Every year, around 48 million Americans experience food poisoning. While the poisoning is only fatal in a small percentage of cases, it’s still terrifying to think that the wrong meal could be deadly.
Food safety standards help keep the bar high when it comes to things like quality and handling. Take a look at this guide to understanding how food safety standards are decided and achieved.
Food Safety in Manufacturing
The Food and Drug Administration creates standards to help food manufacturers maintain best practices when producing new products. The goal is to keep everyone at the same level of cleanliness to help avoid the spread of harmful germs to consumers.
If everyone does their part during the manufacturing process, the food that ends up in restaurants and grocery stores is safe to eat. What are the main threats during the manufacturing process when handling food?
For starters, there’s the cleanliness of the facility itself. Most people think of deadly bacteria like salmonella when thinking of foodborne illness.
But a stray piece of glass or other foreign objects in food could be deadly when ingested. It’s important that food manufacturers maintain clean, safe environments like those created by MIDI Labs.
The cleaning products used in a manufacturing plant can also pose a threat to food safety standards. Harsh chemicals have to sanitize work areas and ward off diseases while remaining gentle enough not to contaminate food.
This is a delicate balance that isn’t always easy for food handling facilities to manage. The FDA recommends certain best practices in sterilizing food environments to help keep organizations on track.
Food Safety and Hygiene
Once food leaves a manufacturing plant, it’s on you to maintain good food hygiene. Here are some tips for making sure you meet food safety standards at home.
Clean Hands Often
The first step in avoiding any illness is clean hands. Your hands are more likely to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth making it easy for harmful pathogens to enter the body.
If you can remember to wash your hands after handling raw meats, after going to the bathroom, or touching any surfaces (or people) that haven’t been sanitized, you’re practicing good food safety standards. It’s a good rule of thumb to simply wash your hands right before you handle food just to be sure there’s no possibility of recent contamination.
Don’t Share Utensils
Washing dishes is the highlight of no one’s day. But it’s a necessary inconvenience when cooking multiple courses during a meal.
Avoid sharing utensils, or using one utensil for more than one dish, while you cook. Some dishes might require multiple utensils throughout the preparation.
For example, when cooking raw meat, swap out your utensils after the meat is done cooking. You don’t want bacteria from the raw meat to contaminate your utensil.
Maintaining Food Safety Standards
Food safety standards should be a routine part of your food prep process. Making good food hygiene second nature decreases the chances of possible contamination during mealtime.
As long as food manufacturers do their part, many foodborne illnesses can be avoided with a simple washing of the hands and separating your meals as you cook. For more information and tips, visit our blog for updates.
