When the foods we love to consume become contaminated due to bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemicals, they can become unsafe. Unsafe foods can cause symptoms such as mild or severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, lethargy, fever, and shivering when consumed. In more severe cases, they can even lead to deaths.
What do we know about food safety? What is food safety? What should be done for food safety?
Our foods can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, or parasites at any stage of production, processing, distribution, storage, or preparation. For example, germs can contaminate foods from dirty surfaces. In meat or dairy products purchased from the supermarket and in frozen foods, bacteria can grow if left at room temperature for too long. As a result, a food safety hazard can emerge.
Food safety describes the measures that need to be taken to keep the foods we love to consume safe and healthy. Safe food production requires a joint effort involving producers, distributors, and consumers. Producers, distributors (retailers), and consumers have some responsibilities to ensure food safety. In this article, we will discuss what needs to be done for food safety.
1- Carefully Read Label Information
Make it a habit to check the label of any food product before buying it. Just looking at the brand of the food product you are going to buy is not sufficient for food safety.
By carefully reading the label information, make sure that its contents, production permit and license, manufacturer information, and place of production are clearly stated. You should definitely find out whether it contains added sugar, additives, and preservatives.
2- Check the Expiry Date
Although many companies remove food products that are close to or past their expiry date from shelves, some products might still be overlooked. Therefore, always check the expiry date before buying any food product. Do not buy a product if its expiry date is approaching or has passed, and warn the seller. Because the taste of the product may change, its nutritional value may be lost, or it may even have spoiled. This can lead to many health problems, including food poisoning.
3- Do Not Buy Products with Damaged Packaging
In products with damaged packaging, microorganisms or bacteria can grow inside the food, posing a risk to your health. Stay away from food products with swollen, pierced, or otherwise damaged packaging. For example, if the lid of a canned product you are buying is bulging outward, it indicates that bacteria inside have produced gas.
4- Check the Temperature in Refrigerators
Make sure that foods sold in refrigerators, such as fish, chicken, red meat, milk, and cheese, are stored at the appropriate coolness. For example, the sections where seafood is located in supermarkets should be at -18 degrees Celsius, and the sections where milk and dairy products are located should be at -4 degrees Celsius.
5- Avoid Unpackaged or Exposed Foods
Bacteria and microorganisms can more easily contaminate foods such as fruits and vegetables that are sold unpackaged or exposed. Therefore, unpackaged or exposed food products should not be preferred.
6- What Should Be the Temperature of the Refrigerator?
It is very important for your refrigerator to work at the right temperature to prevent the foods you store in it from spoiling. To keep foods in your refrigerator from spoiling for a long time, your refrigerator should be between +2 and +4 degrees Celsius.
Moreover, take care not to overload your refrigerator and ensure there is air circulation between containers, otherwise, air cannot circulate freely inside, and as a result, sufficient cooling cannot be achieved.
Do not store any food in your refrigerator uncovered. Always place your foods in a closed container in your refrigerator after washing them.
7- How Should You Organize Your Refrigerator?
To store the foods in your refrigerator in a safer way and extend their shelf life, you need to organize your refrigerator correctly. For this, you should place cooked foods on the upper shelves and raw foods on the lower shelves. Why?
There is very little chance of microorganisms and bacteria growing in foods that have been cooked under appropriate conditions and placed in the refrigerator with their lids closed. Even if they are cooked under appropriate conditions, raw foods (meat, fish, chicken, and seafood) have a higher chance of microorganism and bacteria growth.
Microorganisms can grow on raw foods even at low temperatures. Therefore, if you store your raw foods on the upper shelves with their lids open, various bacteria can grow on them. Worse, the bacteria growing on the raw foods on the upper shelves can spread to other foods on the lower shelves due to the effect of gravity.
8- What Is the Storage Duration in the Freezer?
One of the most important factors in food spoilage is time. Therefore, do not forget that your foods can spoil even while in the freezer. So, how long should the storage duration be in the freezer?
Keep your foods in the freezer for the recommended storage duration. The storage duration for seafood in the freezer is approximately 20 days, and for red meat, it is a maximum of 2 months. Consume your foods stored in the freezer considering these durations.
Before placing your foods in the freezer, package them in a way that they will not come into contact with air. Do not place fruits and vegetables (even if they are frozen) next to each other in the freezer. If you place your foods closed, they may thaw and contaminate each other, leading to bacteria growth.
9- Do Not Refreeze Thawed Foods
One of the significant risks in terms of food safety is refreezing thawed foods. Store your leftover foods in the freezer after cooking them, not raw.
For example, if you made meatballs with minced meat, after cooking the remaining portion, store it in the freezer.
10- Do Not Consume Foods Left Out After Thawing
Another important point to consider regarding the foods you take out of the freezer is that you should consume them without letting them sit out for too long after thawing. Do not consume any food that has been left out for hours after thawing.
Do not let foods taken out from the freezer, such as in a very cold environment, thaw on the kitchen counter. Because bacteria and microorganisms can easily grow in foods suddenly left in a warm environment from a very cold one. Remember that microorganisms can divide and multiply every 20 minutes.
The food you let thaw on the kitchen counter after taking it out from the freezer can turn into a breeding ground for bacteria and microorganisms within hours.
11- Do Not Leave the Lids of Packages Open
Always place the product with its box in the refrigerator after opening its package. Because every time you open your refrigerator, the food product with an open package comes into contact with air, and therefore, it starts to spoil.
You can place the food product whose package you have opened in a refrigerator bag or glass jar in your refrigerator. Do not forget to close the lid tightly.
11- Hand Washing Should Become a Habit
You should always wash your hands before cooking. Make it a habit to thoroughly wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds.
Especially if you have been in contact with raw foods (such as chicken, red meat, fish), you must wash your hands before touching any other material.
13- Never Make This Mistake
Do not leave the food you cooked in the evening to cool in the kitchen and then put it in the refrigerator the next morning. Because, just like during the thawing process, microorganisms can grow while foods are cooling. As a result, the delicious meal you carefully cooked in the evening may come to your table spoiled the next day.
Spoiled food is not always recognizable by its taste and appearance. Meals, even if they are warm or hot, can be cooled in the refrigerator. Cooling your meal in the refrigerator does not spoil its taste; it just causes your refrigerator to work harder.
14- Do Not Leave the Lid of the Pot Open
Do not cool the food you just cooked with its lid open. Never leave the lid of the pot open or partially open. For example, if you leave a soup you just cooked to cool with its lid open, it comes into contact with the air of the environment. Airborne microorganisms directly contaminate the soup. Microorganisms can easily grow in warm soup, which can make you sick.
15- Always Keep Your Kitchen Clean
To prevent bacteria from growing, thoroughly clean tools such as plates, knives, forks, and cutting boards, as well as the kitchen counter, with hot water and soap after use. Let them air dry. Do not forget to wash the sink and faucets.
