Each year millions of people get sick from food illnesses and feel like you have the flu. Food illnesses can also cause serious health problems, even death.  

Food safety at home involves storing, handling, and preparing food carefully to reduce the spread of bacteria and minimize the risk of food poisoning.  

Signs and symptoms of food poisoning can begin a few hours after consuming contaminated food or even after a few weeks. Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, fever, abdominal pain, cramps, and diarrhea. Illness caused by food poisoning can last for a few hours and can continue for up to several days. 

Here are some tips to ensure food safety at home. 

Follow these four steps to help keep you and your family safe: 

  1. Clean: always wash your food, hands, counters, and cooking tools.
  • Wash hands in warm soapy water for at least 20 seconds. Do this before and after touching food. 
  • Wash your cutting boards, dishes, forks, spoons, knives, and counter tops with hot soapy water. Do this after working with each food item. 
  • Rinse fruits and veggies. 
  • Do not wash meat, poultry, fish, or eggs. If water splashes from the sink in the process of washing, it can spread bacteria. 
  • Clean the lids on canned goods before opening. 
  1. Separate (keep apart): keep raw foods to themselves. Germs can spread from one food to another.
  • Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs away from other foods. Do this in your shopping cart, bags, and fridge. 
  • Do not reuse marinades used on raw foods unless you bring them to a boil first. 
  • Use a special cutting board or plate for raw foods only.
  1. Cook: foods need to get hot and stay hot. Heat kills germs.
  • Cook to safe temperatures: 
  • Beef, Pork, Lamb 145 °F 
  • Fish 145 °F 
  • Ground Beef, Pork, Lamb 160 °F 
  • Turkey, Chicken, Duck 165 °F 
  • Use a food thermometer to make sure that food is done. You can’t always tell by looking. 
  1. Chill: put food in the fridge right away.
  • 2-Hour Rule: Put foods in the fridge or freezer within 2 hours after cooking or buying from the store. Do this within 1 hour if it is 90 degrees or hotter outside. 
  • Never thaw food by simply taking it out of the fridge. Thaw food: 
  • In the fridge 
  • Under cold water 
  • In the microwave 
  • Marinate foods in the fridge.