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Food Safety Fundamentals: Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello, and welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  I'm your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  September is National Food Safety Education Month.
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  And who better to talk about this month than our Extension Specialist for Food
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  Safety and Food Preservation, Annhall Norris. Welcome, Annhall.
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  Hi, Mindy. Thanks for having me. I am excited about this month.
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  I love talking about food safety, and so I'm just ready to jump right in.
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  Perfect. I know, because I've been in the business a little while,
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  that there are four main principles for food safety. What are those four principles?
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  The first one is clean. The second one is separate. The third one is cook.
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  And the fourth one is chill. What do we need to know about clean?
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  And so when we talk about clean, we're talking about our hands and our dishes
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  and our countertops and our equipment.
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  So we want everything to be clean, even our produce. So clean encompasses pretty much everything.
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  And we start with handwashing.
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  And there is a method to handwashing, isn't there?
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  Right. Yes. And so this is my opportunity to talk about using soap and warm
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  water. We use warm water because it's more comfortable on our hands and it allows
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  us to get that 20 seconds in of scrubbing and rinsing.
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  Use soap. It does not have to be antibacterial soap.
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  Any soap will do. And then, of course, we want to use a clean towel to dry or to air dry.
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  And that's our hands. When we're talking about produce, we don't want to use
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  soap. We want to use running water.
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  So we'll use a brush to get the outside skin clean and then just running water over our produce.
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  So there's no need to waste money on those commercial products that say they're
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  vegetable wash or fruit wash. We just need the water.
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  Just need the running water. That's correct.
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  Okay, so then our next principle is separate.
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  So what do we need to separate?
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  Well, we want to separate things that are raw, things that are not cooked,
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  and then things that are ready to eat. And,
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  People understand this pretty much in their refrigerator, so they don't want
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  to set the raw meat on top of lunch meat or on top of cheese or produce that
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  we would eat raw, any of the grapes or the fruit that we would have in there.
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  But when you think about it, you need to separate it in your grocery cart as well.
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  So you don't want any of that raw meat dripping onto anything else that you
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  might eat when you get home. You don't want that contamination. dissemination.
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  We also want to separate, again, the principle is raw from cooked,
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  so it applies in the refrigerator, in the grocery cart, and then especially
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  with our cutting boards.
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  Everyone needs to have a couple of cutting boards. It's ideal to have one that
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  you use for raw meat and then one that you use for vegetables that you'll cut up and then not cook.
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  If you don't have two cutting boards, one is fine. You just want to make sure
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  that you wash, rinse, and then sanitize with a light bleach solution.
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  What is the best way to sanitize a cutting board?
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  The best way to sanitize, especially after using raw meat, is to mix the solution
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  or mix right in your sink a tablespoon of unscented bleach to a gallon of water.
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  And then you can just rinse your equipment or your cutting boards in that solution and let it air dry.
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  Okay, so our next principle is cook.
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  So what do we need to be cognizant of as we are cooking our food?
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  Well, we want to use a meat thermometer when we're cooking because that's the
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  only way to know that our food has reached the proper internal temperature.
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  And the temperatures are different because the bacteria that we are trying to
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  destroy when we cook are different depending on the food.
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  So your pork products only need to be cooked to 145 degrees Fahrenheit because
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  the organism we're trying to destroy can be destroyed at 145 degrees.
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  And so that's the reason for that temperature. When you're cooking ground beef,
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  you need to go to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
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  If you're cooking any poultry, you need to go to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
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  And then any leftovers need to be cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
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  So when we talk about cook, we
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  want to make sure that raw products meet a certain internal temperature.
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  And our extension offices have charts and magnets with this information on it.
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  So it's not something that you need to memorize.
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  You can look at something handy in the kitchen and know the proper temperature.
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  That is, it's always great to have that resource of our extension offices to
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  go to because they are full of information that can make our life easier. here.
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  So our last principle is chill. What do we need to know when we are chilling our food?
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  Well, the most important, I think, concept under chill is to not let anything
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  sit out at room temperature for more than two hours.
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  So this applies to cooked food, especially like at Thanksgiving when the meal
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  seems to be extended and there's a lot of food on the table.
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  You want to be aware of how long that turkey has been out and don't let it sit
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  out for more than two hours.
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  If it's going to be more than two hours, you need to put it in the refrigerator.
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  So that's what we mean when we say chill. Get it under 40 degrees as soon as
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  possible when you get home from the grocery store.
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  So don't let the eggs and the dairy products sit out in the car very long.
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  Go ahead and take them in and put them in the refrigerator.
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  And then chilling also applies to thawing. So you don't want to thaw at room temperature.
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  You want to thaw in the refrigerator maybe over several days.
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  It depends how big the product is and how...
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  Frozen solid it is. Sometimes it takes a couple of days to thaw.
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  And not everyone has a couple of days. They want to just leave it on the counter when they go to work.
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  So that 40 degrees or below is important when we talk about chilling.
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  Well, and that's part of why we encourage people to plan their meals in advance
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  so that if you need to put out a pound of ground beef for a meal on Thursday,
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  you know that you're going to have to put it in the refrigerator on Wednesday morning. That's right.
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  And I wanted to emphasize how important these four food safety principles are
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  because the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 48 million cases of foodborne
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  illness occur each year.
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  And that is one in six people in the United States get sick from eating contaminated food.
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  And there aren't any statistics as to if these are related to restaurants or
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  home cooking, but I feel like it's a combination of both.
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  And so we need to be safe at home so that we don't make our family and friends sick.
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  And I think that if we can model that behavior, that others will pick up on that.
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  And so I do think it's important to, especially when you look at the numbers,
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  that one in six will get sick from eating contaminated food.
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  Well, this topic is not on your list, but it's one that I battle a lot.
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  So let's talk about it. What about washing your meat?
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  Do we need to wash our meat before we cook it?
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  No, we don't. The reason for that is that any raw meat is going to have bacteria on the surface.
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  And you do not want to spread that bacteria around in your sink or around on your countertop.
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  It is fine to just take out of the package and put on the grill or put in the
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  pan. And there's no need to rinse it.
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  Thank you very much for that health and safety message.
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  I will share it at home.
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  And thank you so much for this conversation. I know that it is going to benefit our listeners.
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  And I know that it's going to benefit my family, too. Great.
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  If you are just tuning in, you're listening to Talking Facts.
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  Or contact your local Extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
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  Music.