Food safety is important to all humans. What I have learned from personal experience and from the experience of others: we become particularly sensitive to food contamination after weight loss surgery. I’m not sure the reason for this; perhaps it is the infancy nature of our surgically altered systems. Perhaps the sensitivity comes from eating cleaner thus we become more sensitive to harmful food pathogens. Whatever the reason we can never be too careful when it comes to food safety in our home kitchens.
Cross-contamination is what happens when food pathogens in one food are transferred to another food. According to Cheryl Mendelson, author of Home Comforts : The Art and Science of Keeping House
, “Cross-contamination can happen in a hundred different ways. One food can drip contaminated drops onto another. One unsafe ingredient can contaminate an entire dish. A transfer can be effected through a spoon, a pot, or a chopping board. Your own hands all too often supply the route whereby bacteria travel from one food to another.”
The following are some general guidelines to help us avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen:
Clean Hands: Wash your hands for fifteen to twenty seconds in comfortably hot, sudsy water. “Much foodborne illness is caused by a failure to exercise this basic rule of hygiene,” says Mendelson. Always wash hands before, during and after cooking.
Drying Hands: Be careful about what you dry your hands on. Use either paper towels or a clean cloth towel, one that has not been previously used. Designate a location to hang “hands-only” towels.
Handling Raw Meat: Always touch food with your hands as little as possible. Use utensils instead. FDA Safe Food Temperature Chart
Safe Refrigeration: Put plates or platters under foods that might drip in the refrigerator. Mendelson advises, “Be extremely careful not to let raw fish, meat, or poultry liquids drip onto foods that will be eaten without cooking. Wrap foods in plastic wrap or put them in plastic bags to protect them.
USDA: Cook it Safely - Use a Food Thermometer
Chopping Boards: Experts recommend using two chopping boards: one for fruits, vegetable and bread. The other to be used exclusively for meats, poultry or fish.. Wash and sanitize any chopping board immediately after using it in the preparation of meat, poultry or fish.
Easy-Lift Cutting Board
Utensils: After using knives or other utensils on food – especially raw meat, poultry, fish or eggs – thoroughly wash them in hot sudsy water before using them on other foods. Immediately wash with hot, sudsy water or place in the dishwasher any utensil, plate, or pot that has come into contact with raw meat, fish, eggs or poultry.
Read this article: How to Sanitize Food-Contact Surfaces
Dish cloths and sponges: Mendelson warns, “Sponges are havens for bacteria; tiny food particles get deep inside, and sponges stay wet for long periods of time. The bacteria that survive deep inside sponges are smeared around the kitchen every time you use them. Do not use sponges to clean up after raw meat, poultry, eggs or fish. If you chose to use them for such a task, you must discard or sanitize them.
Home Comforts : The Art and Science of Keeping House
Brushes, Pot Scratchers: Cleaning implements such as brushes & abrasive scratchers should be washed free of food particles. To sanitize immerse brushes and pot scratchers in a solution of one tablespoon regular chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Soak for five to ten minutes. Drain and let air-dry.
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