Summers have come and so does the time when food at your home is most susceptible to the attack of bacteria leaving it unfit for your consumption. This happens because summer is a time of warm and moist temperature, and this temperature works in interest of the harmful bacteria that destroys food. Here are some tips that you can follow and keep your food safe from contamination:
Keep it clean
Wash utensils clean, your hands clean, and the food that you cook clean. Be it a vegetable, fruit, or meat; ensure you wash it properly before cooking. The cutlery that you use must be clean and the overall environment of your kitchen or the outdoor setting that you use to cook must be clean.
Set it right
Just because you have kept food in your refrigerator does not mean it is safe, it the right temperature that keeps food safe. Ensure your refrigerator has temperature below 5 °C, and 15 °C to minus 18 °C should be the temperature of your freezer.
Watch that cooked and raw food in your fridge
Not many people realize that raw foods like meat, chicken, and seafood stored in their refrigerator can contaminate their cooked food stored in the same refrigerator if you do not maintain quite a distance between them. The bacteria from raw meat reaches cooked food and contaminate it, eventually causing food poisoning. You should store raw meat in the lowest rack if possible, or even if you store it above other foods, ensure its juices do not drip into cooked foods. Wash chop board after cutting raw meat on eat and then use it to cut vegetables, or use a different chop board altogether if possible.
Do not keep food out of fridge for long
You should never keep food out of fridge for more than an hour in summers, especially cooked vegetables, meat, cooked rice, pasta, and poultry. Make sure you consume leftovers within 3 to 5 days, or else throw them away.
Summer is a perfect time for picnics and having some fun cooking outside but bacteria and pathogens contaminate food because the warm and moist temperature conditions of summers enable them to multiply easy and fast. However, if you take precautions, you can keep your food safe from the attack of bacteria and pathogens.
