One of the most common diseases today is food poisoning. We start as mild discomfort hours after eating and grows into a life-threatening episode has required hospitalization.
The most common cause are the salmonella e-coli and listeria bacteria. And, may be the most common problems in the chef's kitchen.
Breeding ground for bacteria are the most common kitchen towels, dishtowels and brushes, cutting boards, kitchen sinks, doors, drawers and refrigerator handles. Little things like timer, bullwhip handles, pepper mills and salt also become a breeding ground for bacteria. You can also add oil bottles, spice jars, can opener and the controls on your stove or oven.
Food for themselves can be storage places for bacteria with the guilty and other poultry chicken, eggs, raw meats, dairy products, and fruit and vegetables fresh too.
In addition to wash their hands regularly during cooking: here's a list of things you should be doing in the kitchen in order to reduce the chance of food poisoning:
1. Wash poultry in iced water when you bring it home from the supermarket and refrigerate immediately. Cook as soon as possible.
2. Wash your hands and anything else that comes into contact with raw poultry.
3. Wash, never use knives, chopping boards, towels or anything else that raw chicken touches without washing them. This means do not use the cutting board or knives to cut vegetables or elsethat anything that won't be cooked immediately.
4. Wash your hands after going to the bathroom. Your family is not immune to your personal e-coli!
5. Wash all vegetables immediately after bring them home from the market. This includes all fruits including watermelons, strawberries, peaches, mango, grape, and almost every other fruits including bananas.
6. Use a lot of paper towels that can be thrown away. Dish rags and towels are one of the largest breeding grounds for bacteria.
7. Keep your kitchen countertops clean. Use a diluted bleach or disinfectant before and after preparing meals.
8. Place in refrigerator foods as much as possible and read the labels on dressings, sauces, jams and jellies to see if they require refrigeration after opening. DO NOT LEAVE the MAYONNAISE in a summer day! This also applies to anything made with mayonnaise as well.
9. Gently Wash the eggs in ice water before putting them in the fridge. There is nothing sterile about an egg from the chicken coop.
10. Buy your beef, especially hamburgers, to a butcher's shop.
11. Make sure you have a meat thermometer and make sure all the meat is cooked to the correct temperature to kill harmful bacteria in meat, poultry and fish.
12. Wash your hands! I cannot repeat this enough!
13. Plan your grocery shopping so you can go home immediately after the purchase of perishable food products.
14. If the fish smells like fish, don't buy it! If something smells "off" or not is what
you are used to, don't buy it.
15. If a can or jar whooshes when you open it, throw it away or, better still, take it back to the shop.
16. Drain things over the sink, not in it. This place is full of bacteria. Sterilize often, but still keep the edible food out of it.
