September is National Food Safety Month. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is estimated that 1 in every 6 Americans gets sick each year from contaminated food or drink. About 128,000 people are hospitalized each year due to foodborne illness and about 3,000 people die each year from foodborne illness.
Preparing food safely only works if you have safe food to begin with. Make sure you are keeping your food safe from shop to shelf. The temperature of refrigerated food can go up 8° – 10° F on a trip home from the store. To prevent against food borne illnesses, remember to separate, chill and clean.
At the Store:
• Buy frozen foods, meat, poultry, and seafood last.
• Put raw meat, poultry, and seafood in plastic bags to prevent dripping juices.
• Group the frozen foods, meat, poultry, and seafood together in the cart to keep them cold.
• At checkout, make sure to not mix raw meat with ready-to-eat foods in your grocery bags.
On the Way Home:
• Keep perishable foods in the air-conditioned car instead of the hot trunk.
• Avoid doing other errands on the way home from the grocery store.
• Prevent the possibility of cross-contamination when taking food home.
• If the trip from the grocery store is long, you need to make a stop, or you shop at multiple grocery stores: Bring a cooler with ice or gel packs to keep cold food cold.
When you Arrive:
• If you use re-useable grocery totes, wash them often. Also, make sure your refrigerator is clean.
• Store foods right away or at least follow the 2 Hour Rule. Refrigerate perishable foods within2 hours, and only 1 hour if the outside temperature is higher than 90° F.
• Store foods properly in the refrigerator. When storing foods, store foods with the highest internal cooking temperature on the lowest shelf in your refrigerator. Here’s an example:
Top Shelf – Ready-to-eat foods, fully cooked foods and produce.
2nd Shelf – Raw seafood, fish, eggs, steak and pork (internal cooking temperature of 145° F)
3rd Shelf – Raw ground beef (internal cooking temperature of 155° F)
Bottom Shelf – Raw poultry (internal cooking temperature of 165° F)
For more information about food safety, please contact Kim Miles, County Extension Agent – Family & Consumer Sciences at 325-646-0386 or kamiles@ag.tamu.edu.