Food Safety at Home

 Proper food storage helps in the preservation of the quality of food purchased before consumption. Fresh, organic, and perishable food loses its quality or gets stale sooner than consumables like packaged food and beverages. Hence the transportation or consumption of such food should be done earlier. Food like Wheat grains and rice tend to last longer as well, given good dry storage that is pest-free, in order to prevent contact of any microbes or infestation of new pests. To retain quality and nutritive value, stock only the kinds and amounts of food you can store properly. These are certain pieces of advice we all follow in our daily life. Food poisoning is frequently caused due to the bacteria from foods profusing and triggering to form colonies in the food and infecting it. This can happen due to incorrect storage, preparation, handling, or cooking of food. Food contaminated with food-poisoning bacteria may look, smell and taste normal. Hence, every aspect of handling food is important.  Let us read more about such food safety techniques.

• Clean

Always wash your food, hands, counters, and cooking tools. Wash hands in warm soapy water for at least 20 seconds. Do this before and after touching food. Wash your cutting boards, dishes, forks, spoons, knives, and countertops with hot soapy water. Do this after working with each food item. Rinse fruits and vegetables before consuming. Clean the can goods’ lid before opening.

• Segregate and keep apart

Please keep the raw food yourself. Bacteria can be transferred from one food to another. Keep raw meat, chicken, seafood, and eggs away from other foods. Do this with shopping carts, bags, and refrigerators. Do not reuse the marinades used in raw foods unless they are first boiled. Use only special cutting boards or plates for raw food.

• Beware of temperature safety

High-risk food like raw and cooked meat, eggs, dairy products, cooked food, etc. Tend to grow bacteria on them if not stored at the correct temperature. Bacteria tend to grow from 5℃ to 60℃. So, such food should be kept outside these temperature zones.

• Choose strong non-toxic storage containers

The containers in which the food is stored should be safe and in good condition as they are used for storing food which you are going to consume. Tight-fitting lids, foils, plastic film, whatever suits them best, use it to minimize potential contamination.

• If in doubt, throw it out

Throw away the high-risk food that is left in the temperature danger zone for more than four hours. It should never go back in the fridge for later use. Check the expiry dates of food products and discard out-of-date food items.

For more articles on food Marketing, agrotech, and technology related to the Indian food industry, check out FMTmagazine. FMT Magazine is an edition of the German publication. It is a comprehensive food and beverage magazine that connects the buyers and the sellers through content that is of international quality. The magazine over the entire spectrum of the food industry including content on policies. FMT Magazine stands for Food Marketing & Technology Magazine. The magazine carries articles on ingredients, processing, packaging, food safety, and marketing, along with interviews with top personalities in the Indian food industry.