Food Safety Tips to Keep Your Family Safe

Today I'm going to share five ways you may be making your family sick at dinner.

Mistake number one-- not washing your hands before preparing meals. Sure your home kitchen is not just like a restaurant kitchen, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do what professional cooks are required to do. For example; wash your hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds and dry your hands with a clean towel. Also wash your hands after handling dirty dishes or garbage.

Mistake number two is the fancy sounding cross contaminating utensils. If you change between meat and vegetables or fruit, you want to make sure you use a new cutting board and a new knife, or you want to wash that knife and cutting board with warm, soapy water.

Mistake number three-- keeping a dirty sponge around. Kitchen sponges are the number one breeding ground for germs in your home. If you use one, you want to make sure that you rotate them frequently. And one good tip is you can wet the sponge, put it in the microwave for two minutes, and that'll kill all disease causing bacteria.

Mistake number four-- not wiping down surfaces after food preparation. Unwashed countertops can transmit live bacteria. Scrub and sanitize all food prep surfaces, especially after preparing raw meat. And don't use a dirty rag or sponge while cleaning surfaces. You'll just be spreading germs around.

Mistake number five-- not washing your hands after handling raw meat. Beef, chicken, pork, eggs, and fish are loaded with bacteria. Every time you touch them, your hands get loaded too. Do a full, thorough hand washing before going onto the next part of meal preparation. We cannot promise that it will make them like everything you cook, but it will help them avoid getting sick in other ways.