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Food Safety 101

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Safe Meat Preparation Food safety should be the first priority in the kitchen. Alice Henneman, food safety expert and dietary educator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, shares indispensable tips and advice on setting up a safe home kitchen.

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Get the latest information on USDA food safety guidelines, meat preparation, and statistics on just how much, or how little, we in American really do to ensure safe cooking practices in our homes.

1. What has motivated you to become an expert on safe cooking methods? Are there special challenges in educating the public about food safety?

I attended a program on food safety this week and the speaker asked how many in the audience had personally had a foodborne illness at least once in their lives. Over 100 people were at the meeting and every hand went up!

I’m a great advocate of cooking some of your meals at home – the enticing aromas, the tastes, the lingering at the table after the meal over a cup of coffee, glass of wine or just the conclusion to a leisurely conversation. Plus, it doesn’t take that much time to prepare a great-tasting meal for a fraction of the cost of dining out.

However, unless you take a family and consumer class in school, there is no place in the general educational system where you are taught about food safety in a home setting; and who wants to spoil a wonderful homemade meal with a foodborne illness! That is why I became interested in home food safety. Not to become the “food police,” but to people keep those home-cooked meal memories wonderful!

People can’t count on their sense of smell, taste and sight to tell if a food is safe. Each year in the United States, 76 million people become ill from a foodborne illness and 5,000 people die. Would this many people eat something if they thought it tasted, looked or smelled bad?

Even if tasting would tell… a “tiny taste” may not protect you. As few as 10 bacteria could cause some foodborne illnesses, such as E. coli!
Also, it can take a ½ hour to 6 weeks to become sick from unsafe foods. You usually feel OK immediately after eating and become sick later. Even if you did get sick from tasting, it may not be soon enough to warn you against feeding the food to someone else.

2. What are the most problematic aspects of food safety in a home setting?

At the office, one of the areas for which I get the most calls is from people who have left perishable food (such as foods containing: meat; dairy products; peeled and/or cut fresh fruits and vegetables; cooked pasta or rice; or cooked vegetables) sit out in the car, on the kitchen counter or even forget it in the oven overnight and wonder if their food is still safe to eat.

As a general guideline, if perishable foods have not been left at room temperature for longer than 2 hours (1 hour in temperatures above 90°F), they should be safe. Refrigerate promptly; eat within 3 to 4 days.

Also, bacteria that may be present in some food, such as staphylococcus (staph), produce toxins not destroyed by high cooking temperatures.

The US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) gives these four basic four safety messages for the home cook:

• Clean — Wash hands and surfaces often.

• Separate — Don't cross-contaminate.

• Cook — Cook to proper temperatures.

• Chill — Refrigerate promptly.

3. What are the basics of setting up a safe home kitchen?

The basics go back to the four basic safety messages given by USDA listed in number 2. Here are some tips to help implement them:

• Clean: Wash hands for 20 seconds with soap and warm water before and after handling food. Wash fruits and vegetables before using.

• Separate: Buy several cutting boards to help prevent cross-contamination. This makes it easier to use a different cutting board for foods such as raw meat, poultry and fish/seafood, from the one used for ready-to-eat and cooked foods.

• Cook: Purchase a food thermometer and use it when you cook. It is difficult to “eyeball” when foods have reached a safe temperature. Also, a thermometer helps you avoid turning a piece of meat into a hockey puck through excessive cooking in an attempt to be sure it is safe!

• Chill: Buy an appliance thermometer for your refrigerator and for your freezer. Keep your freezer at 0 degrees F or lower and your refrigerator at 40 degrees F or colder (but above 32 degrees F to prevent food from starting to freeze.)

4. Could you share some tips on preparing meat/poultry safely?

The basics (which will vary somewhat depending on the type of meat and cut) are:
• Heat meat and poultry to appropriate safe temperatures. Use a thermometer to determine when a safe temperature has been reached. Many thermometers include guidelines that indicate safe temperatures for various meats and types of poultry. USDA’s recommended safe minimum internal temperatures for meat and poultry are:

i. Steaks & Roasts - 145 degrees F
ii. Pork - 160 degrees F
iii. Ground Beef - 160 degrees F
iv. Egg Dishes - 160 degrees F
v. Chicken Breasts - 165 degrees F
vi. Whole Poultry - 165 degrees F

• Avoid leaving both raw meat and cooked meat at room temperature for more than two hours. For example, after purchasing raw meat, it should be refrigerated within two hours, not left sitting in the car for several hours while you do other shopping. And, after cooking meat, refrigerate the meat within two hours.

• Many meats now carry a date by which you should either prepare or freeze them – don’t hold raw meat/poultry at refrigerator temperatures longer than these dates. Eat or freeze any leftover cooked meat or meat dishes within three to four days.

• Do NOT thaw meat or poultry at room temperature. Thawing in the refrigerator or thawing in the microwave (then cooking immediately after microwave-thawing) are recommended.

5. Do you feel most home cooks are aware of and follow safe cooking methods?

A presentation at the 2007 annual meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists by Sheryl C. Cates, RTI International highlighted some of the following “gaps” in what consumers have “seen/heard” and “always do.” Survey results indicated a gap between what people know and what they do when cooking at home. They also lack consistency in following recommended practices. Here are some examples:

• 85% had seen/heard they should wash their hands with warm water and soap after handling raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs; however only 65% always did this.

• 71% had seen/heard aware they should use separate cutting boards for fresh fruits and vegetables and raw meat, poultry and seafood; however only 47% always did this.

• 78% had seen/heard they should use a food thermometer for checking the internal temperature of meat and poultry when cooking; however only 31% always used a thermometer.

• 78% had seen/heard they should use refrigerated leftovers within 3 to 4 days; however only 43% always complied with this recommendation.

• 71% had seen/heard they should discard perishable foods left at room temperature for more than two hours; 38% always did this.