How you prepare dinner could be making you sick
13.sep.06
18WETM (New York)
Allison Walker
September is National Food Safety Education Month. The point of the annual campaign is to make sure you don't get sick because of things you're doing - or not doing - in your kitchen. There are a few things you can do during dinner tonight that'll help keep you and your family safe.
First, health officials warn you that food in your grocery store might look ready to bring home and serve immediately, but it's not ready to eat. The assistant store manager at TOPS Friendly Market in Elmira, Jim Butts, was cited as saying food in the produce aisle isn't thoroughly washed, adding, "What we do is we drop it in hot water and what that does is, when we put it out in the cold cases, it seals in all the vitamins and nutrients."
Secondly, poultry is synonymous with food-borne illnesses, like salmonella poisoning. Chicken cutlets might look nice and neat in their tightly-bound packaging, but Butts doesn't advise that you simply drop it on a grill. "Poultry draws contaminants easily, so you want to make sure anytime you buy poultry that you're thoroughly cleaning it before you grill it or cook it or whatever you're going to do with it," Butts said.
Speaking of juices, using wooden cutting boards is a bad idea when cutting raw meat. The juices can seep into the wood, stay there, and get on other food. Instead, use a plastic cutting board.
