How to Practice Food Safety at Home

Ignoring food safety can have deadly consequences: Illness can spread due to unsafe cooking and storage techniques. Here's how to practice food safety at home.

Foodborne illness, better known as “food poisoning,” is a potentially serious health problem. About 48 million cases of foodborne sickness affect Americans each year, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

While some healthy people may have an upset stomach for a day or two and recover, others fare much worse. In fact, foodborne sickness lands about 128,000 Americans in the hospital annually and causes around hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.

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What causes foodborne illnesses?

The FDA lists over a dozen different bacteria and viruses — including noroviruses, E. coli, staph, and hepatitis A — that can contaminate food, primarily through raw or undercooked food and poor storage of prepared food. People can also contaminate food with illness-causing germs if they prepare food without washing their hands.

Food can also become contaminated before it hits the grocery shelves. To help prevent this, Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act to put the government’s emphasis on preventing foodborne illnesses, instead of primarily responding to outbreaks after they’ve been reported.

The law helps ensure the safety of the U.S. and global food chain supply, requiring food handlers to take specific actions to prevent food contamination before any type of food hits the marketplace.

Government rules and requirements, however, can’t stop foodborne illnesses from developing in homes and restaurants if you don’t cook or store food properly. The good news is there are easy, practical ways to prepare and keep food safe in your own kitchen.

Tips for food safety at home

Wash your hands, utensils, and food preparation surfaces often. Wash your hands with running water and soap for at least 20 seconds before, during, and after preparing food, whether you are making a sandwich or preparing a big dinner. Dry your hands with a clean dry towel or paper. Wash dish cloths frequently in the hot cycle of your washing machine.

Rinse fruits and vegetables under running water, but don’t use soap, bleach, or commercial washes. Use a clean produce brush to clean firm produce like cucumbers. Before you peel fruits or veggies, remove the skin or cut away bruised or damaged parts.

Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot, soapy water immediately after you’ve used them to prepare raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs.

Don’t wash meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs. Washing can spread germs around the kitchen.

Keep certain foods separate. Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs away from other foods and placed in separate plastic bags when you shop for groceries. At home, keep all the meat, poultry, and seafood in separate, sealed containers in your refrigerator. Freeze them if you aren’t cooking the items within a day or two.

Store eggs in their original containers in the main compartment of your refrigerator. Don’t put them in the door.

Make sure you cook foods at the right temperature. The internal temperature of food, especially meat and poultry, must be high enough to kill germs that cause foodborne sickness. Use a food thermometer: Stick it into the thickest part of the meat, but don’t let the thermometer touch fat, bone, or gristle.

Wonder if your food has reached a safe temperature? The FDA offers an online cooking temperatures chart for a quick check.

For microwave cooking, heat food to 165˚F or above; for pre-packaged frozen foods, read the package directions for cooking and follow them exactly.

Refrigerate and freeze food for safety. Bacteria that causes food poisoning starts growing quickly in food at room temperature or higher. That’s why it’s crucial to refrigerate perishable foods within two hours of bringing them home. Keep your refrigerator set to 40°F or below and your freezer to 0°F or below (use an appliance thermometer if needed).

If you have hot or warm leftovers to refrigerate, leave them in a shallow container (to allow faster cooling) and refrigerate. Put foods in the refrigerator to marinate or thaw.

If you’ve left fish in your freezer for weeks or months, check the FDA’s cold food storage chart to find out when it’s best to throw frozen items.

Bottom line

You can prevent foodborne illness at home. If you become sick after eating at a restaurant or take-out or prepared food, however, save any remaining portion for testing, then report the incident to the FDA or your state public health department.

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