Keep Your Food Safe From Contamination

Food poisoning is not only uncomfortable, it can be deadly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that of the 76 million cases of food poisoning a year, 5,000 are fatal.

Elizabeth Boo likes to keep a clean kitchen, but with kids in the house, that's not always easy.

"With lots of little kids around, they're always coming up to help me and putting their dirty fingers all over everything," she said.

Boo knows the importance of food safety. She uses two different cutting boards to prevent cross-contamination.

"This plastic one we use for the chicken and it's so easy to clean -- as soon as I'm finished cutting up all the raw chicken, I put it in the sudsy water and clean it up. This [wooden one] we use for fruits and vegetables. I also clean this, but it's just not quite as critical as the chicken one," she said.

Will Hueston, director of the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety in Minneapolis, said people should approach their kitchen like a surgeon approaches an operating room -- with clean hands.

"The key in washing is that we not only want to wash the outsides of our hands, but we want to wash between our fingers where it's warm and moist and those bacteria can grow. The other point is we'd like to wash at least 20 seconds," Hueston said.

Most of these suggestions are common sense, but some are not. Experts say you should cut off the bruised part of fruits because that damaged part could be a breeding ground for bacteria. Never return washed produce to the original grocery bag for re-contamination. Also, meat should be maintained at a temperature of 140 degrees or cooked until the juices run clear.

Doctors say high-risk people for food poisoning include pregnant women, young children, elderly people and people with chronic medical conditions that may weaken their immune systems.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Food and Drug Administration
Food Safety Line
(888) SAFE-FOOD
http://www.foodsafety.gov

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