Food safety includes washing, fast refrigeration, separation

Chances are today's breakfast was perfectly safe, lunch could have passed a lab test with flying condiments, and tonight's dinner will be nothing but nutritious.

Food bugs are rare in comparison to all the meals, seconds, snacks, desserts and refrigerator grabs that go down with nothing more serious than a burp. And really bad bugs are scarce compared to those that cause just a mild case of the whoopsies and slip away leaving no need to do anything about them.

That said, the food stream isn't always safe to dive in, and why take chances?

The federal Food and Drug Administration recommends these few easy steps to eliminate most chances of encountering something hard to swallow:

• Wash hands before and after handling food.

• Wash kitchen utensils and countertops, before and after use.

• Wash raw fruits and vegetables under running water.

• Cook foods to the proper temperature to kill bacteria.

• Keep raw foods separate from cooked foods all the way from preparation to packing up leftovers -- in separate containers.

• Refrigerate food at 40 degrees as soon as possible after cooking.

No one precaution gets rid of all pathogens, which include germs, parasites and toxins. But the combination of all the above works on most, according to the FDA. Even if some of the troublemakers survive, the fewer the better.

As for that greenish-looking baloney that came from the back of the refrigerator -- is it really worth the risk?

ActiveStyle on 09/07/2015

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