The past couple of weeks saw news headlines that involved food poisoning in different parts of the country.
Even alarming is the fact that most of the victims are children, and some even die of it. The DOH even issued warnings about this already.
As moms, the best thing that we can do to combat food poisoning or food-borne illnesses is to ensure food safety in the home and become more mindful of the food bought from the outside.
Here are some tips to avoid food poisoning at home:
- Make sure that all frozen meat and seafood have been thawed properly – meaning thawed in the refrigerator as against being thawed in the kitchen counter, and left there to sit at room temp.
- Use an antibacterial cutting board like what my sister in law gave me, or have at least two separate cutting boards for meats and vegetables to avoid cross-contamination.
- Make sure that you wash your hands and surfaces well once you have handled raw chicken and eggs to avoid salmonella contamination and poisoning.
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You may also want to read:
- Guide to Daily Meal Preparation for Busy Mommies
- Weekly Meal Plans
- Healthy Chicken Dishes the Kids Will Love
- Fun Meryenda Recipes to Prepare with the Kids
- Eight ways to lower your Meralco bill
- Seven ways to Save on Grocery Shopping
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- Be mindful of expiry dates of the food ingredients that you use in cooking. Take a look as well for dents, bulges, deformities and tampering in the packages of these ingredients. If you are in doubt about the date shown, or if it is blurry, then just trash it. Chances are you will also waste money on medicines if that food turns out to be expired or rotten and you and your family have ingested it.
- Make sure to buy your packaged and canned ingredients and food stuff from reputable sources. Be wary of unlabeled goods, and avoid buying them even if they are so cheap.
- Do not refreeze thawed meat.
- Make sure to cook through all the ingredients. Even cold cuts should be heated all the way through for children (if you allow them to eat such kinds of foods), pregnant women, and the elderly.
- Discard left over milk, milk products, including those in single serve tetra packs.
- Refrigerate left over food ASAP, and make sure to heat them thoroughly upon serving.
- Wash hand thoroughly when preparing food. Train the kids to wash hands after using the toilet, before eating, and upon arriving home.
Of course one of the best and routine things that we can do is to keep our homes especially our kitchens clean so that the food that we prepare for our families will not be contaminated with bacteria that can make our whole family (and even guests) sick.
Will soon come up with a post on how to avoid food poisoning when eating out. For now, hope you could let me know the steps you take in avoiding food poisoning in your home. Hope you can leave a comment below of leave me a message on my Facebook page.
Stay safe and healthy everyone
Here’s a video on food safety that you may want to check out:
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