Keeping Your Food Safe For Christmas

While
this post is directed at keeping your food safe during Christmas,
because it is such a big holiday with a lot of eating involved,
keeping your food safe all of the time should be a priority for
everyone all of the time in order to keep everyone from getting sick
and staying healthy. Although this post isn’t directed at
eco-friendly products, etc. use all of the information provided
within it on your eco-friendly/organic foods and regular foods as
well.

To
learn how to keep your food safe please look over this list, which
was compiled by Whole Foods Market:

Safe Shopping

• Buy cold food last;
  get it home fast.

• Never choose packages
  that are torn or leaking.

• Don’t buy foods past
  “sell–by” or expiration dates.

• Put raw meat and
  poultry into a plastic bag so meat juices won’t cross–contaminate
  cooked foods or those eaten raw, such as vegetables or fruit.

• Place refrigerated or
  frozen items in the shopping cart last, right before heading for the
  checkout counter.

• When loading the car
  in warm weather, keep perishable items inside the air–conditioned
  car—not in the trunk.

• Drive immediately
  home from the grocery store. If you live farther away than 30
  minutes, bring a cooler with ice and place perishables in it.

Safe Storage of Foods

• Keep it safe;
  refrigerate.

• Unload perishable
  foods from the car first and immediately refrigerate them. Place
  securely wrapped packages of raw meat, poultry, or fish in the meat
  drawer or coldest section of your refrigerator.

• Check the temperature
  of your refrigerator with an appliance thermometer. To slow
  bacterial growth, the refrigerator should be at 40°F and the
  freezer at 0°F.

• Cook or freeze fresh
  poultry, fish, ground meats, and variety meats within 2 days; other
  beef, veal, lamb, or pork, within 3 to 5 days.

Safe Food Preparation

• Keep everything
  clean!

• Wash hands before and
  after handling raw meat and poultry.

• Sanitize cutting
  boards often in a solution of 1 teaspoon chlorine bleach in 1 quart
  of water. Wash kitchen towels and cloths often in hot water in
  washing machine.

• Don’t
  cross–contaminate. Keep raw meat, poultry, fish, and their juices
  away from other food. After cutting raw meats, wash hands, cutting
  board, knife, and counter tops with hot soapy water.

• Marinate meat and
  poultry in a covered dish in the refrigerator.

Thaw Food Safely

• Refrigerator: Allows
  slow, safe thawing. Make sure thawing juices do not drip on other
  foods.

• Cold Water: For
  faster thawing, place food in a leak-proof plastic bag and submerge
  in cold tap water.

• Microwave: Cook meat
  and poultry immediately after microwave thawing.

Safe Cooking

• Use a food
  thermometer.

• Cook ground meats to
  160°F.

• Cook ground poultry
  to 165°F.

• Beef, veal and lamb
  steaks, roasts, and chops may be cooked to 145°–170°F.

• Cook all cuts of
  fresh pork to 160°F.

• Poultry should reach
  165°F.

• Cook shellfish until
  opaque.

• Cook fish until it
  flakes easily with fork.

• Cook eggs until firm.
  

Serving Food Safely

• Never leave food out
  over 2 hours. (1 hour in temperature above 90°F.) Bacteria that
  cause food borne illness grow rapidly at room temperature.

• Keep hot food hot!
  Cold food cold!

• When serving food at
  a buffet, keep hot food over a heat source and keep cold food on
  ice. Keep platters of food refrigerated until time to serve or heat
  them.

• Carry perishable
  picnic foods in a cooler with a cold pack or ice. Set the cooler in
  the shade and open the lid as little as possible.

Handling Leftovers
Safely

• Divide foods into
  shallow containers for rapid cooling. Put food directly in the
  refrigerator or freezer.

• Use cooked leftovers
  within 4 days.

jennl | My Bio & Articles

Jennifer is a freelance writer, and has written for various health and environmental blogs, which includes running her own green living blog. Currently she is studying to become a C++ Programmer.