Keeping the kitchen as sanitary as we can manage it while preparing foods, especially raw meats to fruits and vegetables are important. As a result, we have followed certain cooking rules for food safety practices to prevent cross contamination that can lead to health risks. However, there are a few new changes to what you may have been used to doing that you may want to incorporate when handling that food.
The first one of these food safety practices that I want to talk about involves raw chicken. I, for one, habitually wash my chicken before I begin cooking. According to the Cleveland Clinic, rinsing raw chicken in your sink is a dangerous practice that could invite salmonella or another foodborne illness such as campylobacter. Since droplets of water from your sink may splash to taint nearby objects such as your cutting board, other food, knives, etc. besides the sink and faucet handles is why.
Instead, they recommend to just pat raw chicken off with a paper towel once unpacking it and then tossing it before washing your hands to start cooking. Nevertheless, it still is disgusting when you think of the meat industry and how our foods are handled. In my case, I will set out a bowl of water to dip my chicken in carefully first before moving to the paper towel step.
You may be under the impression that placing raw chicken in brine perhaps in your refrigerator overnight with salt can eliminate bacteria and those foodborne illnesses. I hate to disappoint you, but salt or any acid in a marinade can only tenderize poultry or meat. Those extra ingredients cannot manage to budge those pathogens off raw poultry and meats. The only real defense raw chicken has to stop any these foodborne illnesses is cooking it to the proper heat of 165 degrees when using a clean meat thermometer.
A lot of people trust buying those bags of salad greens such as lettuce, spinach, kale, etc. as safe and convenient choices. I am not one of those people. I always make it a habit to soak my vegetables and fruits in a vinegar rinse, which is proven to disinfect on those foods according to the National Library of Medicine.
On the other hand, bags of salad greens that specify the wording of “triple-washed “are considered just as safe if you like to buy those types of vegetables that way. The reason is that three stages from rinsing the dirt and rocks that may be lodged, then onto two separate sanitary washes are a part of this process.
Another of these food safety techniques that you may want to change is how you load your dishwasher. If you habitually rinse everything off before loading your dishwasher to wash those dishes, then you may not be cleaning them as well as you think. The reason is that the newer model dishwashers have special technology for sensing how dirty the dishes are. In what you’re doing by rinsing is not working as effectively to sanitize the dishes in the same way. It’s safe to scrap off an excess of what’s left on the plate, but not if you rinse the dishes practically clean.
These are just a few food safety practices that you may want to rethink.
