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Kids
in the Kitchen: The Recipe for Safe Food Handling at Home
- Kids in the Kitchen
- Kids in the Supermarket
- Kids in Action
As a parent, you?re
concerned about providing pleasurable and nutritious meals for your family.
Your home is the most important place where your children can learn to
prepare and enjoy a variety of healthful foods. Cooking and eating meals
together as a family is fun, especially when you know food preparation
basics. Increasingly, these ?basics? also need to include how to handle
food safely.
No matter if you are
cooking a traditional family favorite from scratch, re-heating leftovers
or packing a brown bag lunch, handling food safely is essential. With
more family members helping in the kitchen, everyone needs to be well
versed in the basic ingredients of safe food handling. Our food supply
in the United States is one of the safest in the world. However, it is
up to us to do our part.
Luckily, most food-related
illnesses can be prevented if you follow a few simple rules for careful
food shopping, preparation and storage. Teach your children the simple
rules listed below right along with basic cooking techniques. Be a positive
role model when you shop for and prepare food. Know that the shopping,
cooking and food handling skills your children are learning will equip
them to prepare and share tasty, healthful and safe food for years to
come.
To keep your food
safe and fresh, practice these basic rules when you and your family shop,
prepare and store foods:
- Shop with Care
- Keep Food Clean
- Keep Hot Foods
Hot
- Cold Foods Cold
- When In Doubt,
Throw It Out
Kids
in the Kitchen
Keep Food Clean
To keep your food as safe as possible, keep everything in your kitchen
meticulously clean, and that starts with you. Wash your hands thoroughly
with hot water and soap before, during and after food preparation. A good
amount of time to scrub is 20 seconds, (which feels like a long time).
Place a step stool near the sink to make it easy for younger children
to wash their hands too. Follow these tips to keep the food prepared in
your kitchen safe and clean:
- Clean counters,
cutting boards, knives and utensils between food preparation steps to
prevent cross-contamination of food. Or, designate one cutting board
for meats and seafood and another for produce.
- Wash fresh fruits
and vegetables thoroughly. This includes any pre-packaged produce items
like salad greens. Use a clean brush to scrub vegetables such as sweet
potatoes and turnips.
- Wash the lids of
canned foods before opening to keep dirt from getting into the food.
Remember to also wash your can opener after each use.
- Sanitize kitchen
sponges by tossing them into the automatic dishwasher or microwaving
on high for 30 to 60 seconds to kill bacteria. Replace sponges every
few weeks. Launder dishcloths, if used, daily.
- Wipe up spills
promptly with paper towels and then throw the paper towels out.
- Direct sneezes
and coughs away from food; wash your hands after sneezing or coughing
and encourage your children to do the same.
Keep Food Hot
Meats, poultry, eggs, fish and seafood require special care in the kitchen
because they are more susceptible to illness-causing bacteria. While cooking
with your children, talk about these tips for handling meats, poultry
and seafood:
- Cook meats, poultry,
eggs and seafood thoroughly. Most meats should be cooked to at least
165°F and poultry to 180°F. Teach your children to check doneness with
a thermometer.
- Don?t interrupt
cooking. Cook foods completely at one time. Partial cooking may allow
bacteria to grow.
- After cooking,
refrigerate leftovers immediately. Divide into shallow containers for
faster cooling in the refrigerator.
- Thoroughly reheat
all leftovers until bubbly hot and steaming.
Keep Food Cold
Safe food handling
practices don?t stop once food is put away. Food needs to be stored safely,
at the right temperature and not past their ?use by? date. Younger children
can help ?clean out the refrigerator? and older children can practice
taking the temperature readings of the refrigerator and freezer. Follow
these safe food storage tips:
- Keep your refrigerator
at 40°F or below and the freezer unit at 0°F. In general, keep your
refrigerator as cold as possible without freezing your milk or lettuce.
- Label wrapped leftovers
with the current date. Eat or freeze within two or three days.
- Pick one day each
week to clean out your refrigerator. Throw out old or questionable food
and wash down the interior walls and the handles of your refrigerator
with warm soapy water.
- Never leave highly
perishable foods out of the refrigerator for more than two hours (or
one hour in warmer weather). Don?t assume your children know what?s
safe to eat. You may find them snacking on a picnic salad that sat out
in the sun all afternoon or munching on last evening?s leftover pizza
that was never refrigerated.
- Never defrost (or
marinate) food on the kitchen counter. Thaw food in the refrigerator
or in the microwave oven on the ?defrost? setting. Cook defrosted food
right away.
When In Doubt,
Throw It Out
Teach your children to play it safe and throw out any foods they may think
are unsafe. Keep in mind that most bacteria that cause food-related illness
are tasteless, colorless and odorless.
Food Handling Tips
for the Very Young
Discourage practices that can spread germs. This includes licking the
spout on the syrup bottle, ?double-dipping? chips, eating from forks that
have dropped onto the floor, and wiping hands or faces with the same towel
used to clean spills.
- Avoid tasting foods
that have not been thoroughly cooked, including old favorites like cookie
dough or cake batter made with raw eggs.
Kids
in the Supermarket
Shop with Care
Safe food handling begins in the supermarket. Children learn best by doing,
so get them involved in your next grocery-shopping trip. Younger children
can squeeze a frozen food item to make sure it is rock solid while older
children can read the ?use by? dates on food labels. Follow these tips
to shop with care:
- Make grocery shopping
the last errand you run before going home.
- Read the ?sell
by? date (how long the grocery store can keep the product for sale on
the shelf) and the ?use by? date (how long you can keep the product
at top eating quality in your home). Never buy anything you won?t finish
before the ?use by? date.
- Check eggs for
cracks.
- Avoid dented or
bulging cans and jars with loose lids or any other packages that appear
to have been opened or tampered with in some way.
- Look over produce
to be sure it is free of any blemishes or signs of spoilage like mold.
Kids
In Action
Safe food handling
habits can be learned at an early age, right along with cooking skills.
Practice the rules you?ve just learned while you make this recipe with
your child.
For More Information
Call Toll-Free:
USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-800-535-4555
FDA Food Information & Seafood Hotline 1-800-332-4010
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