Fresh Produce Safety

Fresh produce too, requires as much care at the time of buying as much you would involve at the time of buying meat. Fresh produce requires being stored in a proper manner to ensure that it remains uncontaminated and good to eat.

Following are certain buying tips, which will help you ensure that the fresh produce you are buying is really fresh. First you require seeing that the fruits and vegetables you are buying are clean and not bruised or broken as this can lead breeding of harmful bacteria. While buying cut fruits like half watermelons, etc. make sure that these have been packed and kept in ice immediately after cutting so that it does not become contaminated.

Fruits like oranges, sweet lime, strawberries, etc. should be stored below 40°F so that these remain as fresh. After buying make sure that you are keeping vegetables separately from other fish and poultry items to avoid contamination. Moreover, store eggs, meat and fish separately and vegetables and fruits separately. These storage tips will help you ensure that no contamination of fruits and vegetables taken place inside of home.

There are also some rules to be followed at the time of preparation of this food. These are some preparation tips to help you cook safe food. It is necessary that you wash hands thoroughly before you start cooking, by washing hands means washing hands for at least 20 seconds under warm water with soap. This will ensure that all probable infections bacteria have been cleaned from your hands.

The next step in preparation is washing the vegetables. Before washing it is of extreme importance that any bruised or damaged part is cut away from the vegetable. If any vegetable looks rotten it should be totally discarded. Vegetables should be washed thoroughly under running water until these have been ensured clean. It is important to scrub salads like cucumber, etc. even though you intend to peel these.

Leafy vegetables too, should be washed thoroughly before eating. If you have bought packaged leafy vegetables where it is mentioned, ‘washed before packing’, it might be necessary to wash these, however, if you do it would be better still.

Lastly, it is important that the sprouts are cooked well before eating, since there is a danger of bacteria causing food borne diseases, even the home grown sprouts are at a danger of being contaminated. Therefore, cooking sprouts properly before using these is necessary.

Proper hygiene should be maintained in the kitchen, it is necessary that all countertops, chopping material like chopping boards, knives, etc. are washed with a detergent before and after use. It is also necessary to use separate knives for vegetables and separate ones for meat.

Submitted on January 16, 2014