Safe handling and proper cooking techniques can help reduce the risk of illness.
Alexandria, LA (PRWEB) November 17, 2009 -- The holidays are approaching and that means families, fellowship and fun. Yes, and food. When preparing food for the holiday festivities, food safety needs to be considered.
To help you prepare for the holiday feasts, here are some helpful tips from the law firm Neblett, Beard & Arsenault. The goal is to keep your family and guests safe from the tiny food pathogens that pack a powerful punch.
“Foodborne illness can have serious and long term consequences. It’s always important to follow safe handling techniques and proper cooking techniques. You don’t want your holiday feast to turn into a fiasco,” said food safety lawyer
Richard J. Arsenault.
Each year, 1 in 4 Americans fall victim to food poisoning, and 5,000 will lose the battle to foodborne illness. Although, there is no silver bullet to preventing foodborne illness, these safe handling techniques can help lessen your risk of foodborne illness.
| |
- Safe Food Handling. Handwashing is essential to stop cross contamination from occurring. Wash your hands before and after handling all food. Keep surfaces and utensils disinfected and keep foods separated, especially raw meats. Be aware that even though all precautions are taken, cross contamination is always a threat when an infected product is brought into the home.
- Safe Food Temperatures. If you are cooking foods for a party, be sure to cook foods thoroughly to safe minimum internal temperatures. Beef, veal, lamb steaks, roasts, and chops may be cooked to 145° F. All cuts of pork must be cooked to 160° F. Ground beef, veal and lamb to should be cooked to 160° F, and all poultry, including turkey, should reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165° F.
- Preparing A Turkey. A whole turkey is safe cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165° F throughout the bird. Check the temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and the thickest part of the breast. The temperature indicator found in some birds can be inaccurate, so always use a meat thermometer when testing internal temperature. When a turkey is removed from the oven, let it stand 20 minutes. Avoid cooking your stuffing inside the bird, as it can fail to reach a safe temperature and become a source of bacteria like Salmonella and Campylobacter.
- Keep Hot Foods HOT And Cold Foods COLD. Hot foods should be held at 140° F or warmer. Cold foods should be held at 40° F or colder. Foodborne bacterial pathogens thrive in the temperatures between the temperatures 40° F and 140° F. Keep track of how long foods have been sitting out and discard anything that has sat out at room temperature for two hours.
- Eggs and Desserts. Eggs are a necessity in a lot of holiday dishes and desserts. Many of these traditional recipes call for egg washes and uncooked eggs. But consuming uncooked and undercooked chicken eggs is never recommended. When baking using raw eggs, people should avoid licking the spoon or the mixing bowl covered in uncooked batter. Eggs can be contaminated with Salmonella enteritidis, so it’s important to cook eggs thoroughly to kill any bacteria that may be present.
|
“Regardless of what you do, you can never fully eliminate the threat of illness if the food you are preparing is contaminated with a dangerous food pathogen. We have represented food poisoning victims who followed every safety rule and still had to deal with serious foodborne illness and its devastating complications. The only true way to prevent food poisoning from affecting Americans is to eliminate the food contaminates during the manufacturing process. However, that responsibility rests with the food producers, not the customers,” added Arsenault.
About Neblett, Beard & Arsenault
Neblett, Beard & Arsenault is a nationally recognized law firm with over 25 years of representing victims in foodborne illness and other injury litigation. For More Information, visit the firm's Web site or call Nicole at 1-800-256-1050.
See Also:
[Via Legal / Law]
No comments:
Post a Comment