Safety at home

After purchasing food items and taking them home, it's up to you to handle them properly to maintain their safety, freshness and quality.

Here are some tips for food safety in your home:

Preventing Cross Contamination

• Keep raw meat and poultry separate from other foods
• Store raw meat and poultry on lower shelves beneath other food in the refrigerator
• Use separate utensils and surfaces for preparing raw meat/poultry and ready to eat foods
• Wash your hands before handling food and after handling raw meat, poultry and eggs (and after visiting the toilet)
• Keep pets away from food - they can contaminate them

Cooking things properly

• Use a meat thermometer, which measures the internal temperature of cooked meat and poultry, to make sure that the meat is cooked thoroughly. Using a meat thermometer takes the guesswork out of cooking.
• Thoroughly defrost all frozen food before cooking (unless the cooking instructions advise otherwise)
• Follow the cooking instructions on the packaging and cook food to its' proper temperature (remember to do this if you're cooking leftovers as well!)
• Use thermometers to check temperatures of products
• Cook chicken and turkey until they reach 180°F, stuffing must reach a minimum of 165°F.
• Cook raw ground beef until it reaches 160°F.

Refrigerate foods promptly

• Keep cold food cold (32°F-41°F is ideal for the refrigerator,
0°F for the freezer). Use a refrigerator/freezer thermometer to check temperatures.
• Keep leftovers hot (>140°F) or cool them down quickly (from 140°F to 70°F within 2 hours and then from 70°F to less than 41°F within an additional 4 hours) by placing them in a refrigerator. Temperatures between 41°F - 140°F allow bacteria to grow.