure that you are very careful when it comes to raw meat. This includes making sure that you properly clean any plates, utensils, or gloves that were used to handle the raw meat. You should also always avoid having the raw meat touch the counter tops of your kitchen.

Know Key Temperatures

If you are going to be making any type of meat, you will want to make sure that it is properly cooked. If you do not hit the ideal temperature points with your meat, it will likely result in the food not being cooked enough. This could then lead to an illness for anyone that consumes it. Some of the key temperatures to know include 160 degrees for beef, 170 degrees for chicken and pork, and 180 degrees for turkey. The temperature should be taken from the centre of the meat to ensure it is cooked all the way through.

2-Hour Rule

When you are preparing a meal, you should also make sure that you stay on top of the two-hour rule. During meal preparation, there are bound to be times in which meat or dairy products will be outside of the fridge or freezer. However, you should always make sure that this time period is limited. In no event should you use any meat or dairy that has been outside of the fridge or freezer for more than two hours at a time. This will ensure the food continues to be safe to enjoy.

Get Training

Ultimately, if you want people to know how to handle food, they will need to get the proper training. Through a Utah food handler training program or other type of program, all participants will learn more about food training. This will include learning how to handle food during food preparation, how to identify issue with common foods that you will be preparing, and all rules and regulations that dictate how a kitchen and meal preparation will be handled.