Food Safety is not all about packaged food or food from restaurants. There are things that we should take care of the food at home, key one being the temperature.
Indian cuisine has a lot of cooking. While cooking not only makes the food easy to digest, it also kills any micro organisms that may be present. Hence all food items should be cooked adequately to kill the micro organisms and the core temperature of the food should reach at least 75 degrees to be considered safe. Cooked food should be kept at 65 degrees and cold food must be maintained below 5 degrees. Food should not be left outside fridge for more than 2hrs as bacteria causing food poisoning thrives at temp between 5 – 60 degree centigrade and at these temperatures, bacteria can double in as little as 20mins. In case you left the food outside for more than 2 hrs, you must reheat the food to 74degree before consuming.
Another way to control the microbial activity is to store the food at the right temperature. Refrigerator should be maintained 4 degrees and the freezer at -18 degree centigrade. If you are experiencing that the food is getting spoilt quickly, your refrigerator may be stuffed, blocking the air vents, and thus not maintaining the required temperature. Care should be taken not to put food prone to spoilage in the door as this is the area subject to most temperature fluctuations.
In case of frozen food, defrost food in the refrigerator, under running water or in a microwave. If you don’t have the time to defrost, just cook it from the frozen state, it is perfectly safe.
In case of frozen food, defrost food in the refrigerator, under running water or in a microwave. If you don’t have the time to defrost, just cook it from the frozen state, it is perfectly safe.
You may also want to refer to additional home maintenance tips at tenanted.in
