When handling food, food safety is quite important. Staying healthy and preventing any food-borne illness can happen if you follow a few safety rules. Unfortunately, there are several myths passed on from person to person that can give false ideas and eventually could cause illnesses to spread. No one wants the consequence of being uneducated about food safety.
As they say, knowledge is indeed power! Myth 1 – You can leave food out longer than two hours We all have done it, especially during the holidays, but it is still not a good idea.
Follow the general rule of thumb, that if the room is normal temperature put your food away if it is out longer than two hours. Otherwise, throw it away because the safety period is really only one hour. Myth 2 – If your food smells, looks, or tastes bad, it probably is!You can’t always tell when food has gone bad.
Some food does develop a bad smell, taste, or even mold on the top, but some can change without obvious clues. Don’t rely on just your senses and if some time has been in the fridge for a month and still looks good, don’t eat it! Myth 3 – It is perfectly safe to thaw your meat at room temperatureThroughout the centuries, mothers and grandmothers have thawed their holiday meat on the countertop.
Just because you don’t get sick that one particular time, does not mean you don’t have the risk of becoming ill. Always make sure you thaw your meat out in the fridge, even if it means getting it out of the freezer a couple of days ahead. Myth 4 – You can eliminate bacteria by rinsing your raw meatRinsing the meat we cook is more of a habit than a really helpful practice.
You don’t magically wash away all the bacteria by rinsing it and you can even spread germs from the meat onto your kitchen surfaces as the water splashes against it Myth 5 – Any food that is not an animal product won’t cause much harmRegardless of what you think bacteria do occur naturally on fruits and vegetables.
If you wish to avoid cross-contamination then be sure to wash your produce tray and cutting board regularly. If rice is kept at room temperature for too long after it is cooked it will begin to grow the germ bacillus cereus spore, which can cause illness.
Animal products contain quite a few harmful microorganisms, but so do other foods.Myth 6 – Food is safe until the date for “best before”When you go to the store you will see “best before” dates on the packages of food. Regardless of what that date says, some foods will go faster depending on various factors of storage.
An example of this is when you buy milk, sometimes it is sour when you open it even though it says it won’t expire for a few more days. If you open food and leave it open it will go bad more quickly than when it was sealed.
If you purchase dry goods they can begin to lose nutrients over time after that date passes.With everything on the internet now many food safety myths have circulated. Being an educated shopper and cook can help you prevent both the wasting of food and sickness. Once you learn the actual facts you will never have to figure out whether your food is safe for you again.