(GUEST) Cooking Healthy Food Safely

These days more and more people are getting concerned about their health. One way people try to maintain proper quality control of their food is by buying and eating organic healthy food. However, you must keep and cook them properly or you’ll be undoing all your good work. Here are some tips on cooking health food safely, from food safety equipment suppliers Testo, to ensure you get all the benefits of going green.

Keep it Clean

The most obvious thing to do is to keep your hands and any surfaces you cook on clean. Wash your hands before and after handling foods. You could even look to use further hygiene products like hand sanitizers (for example, look at the likes of Hand Sanitizer Canada websites or other alternatives for different sanitizing gels and soaps) to minimize any bacteria you could transfer to the food. Keep your cutting boards, utensils, countertops, and dishes clean as well. Always make sure that you wash your fruits and vegetables as well.

Separate Foods

Another important step in food safety is keeping raw meat separate from other foods. Raw meat is considered healthier because it doesn’t have any preservatives, but it can infect other foods with bacteria if not handled properly. Raw meat, seafood, poultry, and eggs should be kept separate from other food from the shopping cart to the refrigerator. You can find some information about how to correctly store certain foods when looking at somewhere such as Prepared Cooks online, and they can also offer you a range of other information that can be useful in the kitchen!

It’s best to use separate cutting boards for fresh produce and sensitive food items like poultry and raw meat. Don’t forget to keep food on separate plates as well. Only put cooked food on a plate that has held raw meat after washing it.

Cook Properly

The color and texture of food aren’t very reliable indicators of food safety. The only way to really ensure that food has been cooked properly is to use a food thermometer. Eggs should be cooked until they are firm, and the only recipes you should cook with eggs are ones that call for eggs to be cooked thoroughly.

If you’re going to cook food in a microwave you need to cover the food and occasionally stir and rotate it to ensure it is cooked evenly. Food should be left to stand after cooking as this is when the food finishes cooking. Use a food thermometer only after the standing time is up.

Chilling and Thawing Food

Keep the temperature of your refrigerator at below 40F and the temperature of the freezer below 0F. Meat, poultry, eggs and seafood should be refrigerated within two hours of purchasing or cooking, or within one hour on particularly hot days.

Food should never be thawed at room temperature. Defrost food safely in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. Food that you defrost in the microwave or in cold water can be cooked as soon as it thaws. If you have a lot of leftovers then you should consider storing them in smaller containers to speed up the cooling time.

Keep it Safe and Healthy

Healthy organic food can be great for you, but only if you handle and cook it properly. Keep your raw meat separate from other foods make sure everything is washed thoroughly. These food safety tips are great for any kind of food, so keep them in mind even if you aren’t cooking healthy food!