To prevent food poisoning, practice clean cooking habits, avoid cross-contamination, cook meat to the right temperature, and refrigerate cold food. When dining out, choose restaurants carefully, order food correctly, and avoid risky foods.
There are several ways you can prevent contamination and food poisoning depending on whether you are preparing food or ordering food at a restaurant. If you are preparing food, you should ensure that you practice clean and safe cooking habits to avoid cross-contamination between foods, cook certain foods to temperatures necessary for safe eating, and ensure that cold foods are stored with adequate refrigeration to keep them safe. To avoid contamination and food poisoning when dining out, you should choose restaurants carefully, order food correctly, and only eat food that is served safely.
Food contamination and poisoning is often caused by bacteria and similar microbial sources that can end up on food in many different ways. If you’re preparing food, you should be cautious to avoid cross-contamination. For example, you shouldn’t cut up turkey and then use that dirty knife to cut lettuce for a salad, because you can introduce bacteria into the salad from raw poultry. The turkey is about to be cooked to eliminate possible dangers, but a salad served raw is a perfect bacterial delivery system. You can avoid this danger by preventing cross-contamination and always cleaning cooking surfaces and tools between uses.
Many foods should also be cooked to a proper temperature before serving. Meats such as poultry, pork and beef as well as eggs and seafood should be cooked to the right temperature to ensure the bacteria on them are eliminated. Food served cold should be properly refrigerated at a low temperature to prevent bacteria from developing and thriving. This is especially important for dishes such as egg or ham salad, where the mayonnaise and other ingredients need to be kept cold before serving.
Contamination and food poisoning should also be taken into consideration whenever dining out at a restaurant. You should be sure to choose restaurants carefully, and you may want to look into the most recent health inspection for a restaurant before dining there. Even if a restaurant has passed inspection, you should still be careful and leave if you see indications of unsanitary conditions.
While ordering food at restaurants, you should also consider ways to avoid foodborne illness. If you’re pregnant, elderly, or ordering a baby, you should avoid certain foods like undercooked meat, as you may be more vulnerable to bacteria like Listeria. You should always order dishes cooked to a safe temperature and send back food you feel is undercooked or unsafe for consumption.
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