Strict safe food handling techniques are especially important this time of year, with lots of people cooking up food for festival who do not necessarily cook professionally for the public year round, and the Health Department is urging everyone preparing and serving food to take extra care
“This is the season where many people will be preparing various foods for guests and with the opening of the Festival Village, where people will gather en masse to enjoy native food and drink,” said Health Commissioner Darice Plaskett in a statement Monday. “We encourage food preparers to practice safe food handling to prevent food-borne illness.”
Plaskett said that those who prepare food for consumption can help prevent food-borne illness by washing hands and keeping everything clean that comes in contact with food.
As part of a joint food safety campaign by the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Department is encouraging everyone to "Be Food Safe."
As bacteria are everywhere, the campaign encourages preventing food-borne illness through four easy steps – Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill.
– Clean: Wash hands and surfaces often;
– Separate: Don’t cross-contaminate (meat, poultry and fish);
– Cook: Cook to proper temperatures;
– Chill: Refrigerate foods promptly, as necessary.
People preparing and serving food should also follow these other tips to prevent illness:
– Wash hands with warm, soapy water for 20 seconds before and after handling food; after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, or after handling uncooked eggs or raw meat, poultry, or fish and their juices;
– Use gloves and remember to also wash gloved hands;
– Thoroughly wash with hot, soapy water all surfaces that come in contact with raw meat, poultry, fish, and eggs before moving on to the next step in food preparation;
– Keep cutting boards clean; wash them in hot, soapy water after each use. Once cutting boards become excessively worn or develop hard-to-clean grooves, replace them;
– Don’t use the same platter and utensils that held the raw product to serve the cooked product. Any bacteria present in the raw meat or juices can contaminate the safely cooked product. Serve cooked products on clean plates, using clean utensils and clean hands;
– When using a food thermometer, it is important to wash the probe after each use with hot, soapy water before reinserting it into a food;
– Keep cleaning products and other chemicals away from food and surfaces used for food.
To learn more about Food Safety, visit www.healthvi.org.
