Basic Food Safety Tips
By Dave Kettner

Food begins at the grocery store while we are cruising the aisles and choosing our eats and treats for the coming days. Meat and poultry should be kept separate from all other foods in your cart. Many grocery stores have begun placing plastic bag dispensers near the meat and poultry sections of grocery stores. This is an excellent way to seal away meat and poultry from your other groceries.

Just toss your chicken ad meat packages into one of the provided plastic baggies and forget about it. If these are not available in the meat section, you may wish to pick up some of the regular shopping bags from the front of the store on your way in. Protecting these somewhat potentially dangerous foods from your other items with plastic baggies relieves the worry of mixing the foods at the store or once you're at home.

Meats, fish and poultry that won't





be used in the next three to four days should go into the freezer as soon as you get home from the store. Refrigerator foods should go into the fridge within two hours of purchase. The same is true for leftovers. Allow leftovers to cool thoroughly to preserve taste, but be sure to have them in the fridge within two hours of cooking. Bacteria prefers temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, so refrigeration combined with tight fitting containers are the best way to ensure food on a regular basis.

Be sure to always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before as well as after food preparation, particularly when handling raw meats. It's also a good idea to wash your fresh fruits and vegetables with a little soap and water. Unless you buy organic foods, there's no telling what kinds of chemicals the produce may have been exposed to.

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