Eat right and avoid food poisoning: Here’s how!

We all love relishing every bit of the food we eat. From experimenting with our culinary skills in the kitchen to prep up new dishes every day, gorging on those scrumptious meals surely feels like a treat. However, no one eats food with the thought of getting food poisoning. It ruins our whole experience of partaking in food. A loose or unhealthy tummy as a result of eating contaminated food isn’t a pleasant experience. But, in most cases, it is unavoidable of we pay heed to certain precautions while cooking food or be cautious about eating outside.

Read on to know some of the common ways to learn how to avoid food poisoning.

How to avoid food poisoning?

Food poisoning is a common issue which can lead people to experience an upset stomach, diarrhoea and vomiting. It can drain people out of energy and leave them dehydrated. Here are a few precautions you can follow to avoid food poisoning at home.

1. Keep your hands and work surfaces clean

This is invariably the first and foremost way to maintain hygiene while cooking. Before you start to cook, make sure that you wash your hands and wipe off work surfaces before, during, and post preparing food. The kitchen is usually the breeding ground for germs, and they thrive in umpteen places around your kitchen. That includes your hands, cutting boards, countertops, and utensils.

2. Segregate your food properly

Properly separate chicken, meat, and eggs from other ready-to-eat foods. Use different cutting boards and keep most poultry items away from other foods in your shopping cart or refrigerator.

3. Get ready to cook

Prepare and cook your food at a temperature good enough that it kills harmful bacteria in your food. You may also take advantage of using a food thermometer.

Also read: Do you refrigerate everything? 7 foods you should stop putting in your fridge

4. Keep it chill

Once you are done cooking and eating, you may refrigerate your food at 40 degrees Farhenheit or below. It is advisable to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours of cooking or within 1 hour if the food has been exposed to very high temperatures.

5. Check the expiry dates of the products

While stacking up our shopping cart with necessary food products, we often tend to overlook the expiration dates of the products. Any kind of expired food that is cooked and eaten can easily make you sick. You may use the sight or smell method to check the freshness of the food. If the food smells foul post opening the sealing, you may return it or dispose of it, but never use your sense of taste to assess the quality of the food.

6. Always wash your food before cooking or refrigerating

When we buy freshly produced food, it must be remembered that it can be a source of food-borne illness. Fruits and vegetables get contaminated by animals, under varied growing conditions or by the people they come in contact with before finding their place in our kitchen. Washing your food cleanses away all the harmful bacteria from the surface. Even if the skin of food is meant to be separated, it’s important that wash it off so that the bacteria doesn’t pass on the flesh of your knife when you cut it.

The bottom line

Following the aforementioned steps rules out the concern of food poisoning. Food when properly cleaned and prepared gives the best of all the nutrients to our body in a healthy way.