Food poisoning is unpleasant at best—and can be dangerous or even deadly. But avoiding the bacteria that cause food poisoning is tricky, because they’re invisible. Harmful bacteria can live on food, countertops, knives, and hands, and you can’t tell by looking or sniffing whether your food is safe to eat.
Fortunately, there are clear, simple steps you can take to reduce the risk of you and your family getting food poisoning. We call these the Core Four Practices of Food Safety:
- Clean—Keep your hands and cooking surfaces clean to keep bacteria away from your food
- Separate—Keep higher-risk foods like raw meat, seafood, and eggs apart from others to avoid cross-contamination
- Cook—Make sure all food is cooked to hot enough temperatures to kill harmful bacteria
- Chill—Store food safely at temperatures cold enough to prevent bacteria from growing
Clean
Wash hands and surfaces often
We all know how important it is to wash hands after visiting the bathroom. You should be just as diligent about keeping clean in the kitchen! Bacteria can easily spread between your hands, cutting boards, utensils, counter tops and food.
Follow these steps to clean while you cook and prevent food poisoning:
- Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food, and also after using the bathroom, changing diapers, and handling pets.
- Wash your cutting boards, dishes, silverware, and counters with hot soapy water after preparing each food.
- Cloth towels can trap bacteria, so wash them often in the hot cycle of your washing machine. Or better yet, use disposable paper towels to clean up in the kitchen.
- Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water, including those like carrots or squash with skins that you’ll remove.
- Rub firm-skinned fruits and vegetables like potatoes under running tap water or scrub with a clean vegetable brush while rinsing.
FAQs about cleaning and food safety
How long should I wash my hands?
Before touching food, wash your hands thoroughly with warm, soapy water for 20 seconds, according to the CDC. That’s the length of singing “Happy Birthday” twice! Then dry your hands with a clean towel.
Do I need to wash fruits and vegetables? What if I’m going to peel them?
Yes! Rinse all fruits and veggies under running tap water before peeling or cutting them. For those with firm skin, like potatoes, scrub with a clean vegetable brush under running water. This helps remove dirt and bacteria from the surface. Learn more about safely handling and preparing produce.
Should I wash raw meat or poultry before cooking?
Raw chicken is ready to cook; it doesn’t need to be washed first. Washing it can even increase risks: a study by the USDA’s Food Safety Consumer Research Project found that 1 in 7 people who cleaned their sink after washing chicken still had germs in the sink.
If you choose to wash raw chicken, do it as safely as possible:
- Run the water gently over the chicken to reduce splashing.
- Immediately clean the sink and area around the sink with hot, soapy water and sanitize them thoroughly.
- Wash your hands for 20 seconds.
Learn more about how to safely prepare raw chicken, and see official guidance from the CDC on handling raw poultry.
Separate
Don’t cross-contaminate
“Cross-contamination” means different foods coming into contact, which lets bacteria move between them. It’s an easy way for bacteria to spread throughout your kitchen, which puts your family at risk of food poisoning. But cross-contamination is easy to avoid by being careful with how you handle your ingredients, especially raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs.
Follow these steps to avoid cross-contamination while you cook:
- Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs from other foods in your grocery cart, in shopping bags, and in your refrigerator.
- Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood.
- Never put cooked food on a plate that has touched raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs.
FAQs about separating foods and cross-contamination
Can I use the same cutting board for vegetables and raw meat?
For safety and to prevent food poisoning, it’s best to use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for higher-risk foods like raw meat, poultry, and seafood. If you have to reuse the same cutting board (for example, if you don’t have two), then wash it thoroughly with hot, soapy water in between.
Where should I keep raw meat in a refrigerator?
Put raw meat, poultry, and seafood in sealed containers or sealed plastic bags on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. This prevents their juices from dripping onto other foods below them. See how Diane Van of the USDA explains the importance of keeping meat separated from other foods.
Cook
Heat your food to a safe temperature
For bacteria, heat is deadly—and what’s bad for harmful bacteria is good for you! Always cook your food to a hot enough internal temperature to kill the bacteria that cause foodborne illness.
The safe temperature depends on what you’re cooking. Use our safe cooking temperatures chart to find the right temperature for your dish.
Other tips for safely cooking or heating your food:
- Use a food thermometer to quickly and easily check the internal temperature of cooked foods.
- Check the internal temperature in the thickest parts of meat and poultry, e.g. the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast for chicken.
- Remember, color is not a reliable indicator of doneness in meat! A food thermometer is the safe, reliable way to check that your food is cooked thoroughly.
- Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm, not runny. Avoid recipes in which eggs stay raw or only get partially cooked.
- When cooking in a microwave oven, make sure there are no cold spots in food (where bacteria can survive). For best results, cover your food, stir, and rotate it (on a turntable or a couple times by hand) for thorough cooking.
- Bring sauces, soups and gravy to a boil when you reheat them. Heat other leftovers thoroughly to 165 °F to kill harmful bacteria.
FAQs about cooking and safe food temperatures
How can I tell if my meat is done?
A USDA study found that only 55% of people use a food thermometer to check the temperature of their food, even though 88% own a thermometer. But colour, firmness, or time are not reliable ways to tell whether your meat is fully cooked. To prevent foodborne illness, you should always cook all meats to a minimum safe internal temperature as measured with a food thermometer.
How can I tell if my meat is properly cooked if I don’t have a food thermometer?
The only way to know with certainty that meat is properly cooked or reaches a safe internal temperature is by using a food thermometer. In most cases, visual cues are unreliable due to the variables of people’s environments, like lighting, for example. Learn more about determining doneness for meat.
What temperature should chicken, beef, or fish be cooked to?
We have a handy chart for this! In a nutshell, according to the USDA, safe minimum temperatures are:
- Poultry (whole and ground): 165°F (74°C),
- Ground meats (beef, pork, lamb, veal): 160°F (71°C),
- Whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, veal: 145°F (63°C).
Is medium-rare steak safe to eat?
Bad news for lovers of rare steak: the USDA recommends never eating raw or undercooked meat because of the risk of food poisoning, and that includes rare and medium-rare steaks. These preparations simply aren’t cooked enough to kill harmful bacteria. For safety, cook steaks to the minimal safe temperature of 145°F.
Is it okay to eat runny eggs?
Runny yolks are a sign that eggs have not been cooked to a safe temperature, and may contain bacteria like Salmonella that cause food poisoning. For safety’s sake, the FDA recommends not eating runny eggs; instead, cook them until the yolks are firm.
Is it safe to reheat leftovers without thawing them first?
Yes, you can safely reheat frozen leftovers without thawing them first, either in a saucepan, in the microwave, or in the oven. According to the USDA, make sure to kill any harmful bacteria by reheating all leftovers to 165 °F, which will take longer if they aren’t thawed.
See the safe cooking temperature chart for a printable reference on how to safely cook different types of food.
Chill
Refrigerate promptly—Keep your food at 40 °F or below!
Cold temperatures below 40 °F slow the growth of harmful bacteria. That’s why it’s best to refrigerate food right away after shopping or eating. Don’t over-stuff your refrigerator, because cold air needs to be able to circulate.
Keeping your refrigerator at a temperature of 40 °F or below, and your freezer at 0 °F or below, is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of food poisoning. You can use an appliance thermometer to check that the temperature is right.
- Refrigerate or freeze meat, poultry, eggs and other perishables as soon as you get them home from the store.
- Never let raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food or cut fresh fruits or vegetables sit at room temperature for more than two hours (or one hour at above 90 °F). If you’re not cooking it promptly, put it in the fridge or freezer.
- Never thaw food at room temperature. There are three safe ways to thaw food:
- in the refrigerator,
- in cold water, or
- in the microwave.
- If you thaw food in cold water or the microwave, be sure to cook it immediately.
- Always marinate food in the refrigerator, never at room temperature.
- Got lots of leftovers? Divide them into multiple shallow containers so they’ll cool more quickly.
FAQs about safely chilling, refrigerating, and freezing food
How long can I keep leftovers in the refrigerator?
According to the USDA, it’s best to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and eat them within 3 to 4 days. Check out this handy chart of leftover storage times for more information.
Can I refreeze previously frozen leftovers?
Sometimes there are leftover “leftovers.” According to the USDA, yes, it is safe to refreeze food that remains after reheating previously frozen leftovers to 165 °F. Always check the temperature with a food thermometer.
What is the best and safest way to thaw frozen food?
There are three safe, reliable ways of thawing food. Thawing in the refrigerator is the safest method, but also takes longest. Faster methods are thawing in cold water or in the microwave—but with these methods, you should cook the thawed food right away.
In a hurry? It’s safe to cook food directly from frozen! Just allow enough time to cook it thoroughly, which will take longer than if it’s thawed.
Is the food in my fridge safe to eat after a power outage?
You can eat refrigerated food after a power outage of up to 4 hours if you keep the doors closed. A full freezer can keep food safe for up to 48 hours, while a half-full one can keep it safe for 24 hours. After these time limits, you should get rid of perishable food: “When in doubt, throw it out.”