Harmful bacteria are spread through
cross-contamination. Keeping raw meat, poultry and seafood separate from cooked
or ready-to-eat food is one way to effectively prevent cross-contamination.
Ewilla Castellan-Wong, a senior public health inspector with York Region, says
this process of separation starts “before you even bring your food home.” When
grocery shopping, the inspector recommends “keeping any kind of cooked or
ready-to-eat food well away and separate from any raw meat or unwashed produce.”
This is easily done by utilizing the bags provided in the raw meat and produce
sections, to “make sure your food is appropriately protected.”
Once you’ve bought your groceries it’s important to keep the different types of
food separate as they are bagged, particularly when using reusable bags. “We
actually recommend that you keep a separate bag for each type of food
category,” says Castellan-Wong, one for raw meat, one for cooked or
ready-to-eat foods and another for produce.
York Region also recommends keeping those reusable bags in good repair and
washing them frequently. This will keep them clean and prevent any unnecessary
cross-contamination.
After you’ve brought your groceries home, Castellan-Wong says it’s important to
be diligent about how you store them in the refrigerator. “You want to make
sure that you store any kind of raw meat, poultry or fish on the lower level of
your fridge,” she says. This prevents any dripping from the meat’s raw juices
on to any other food product.
The middle of your fridge should be reserved for unwashed vegetables, while the
top shelf is the perfect place to store any cooked or ready-to-eat foods where
they won’t be contaminated by anything.
It’s important to consider separation during food preparation as well. Using
colour-coding or labelling, Castellan-Wong recommends keeping three different
cutting boards, each to be reserved for different purposes. “For example, maybe
you’ll have a red one that would be used for raw meat, you would have a green
one that you would use for your produce and then you would have a blue or white
one that would be for ready-to-eat food.”
And finally, Castellan-Wong, reminds us
that you should never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw
meat. Remember to wash each plate or
piece of equipment that is used to handle raw meat after using it.
Every year there are
an estimated 11 to 13 million cases of food borne illness or food poisoning in
Canada. Though many people think they only get food poisoning from eating in
restaurants, the truth is that it’s often contracted at home. That’s why it’s
so important to follow the correct food preparation methods of clean, separate,
cook and chill to prevent your family from getting sick.
For more tips on
separating your food to prevent cross-contamination, visit
www.York.ca/foodsafety.
