Dining Out is Safer Then Eating At Home

Recent food borne illness scares in the news have made people leery of going out to eat. This year alone we have seen the problems with spinach, tomatoes, lettuce, and more recently chicken and green onions. Should people stop dining out?

I have spent 20 years in the restaurant industry and the answer is no. They do an excellent job of safely preparing food despite what the media tells you.

Here is a simple quiz about preparing foods. See how you do versus your local restaurant (temperatures are in Fahrenheit):

1. Do you use a meat thermometer?

2. How hot is the water you wash your dishes with?

3. Do you use any kind of sanitizing agent/solution on the food preparation surfaces after washing them?

4. Do you use the same cutting board for raw meats as you do for your raw produce?

5. Do you reheat leftovers to 165 degrees?

6. Do you defrost meats by leaving them on the kitchen counter?

7. Do you know what the food danger zone is?

8. How long does cooked food sit out until it is put away?

The answers as well as tips to safe food handling at home:

1. Most raw meats, poultry, and fish contain some kind of bacteria that can give you food poisoning right out of the packaging, especially chicken. Here are the proper internal temperatures they should reach when cooking:

Rare beef =130 degrees

Pork, beef, lamb, and seafood= 145

Ground beef= 155

Poultry= 165

Unless you use a meat thermometer, you won’t know if your homemade pot roast is bacteria free. Restaurants use them.

-Use a meat thermometer religiously.

2. In a restaurant, the dishwashing machine cleans with 180 degree water. At home the hot water you use for this task will be at least 40 degrees lower, even if you use a dishwasher. If you hand wash, most likely the water will be as hot as your hands can stand, somewhere in the 100 degree range.

-Use a lot of soap and water as hot as you can stand when hand-washing dishes.

3. Restaurants use a sanitizing solution for post-cleaning of any surfaces where raw meat is prepared. They also use stainless steel counters. This helps offset food borne bacteria.

-One good tip for home food preparing is cut the raw produce and veggies first, then the raw meat.

kitchen

Credit: Afonso Lima

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