Food Safety

Picnic and barbecue season offers lots of outdoor fun with family and friends. Warm weather is also perfect for foodborne bacteria to grow quickly. It’s important to follow these safe food handling tips.

Improper cooling of potentially hazardous food is known to be the leading cause of foodborne illness. Food that cools slowly will stay in the Danger Zone for too long. Learn how to cool your food properly.

When storing food in a refrigerator, it’s important to cover and place the food in a way that helps to keep it from getting cross-contaminated with drippings or juices from other foods.

When cooking a meal, it’s always best to try and cook enough for just that meal. Improper handling over leftover foods can cause foodborne illness. To reduce the risk of foodborne illness from leftovers, here are some basic food safety tips.

As an owner or operator of a food premise, you can use this checklist as a quick guide to help you in your day-to-day operations.

The Danger Zone is a temperature range between 4°C (40°F) and 60°C (140°F). When hazardous food is left in this temperature range, harmful bacteria grow and multiply fast.

You must cook hazardous foods to the recommended minimum internal temperature and hold for 15 seconds. Always use a clean and sanitized probe thermometer to check food temperatures.

Germs carried by people are one of the major sources of food-borne illness.

Here is what you can do to stop the spread of germs:

Safe food handling is always important, especially in an emergency. You must make sure that you handle your food safely during these times. Always remember: When in doubt, throw it out!

Plan Ahead for Emergencies