Food safety: preventing foodborne illness

Foodborne illness, often called food poisoning, happens when germs in food make people sick, often with stomach cramps, vomiting, or diarrhea. Four simple steps help prevent it. Clean: wash your hands with soap before and after handling food, and wash cutting boards, dishes, and counters. Separate: keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood away from foods that will not be cooked, like salad and fruit, and use different cutting boards for them. Cook: cook foods to a safe temperature, which a food thermometer can check. Chill: put leftovers and perishable foods in the refrigerator within two hours, or within one hour on a very hot day, because germs grow fastest in the "danger zone" between about 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. When in doubt about whether a food is still safe, it is safer to throw it out.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report