Now here’s a topic that’s important to everyone; making sure that the food you prepare and eat is safe and won’t result in an unpleasant episode of food poisoning.

According to foodsafety.gov, in a typical year, one in six Americans could get a bout of food poisoning, and for more than 100,000 people, that includes a trip to the hospital.

For the home kitchen cook, they suggest following four steps to help keep you and your family members from getting sick:

CLEAN

• Wash hands the right way—for 20 seconds with soap and running water.
• Wash surfaces and utensils after each use.
• Wash fruits and veggies—but not meat, poultry, or eggs!

SEPARATE

• Use separate cutting boards and plates for produce and for meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs.
• Keep meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs separate from all other foods in your grocery cart, and in the fridge.

COOK

• Use a food thermometer.
• Keep food hot after cooking (at 140 ˚F or above).
• Microwave food thoroughly (to 165 ˚F).

CHILL

• Refrigerate perishable foods within two hours.
• Never thaw or marinate foods on the counter.
• Know when to throw food out. (Click here to see their “Safe Storage Times Chart.”)

For the professional chef and all those who work in food handling, the National Restaurant Association has a website dedicated to National Food Safety Month, and it’s full of videos, activities, and tools you can use to learn best practices for receiving, storing, thawing and holding, preparing, and serving foods. For example, they offer several infographics for download and posting in your place of business, such as this one all about food storage:

FOOD SAFETY TRAINING

Summit Training Source offers a number of courses for the food industry to help you meet your requirements:

• Food Allergens
• Food Manufacturing
• Food Safety and Sanitation
• GMPs: Food Production Excellence
• HACCP: Food Hazard Prevention
• Site Security for Food Distribution

For more information on these courses, fill out our contact form and a representative will get in touch with you!