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Kitchen Check-Up: Food Safety and More

Did you know that hard-boiled eggs have a shorter shelf life than raw eggs in the shell? Or that expired peanut butter that seems perfectly fine can have mold you can’t see? The culprits are microorganisms, which cause foodborne illnesses that make a whopping 76 million Americans sick every year -- and cause about 5000 deaths. We talked to food safety experts to get the lowdown on the key techniques you need to know so you can keep food safe for you and your family.

Grocery shopping. “Make grocery shopping your last stop before you head home,” advises Anima Anand, program coordinator for healthy children initiatives at Okanagan Families Society in British Columbia. If you’ve got more than half an hour between the store and your kitchen, bring a cooler or insulated bag to keep perishables cool (40F or lower). Keep packaged raw meat in a separate bag, so leaks don’t drip onto produce. (Same goes for cleaning products.) Remember that fresh fish is particularly perishable. And of course, when you buy packaged food, make sure the packaging is intact. Never buy dented or bulging cans. If you’re buying from bulk bins, choose a store with a high turnover and small bins, to ensure that your food is as fresh and untouched as possible.

Storage. “Keep eggs in the carton, rather than in a bowl or in the door of the fridge,” says Mildred Cody, a registered dietitian and professor in the college of health and human sciences at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Why? The door is the warmest spot, so keep milk cartons, yogurt and similar items in the main part of the fridge too. Foods need to be consumed before, not by, the best-before date. So if that bread has a date of June 28, don’t eat it on the 28th. Visit the USDA food safety and inspection website to get a list of the shelf lives of a wide variety of foods. After you open a jar, write the date on it with a marker to avoid the “how long has that been around?!” conversation.

Preparation. First, wash your hands, and wash again after handling raw meat. The Center for Disease Control estimates that proper handwashing slashes foodborne illness by half, says Cody. Wash all produce before you eat it or cut it (such as melons or lemons). Scrub with a brush (if possible) under running water. This will help to remove chemical residue as well as microorganisms.

“You can’t defrost meat on the counter. I can’t emphasize that enough!” says Anand. Instead, the only safe ways to defrost frozen items is to thaw them overnight in the fridge, or, if you’re pressed for time, in a bowl or sink of cool water that’s changed every half hour. Defrosting in the microwave is ok too, as long as you cook or refrigerate the food immediately afterward (because it’s been partially heated, which allows for bacterial growth). Use your cutting boards and kitchen sponges and cloths properly to avoid cross-contamination.

Cooking. A food thermometer is your best friend in the kitchen. Use it to make sure all foods -- and that includes casseroles, leftovers and takeout -- is thoroughly cooked to 160-165 F. Cook fish until the flesh is opaque, and eggs until the yolk and white are firm, not runny.

Leftovers. Cooked leftovers are good for a maximum of four days when stored properly, which means in a fridge at 40F or colder, in a sealed container. When eating leftovers, only remove the portion you are going to eat and heat it, rather than repeatedly heating up the same dish, again because of bacterial contamination, says Cody. Stash leftovers in the fridge promptly, which means within two hours, maximum, from the time the food is cooked (not served). If the air temperature is 90F or higher, that safe period is reduced to one hour. “People are always surprised to learn that you can’t leave food out for a long time,” she says. “Cooking kills harmful bacteria, but then bacteria starts to multiply again rapidly in the danger zone between 40 and 140F.”

Lunchboxes and lunch bags. That ham sandwich simply isn’t safe if it leaves your house at 8 am and your child’s lunch period isn’t until noon. If your school doesn’t have a fridge, make sure that you tuck a frozen juice box, milk carton or gel pack next to the perishable item. It will keep the lunch cool as it thaws. Insulated lunch bags are a good idea too (but still need a frozen item).