>Environmental Health >Food Hygiene >Food Safety >Handling Tips

Food Handling Tips

Clean: Wash Hands & Surfaces Often

• Wash hands with hot soapy water before handling food
• Use plastic or other non-porous cutting boards.
• Use paper towels or other disposable cleaning cloths to clean kitchen surfaces.

 

Separate: Don't Cross Contaminate

• Separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other foods in your grocery or shopping cart and in your fridge.
• Use a different cutting board for raw meats.
• Always wash hands, cutting boards, dishes and utensils with hot soapy water after they come into contact with raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
• Never place cooked food on a plate that had raw meat, poultry, or seafood on it.

Cook: to Proper Temperatures

• Use a clean meat thermometer that measures the internal temperature of cooked foods.
• Cook foods according to food safety labels.

Chill: Refrigerate Promptly

• Never leave perishable food out of the refrigerator over 2 hours.
• Never defrost food at room temperature.
• When storing leftovers, divide into shallow containers to allow quick cooling in the refrigerator.
• When in doubt about a food item's freshness - throw it out!