As we all are aware that food safety is a global concern that covers varity of different areas of everyday life. The aim of the food safety is to prevent food from becoming contaminated and causing food poisoning. This article is to cover the basics and most most important parts of food safety.
Let’s get down to the basics of food safety:
1.The most important concept in food safety is the temperature danger zone.
It’s between 4 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius which is the temperature of zone in which bacteria multiply rapidly. In view of this refrigerators need to be set below the minimum end of the scale means colder than 40 degrees Celsius. No doubt freezing food slows bacterial growth almost to a complete halt, but remember that frozen food does not remain safe indefinitely.
2.High Risk Foods
The high carbohydrate and moisture content of cooked rice , pasta, nodules makes an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Milk and cream are also high risk foods because of high sugar and moisture content.
Fruits and vegetables need to be washed thoroughly before eating. It’s not just food-borne bacteria you need to worry about with fresh produce, but soil-borne bacteria and the ingredients in pesticides and fertilisers.
3.Freezing Food Right
It would be true that frozen food will remain safe indefinitely but if you’ve found a way to get your freezer to a state of ‘ideal conditions’ I would love to know all your secrets.
That said, freezing food is a great way to preserve it long-term. Provided you freeze it properly wrapped in cling film or in the original packaging, food can be kept for a long in a good freezer.
It is very important that food be as fresh as possible when you freeze it, so if you know you aren’t going to use it before it spoils, you should freeze it straight away, rather than waiting for the last minute. Freezing works by halting the growth of bacteria, so having less bacteria in the food before you freeze gives you the best chance at having it come out safe and taste.
If frozen food defrosts partially or fully, use within 36 hours. Do not, re-freeze defrosted food.
If the covering on your food has torn, leaked, or is otherwise damaged, discard it immediately.
If anything doesn’t look or smell right when you defrost it, discard it.
4.Safe Food Storage And Handling
Stack your fridge correctly. Always store the highest-risk uncooked foods at the bottom, so they can’t drip onto lower-risk or uncooked foods. Poultry and seafood should be stored on the bottom shelf, other meats above them, and cooked food and dairy above that.
Make sure food is well-covered in the fridge. Not only does this increase shelf life, it avoids cross-contamination of foods.
Clean your fridge regularly! Any spills or drips should be cleaned straight away, but a good deep-clean of your fridge every few weeks is also essential in maintaining good food hygiene.
5.Food handling rules:
Always use clean knives and other utensils when handling food. Do not use the same utensils for cooked food as you have for uncooked food. Also, don’t, for example, take a spoon of mustard out of the jar, use the spoon to rub the mustard on a chicken, and then put the spoon back in the jar. Because it’s highly unlikely you’re going to heat the mustard (or any other condiment) up enough next time you use it to kill all the bacteria you just introduced. Likewise, turn your cutting board over between raw and cooked foods. Ideally, do not cut meat and vegetables on the same board.
Wash your hands after handling anything raw before you handle anything cooked.
6.Cooking Temperatures
The minimum safe internal temperature for any cooked food is 85 degree Celsius but many foods require a higher internal temperature to be truly safe.
Chefs and other experienced cooks (Waza) often have tricks to determine whether food has been cooked to a safe internal temperature.
7.We have five primary sense which helps us to know whether food has gone off or not.So, with that in mind:
Smell
Smell is probably your most useful sense in telling whether food has gone bad. If food smells unpleasant or very strong, it’s probably time to throw it out. If something doesn’t smell the way you expect it to, it’s probably also time to throw it out.
Sight
Can you see mold, discolouration, or foreign particles? Chuck it.
Taste
Taste a tiny bit of a food you’re not sure about. If it tastes bad, it’s gone. This is especially useful in identifying off dairy products, because they taste really awful once they go bad.
Touch
Ever poked your finger into a rotten fruit? Aside from being a really unpleasant experience, poking or squeezing fresh fruit and vegetables is a good way to determine whether they’re still good. Most fruits should be reasonably firm with a little give, most vegetables should be very firm.
Hearing
The squeamish may want to stop reading here, but if you store grains, nuts or dried fruit, you may want to open your ears every now and again for insect activity. You won’t always be able to hear them, but by the time you can you’ll want to throw out the whole bag.
At last i would like to say that if you’re not sure whether a food is safe to eat or not, just don’t eat it. Throw it away. You are much better off chucking it out than risking your life or health over it.
Dr. Aabid Altaf Wani is a medical doctor and can be mailed at draabidwani@gmail.com
