Holiday Food Safety Tips
The holiday season is one of joy and merriment. This is the time when families meet to celebrate holidays or particular groups of people meet for a common celebration. Holidays thus become the time when people reunite and party or celebrate with or without a reason. There is one thing you need to look out for with the onset of the holiday season. Food safety should be the prime issue although many times this tends to be one of the most ignored points. The holiday season will also see the preparation of various non-vegetarian items therefore you would always need to maintain the hygiene habits and also be careful of the cooking methods. Therefore, you must also ensure that your holiday season does not bring with it health related issues. Throwing a party for a large number of people would require you to take some precautions in advance. So whether you are the chef in charge of a very large party or someone planning to cook dinner for a long list of family members and friends, there are basic safety tips that you would need to look into. Check out ways to have delicious and safe food during the holiday season.
Tips for Safety and Hygiene While Cooking and Serving Food
Remember to always wash your hands before you begin to handle the food and once you finish handling it as well.
The towels and the washcloths that you use in the kitchen should also be kept clean. This is because these washcloths can harbor bacteria, which can in turn get transferred to the cookware, that you would be using to cook.
Always keep all your cookware clean.
Food should be cooked at 165 degrees F to kill most of the bacteria present in the food. Food that is not refrigerated for a period that exceeds two hours may have more chance of bacterial growth.
Always be careful while cooking meat. Use a temperature chart and a thermometer to gauge the temperature of the cooked meat.
Always be careful of your food getting contaminated due to cross contamination. This happens when bacteria from one food gets transferred onto the other. This is especially in the case of raw meat and seafood. Always keep this food safely away from other foods.
Always plan - this is one valuable tip. This would help you to understand the amount of space you have in your refrigerator / freezer and which are the foods that require maintenance of a particular temperature.
Always remember to wash all the fresh greens so that you can prepare healthy food. This should also include packaged greens.
When you prepare any special food items in the holidays, always remember to avoid partially cooked food. This is because bacteria can grow for such cases.
When it comes to special holiday food items, another safety precaution that should be exercised is to avoid eating uncooked cookie dough or even batters that are made with raw eggs. This is solely because raw eggs may contain certain bacteria and only cooking it properly would help to get rid of the bacteria that are present in the food.
