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To what extent do you practice food safety in the kitchen?
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 9:43 am
To cool down hot soup quickly, I fill my sink with very cold water and then place the pot in the sink, with the water almost up to the top. I let it stay there for about half an hour or 45 min. Usually I change the water once to speed the cool-down. After it's 'bath', the pot is merely warm, not hot. I then refrigerate immediately and make sure nothing sensitive is right near the pot.
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Dolly Welsh




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 10:16 am
There is NO need to taste food with a spoon. A good sniff will tell you all you need to know, without touching it. It's faster too. And more accurate. The heat of the food distorts your perception. Sniff, sniff.

Yes, quick handwashing of meat or chicken contaminated hands or things is necessary.

I defrost on the counter. I am going to be sterilizing that thing when cooking it.

Soup, if kept covered, and also then brought to a boil before serving later, is safe to do anything you want with.

I am very big on keeping pots covered. Dust is bad.

Unwashed fresh vegs and salad must be called bad until it is washed.
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sweetpotato




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 11:39 am
Dolly Welsh wrote:
There is NO need to taste food with a spoon. A good sniff will tell you all you need to know, without touching it. It's faster too. And more accurate. The heat of the food distorts your perception. Sniff, sniff.

Yes, quick handwashing of meat or chicken contaminated hands or things is necessary.

I defrost on the counter. I am going to be sterilizing that thing when cooking it.


What's the food safety risk with tasting cooking food with a spoon?

The official recommendations all state that it's not safe to thaw poultry and ground meat at room temperature. A lot of people do this, though, and I've found research that suggests that there is little risk of pathogens multiplying at common room temperatures (under 90 degrees). However, there are certain pathogens that are heat-resistant that could be introduced and multiply at room temperature, so you can't totally rely on the idea that cooking will destroy everything. You also have to be certain that you thoroughly cook every bit of meat. Salmonella and E-Coli have become an increasing problem in the U.S. so I'm really careful with meat preparation, and certain vegetables too.

My husband's family does some things in the kitchen that bug me. On the one hand, my FIL is kind of a germaphobe about sharing drinks and food. On the other hand, they defrost all their meat on the counter (sometimes for really long periods after it's been fully thawed), will serve meat and fish that has been sitting in the fridge for over a week, etc.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 11:45 am
sweetpotato wrote:
What's the food safety risk with tasting cooking food with a spoon?



I'm not sure it's a food risk in a home kitchen per se but in a commercial kitchen you certainly don't want the cook's saliva etc. being on the spoon which then goes into food which can carry the germs and contaminate. You can't rely 100% on heat killing all dangerous organisms. If a food inspector saw that, they would receive a violation in a restaurant.

It's not really good practice in a home kitchen but less of a risk because generally you would be sharing germs with the people you are living with anyway :-) But would you like the idea of being a guest in someone's house and knowing that people had used a tasting spoon in the food? Most people would be appalled if a guest took food from a communal bowl with silverware they had been eating with.

And of course there was the infamous episode when George was caught double dipping :-)
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 11:48 am
Dolly Welsh wrote:
There is NO need to taste food with a spoon. A good sniff will tell you all you need to know, without touching it. It's faster too. And more accurate. The heat of the food distorts your perception. Sniff, sniff.

Yes, quick handwashing of meat or chicken contaminated hands or things is necessary.

I defrost on the counter. I am going to be sterilizing that thing when cooking it.
...


Some bacteria can only be killed with cooking at temps in excess of those that we use to normally prepare foods. Cooking does not 'sterilize' food. A primary rule of food handling safety is not to wash meat or poultry since it actually spreads bacteria.

And sniffing food to determine taste? How does that work? Can you tell if it needs more salt by just smelling?
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Dolly Welsh




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 12:03 pm
I defrost on the counter but not for an eternity of time. It still has a chilly core when I go to cook it. It is not completely room temperature. It feels colder than room temperature when I pick it up.

Yes, you can tell exactly how something tastes by sniffing it, salt included.

There is no harm at all in spoon tasting.

But a busy cook with a lot of dishes to wash might be tempted to re-use the same spoon to taste again. To avoid that temptation and to speed the whole process up I just sniff. Works fine.

I don't wash meat or poultry usually. If it looked dirty to me I would.

I believe in careful handling, lots of hand washing and high cooking temperatures and lots and lots of covering food. Tin foil on top of the frying pan, keeping covers on pots right after serving.

We are designed to kill a few germs in our stomachs. A few don't matter. A lot do matter.

I completely do not trust fresh produce or fruits. I wash and wash. They look pretty and healthy, but that's just appearance. There is stuff on them.

Those little bottles of liquid soap are handy next to the sinks. You can get the large bottles of soap to re-fill them from.

If my hands have been inside oven mitts or rubber gloves, those are not clean hands. I wash again.

It is good to wipe the counters when the job is done; stuff is on it. I use Windex but there are lots of things.

Crock pots: there should be no grooves or cracks where old food gets stuck on the lids.

Having wine with dinner helps. Acid in your stomach kills germs.

No, like you, I don't like old food.
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mille




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 5:24 pm
I used to be ServeSafe certified, so I am very well versed in food safety!

I follow it all at home. Honestly, I don't find it so stressful. If I forget to take something out of the freezer overnight, I defrost it immersed in COLD water and keep an eye on it. I am very diligent with utensils etc that have touched raw meat, I use entirely separate cutting boards for meat vs produce and such. I use my meat thermometer all the time, even though I can tell when something is done without it, just to double check. I'm sure there's a lot more. Food poisoning isn't worth it!
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Maya




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 6:41 pm
I was going to say to the best of my knowledge, but it seems my knowledge was not as extensive as I thought it was...
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imasinger




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 7:50 pm
Who me?

Of course I do it all.

(That's not a frozen brisket thawing on my counter right this second. It's just a large, um, paperweight.)
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amother
Ivory


 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 9:43 pm
Op here.
To sweetpotato: My husband's family bugs me too (and my own family as well)! They leave things out overnight shock They'll let the chicken soup cool down all night or afternoon... they'll defrost meat at room temp for an entire day... they'll re-serve leftovers that have been sitting out for well over 2 hours...
I can't starve when I eat there... but when I was pregnant, I was so stressed out (and hungry!) because I didn't want to eat any of those foods...
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Lady Godiva




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 01 2015, 9:49 pm
Dolly Welsh wrote:
...

I completely do not trust fresh produce or fruits. I wash and wash. They look pretty and healthy, but that's just appearance. There is stuff on them.

...

Me, too! I won't eat fruit or vegetables that weren't washed with soap and I wash my knife after every cut through (the outside of) a melon or onion.

I'll defrost at room temperature, but not fully.
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amother
Chocolate


 

Post Sat, Feb 06 2016, 9:01 pm
So I don't know any of these rules... Cheat sheet anyone?
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Feb 06 2016, 11:31 pm
The only thing mentioned here that I'm not really on top of is the cooling procedures. But I don't think it's a huge problem for me. I doubt anything horrible is happening to my soup when it rests on the stove until it's cool (I will usually leave it out on the stove for the duration of the meal anyway, by which time it's not very hot anymore) and I generally don't cook huge batches of anything so they cool off soon enough. But if I'm really in a hurry for some reason, I'll pop something hot straight in the fridge. Oops, I guess. If it makes my milk spoil I guess I'll be able to smell that.
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myself




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Feb 07 2016, 3:54 am
etky wrote:
To cool down hot soup quickly, I fill my sink with very cold water and then place the pot in the sink, with the water almost up to the top. I let it stay there for about half an hour or 45 min. Usually I change the water once to speed the cool-down. After it's 'bath', the pot is merely warm, not hot. I then refrigerate immediately and make sure nothing sensitive is right near the pot.


I do this too. A very large pot requires frequent water changes though.
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chani8




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Feb 07 2016, 4:12 am
One time when a DD was becoming more active in the kitchen, I was heating leftover cholent, bringing it to a boil, to boil for the required 10 minutes. But then I left the kitchen to entertain guests. DD saw the boiling food and turned it down, and then left the kitchen. When I went back in, I turned it back up. And when she went back in, she turned it down.

After the guests left, four of us ate the leftover cholent. And got terrible food poisoning. DH and I got it bad. Probably should've gone to the hospital but we were too sick to find the phone.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Feb 07 2016, 11:00 pm
My sink rarely has enough free space to immerse a pot of soup embarrassed
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amother
Mistyrose


 

Post Mon, Feb 08 2016, 6:33 am
According to how I handle food, I guess all in my household should've been really sick ch"v.....

I defrost meat in warm water because it takes quicker.

I use same spoons for different dishes.

I freeze warm soup.

I defrost and reheat soup and other cooked dishes in microwave.

Ye. It's true.
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 08 2016, 7:10 am
amother wrote:
According to how I handle food, I guess all in my household should've been really sick ch"v.....

I defrost meat in warm water because it takes quicker.

I use same spoons for different dishes.

I freeze warm soup.

I defrost and reheat soup and other cooked dishes in microwave.

Ye. It's true.


Some of the things you do are not dangerous AFAIK.
What's wrong with freezing warm (not boiling hot) soup, aside from it possibly bringing down the temp of your freezer (though modern appliances can deal with that too)?
The microwave is fine AFAIK for reheating food that's been safely cooked and frozen.
Defrosting meat in warm water is indeed a no-no.
What do you mean that you use same spoon for different dishes? While cooking? I don't think that's so terrible unless you use the same implement for stirring uncooked meat or chicken and then use it, unwashed, to stir something else that doesn't need that much more cooking. Of course, that means you're also making the other dish fleishigs....
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 08 2016, 11:41 am
I also defrost meat in warm water sometimes but only because I'm right on top of it and will be using it shortly after it defrosts. It's not going to sit around warm.

And the same spoons for different dishes is only an issue if one of the dishes has raw meat/poultry/eggs/etc and the other is not yet cooked or is not going to be cooked in a way that would render the meat/poultry/eggs/etc safe. Or if one of the eaters has an allergy.

If your freezer works well then freezing warm soup shouldn't be an issue. It's not going to defrost anything enough to hurt it before it refreezes.

And what is wrong with defrosting/reheating in microwave? My last microwave even had a setting called defrost. I don't prefer microwaves for other reasons but I didn't think it was an immediate safety issue.

As for tasting food with a spoon, I totally didn't realize until reading later posts that you meant repeatedly tasting with the same spoon. Of course I don't put my germy spoon back in the pot after I've tasted once. But why on earth shouldn't you dip a clean spoon in for a taste? Totally disagree that you can "taste" by smelling, smell and taste are closely related but are not the same thing. At all. If you forgot the salt your dish can smell AMAZING but taste gag-worthy.
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heidi




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 08 2016, 12:32 pm
amother wrote:
Op here.
To sweetpotato: My husband's family bugs me too (and my own family as well)! They leave things out overnight shock They'll let the chicken soup cool down all night or afternoon... they'll defrost meat at room temp for an entire day... they'll re-serve leftovers that have been sitting out for well over 2 hours...
I can't starve when I eat there... but when I was pregnant, I was so stressed out (and hungry!) because I didn't want to eat any of those foods...


Well, I can officially say that no one on this entire forum would eat at my house.
I am guilty of every single thing mentioned.
And I learned it all from my mother who also never had anyone fall ill from these practices.
No one has ever gotten sick or even felt ill due to any of these practices. (I know, there's no way to know for sure, but 20+ years pretty much proves my point.)
I plan on hiding all these practices when I IY"H get in law children bcz. I'm terrified I will end up with a snarky daughter in law who thinks much as OP thinks.
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