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.

4. Cutting boards in restaurants are color-coded for the various raw products handled during preparation. The reason for this is to avoid cross contamination, the transfer of micro-organisms from one place to another. At home you are using one cutting board for all raw meats, produce, and vegetables.

-A vinegar/water solution helps with sanitizing at home.

5. One of the surest ways to get food poisoning is with leftovers. Often times we do not reheat them to the proper minimum temperature of 165 degrees, not to mention the shelf life factor. Storage can be an issue as well. The center of food cools the slowest, and the larger the leftover storage container, the more likely there will be bacteria growth.

-Use small, shallow containers for storing leftovers.

6. This is the absolute worst way to defrost meats; you are exposing it to bacteria pretty much the entire time. Micro waving is a good defrosting method, but you must cook the product immediately. Putting the item in the fridge is the ideal because the food stays below the 40 degree mark. Placing the frozen product under running cold water is another safe method.

-Make sure to place the defrosting meat on plates or anything that can catch the liquid dripping from the melting product.

7. The food danger zone is between 40-140 degrees. Anytime you allow food products to sit at these temperatures you are asking for trouble. Bacteria can double in a matter of minutes in this zone. Everything about food borne illness comes back to this concept.

-Don't leave raw product out for long before you prepare it for cooking.

8. Another major factor in food poisoning is when foods are not cooled down fast enough. Restaurants have rules and mandates which require them to get a hot product, like a soup or a sauce to below 41 degrees as quickly as possible. They even have methods and utensils which help speed up the cooling process.

-Get that cooked product you won't eat into the fridge as quickly as possible.

So how did you do? Still think that chicken dinner you made the other night was bacteria free?

Trust in restaurants. They are in the business of food temperature management and it is in their best interest to do so. Going out to eat is not something everyone does all the time, yet 25% of the US population experiences some kind of food poisoning every year. Most of what we eat is made at home so check your fears at the front door folks because restaurants are still safe places to eat.