Tips On Food Handling

• Avoid cross contamination.  Wash your hands every time before coming into contact with food.  Wash hands/utensils after handling raw meat, fish, or poultry.  

• Wash your hands often.  Use soap and water to wash, and paper towels or clean cloth towels to dry your hands.  Research has proven that frequent hand washing is the most effective way to prevent food-borne illnesses.

• Keep perishable foods refrigerated or frozen until they are used.  Thaw frozen items in the refrigerator, under cold running water, or a microwave (as part of the continuing cooking process).  Marinate food in the refrigerator.

House Keeping

Many harmful germs can survive for severalhours on kitchen surfaces.  Reduce your risk of illness by keeping cuttingboards, counter tops, utensils, dishcloths, and towels clean.  Don’t usesponges in the kitchen.  They tend to collect small food particles and aredifficult to clean.

Use a weak chlorine bleach solution (2teaspoons of bleach per quart of water) as a kitchen sanitizer.  You maywant to keep a supply of this solution in a spray bottle near the sink.