9 Food Safety Mistakes You May Not Know You're Making
Protect yourself against a surprise case of food poisoning
By Trisha Calvo
You know you shouldn’t thaw frozen meat on the kitchen counter, put cooked food back on a plate that you used for raw meat, or eat raw cookie dough. But there’s more to avoiding food poisoning than that.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 48 million people get sick from something they ate each year; 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die. Sometimes the cause isn’t clear.
To help you stay as safe as possible, here are nine food safety mistakes you might not realize you’re making and what to do instead.
1. Not Washing Your Hands Often Enough
People know they should wash their hands when preparing food, but they don’t do it as often or as well as they should. In an experiment conducted by the Department of Agriculture, researchers evaluated the food safety habits of almost 400 people as they prepared turkey burgers and a salad in a test kitchen. In 97 percent of the instances when the participants should have washed their hands, they didn’t do so properly.
A safer move: Wash your hands before you start preparing food and anytime you touch raw meat—for example, after you arrange raw chicken in a baking dish or make burger patties. Every time you wash, wet your hands, use soap, and rub vigorously for at least 20 seconds before rinsing your hands in running water. Not rubbing hands was the biggest hand-washing mistake people made in the USDA study.
2. Being Careless While Seasoning Food
That USDA experiment—which has been conducted more than once, with similar findings—also highlighted the fact that improper hand-washing can transfer bacteria to some unexpected places. Salt, pepper, and spice containers could be a significant source of cross-contamination in the kitchen, according to the authors of a new report from a recent run of that experiment, published in the Journal of Food Protection.
The researchers doused the ground turkey with a harmless virus to act as a stand-in for disease-causing bacteria, then tracked it. Nearly half the people spread the virus from their hands to salt and pepper shakers and other spice containers that they used while cooking, more than any other surface. For example, just over 10 percent contaminated faucet handles and about 20 percent contaminated soap dispensers. “Bacteria such as salmonella and campylobacter can survive on hard surfaces for several hours,” says Sana Mujahid, PhD, manager of food safety research at Consumer Reports.
“In addition to more obvious surfaces like cutting boards, garbage can lids, and refrigerator handles, here’s something else that you need to pay attention to when you’re trying to be clean and sanitary in your kitchen,” said a co-author of the report, Donald Schaffner, PhD, an extension specialist in food science and a distinguished professor at Rutgers University, in a news release. “Our research shows that any spice container you touch when you’re preparing raw meat might get cross-contaminated.”
A safer move: Be sure to wash your hands before you reach for seasoning containers. It also may be worth wiping down the containers after cooking, according to the study. Or you could pour out the spices you plan to use beforehand into a small dish, then sprinkle them from the dish onto your meal, discarding what you don’t use. That way, you’d avoid touching the containers during food prep.
3. Hanging on to Your Kitchen Sponge
It may seem environmentally friendly to use your sponge until it starts to fall apart, but sponges are hotbeds for bacterial buildup because they come into contact with many food particles and are very difficult to keep clean. So much so, in fact, that the Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code for restaurants states that sponges can’t be used on cleaned food contact services. (Think about the wipe down of tables or kitchen counters.)
A safer move: If you wash dishes or kitchen counters with a sponge, never use it to wipe up meat juices; use a paper towel or a cleaning wipe instead. Sanitize the sponge every day by running it through a dishwasher. Or you can microwave it for 1 minute (wet) if you’re sure it doesn’t contain any metal and you remove it from the microwave carefully. (It will be really hot.) Both methods are effective at killing bacteria, yeast, and mold, according to a study from the Department of Agriculture.
After use, always rinse and squeeze out the sponge so it dries quicker. But even if you’re scrupulous about cleaning, replace the sponge every week or two—and throw it away immediately if it starts to smell (a telltale sign that bacteria is building). Better yet, consider switching to dishcloths, which you can use for a day, then toss into the laundry.
4. Reusing the Same Shopping Bag
Totes made out of cloth can be a breeding ground for bacteria. “Juices can drip from packages of raw meat and contaminate the outside of the packaging and the bag,” Mujahid says.
A safer move: Don’t switch back to plastic. Instead, wash your cloth bags frequently in the washing machine using hot water. At the store, consider slipping the raw meat you buy into a plastic produce bag and sealing it tightly before you put it into your cloth grocery bag at checkout. If you want to be even more cautious, pack all uncooked meat, poultry, and seafood in disposable bags, or designate one cloth bag for such foods.
5. Keeping Meat on the Top Shelf of the Refrigerator
Disease-causing bacteria from raw meat or poultry can spread to foods you wouldn’t suspect and make you seriously ill. Case in point: A few years ago, 60 people who worked at the same Connecticut company were sickened with E. coli O157, a potentially deadly bacteria. When health officials investigated, they discovered that all the employees had eaten chicken tenders in the company’s cafeteria. That was puzzling because chicken isn’t a typical source of this type of E. coli. It turns out that it wasn’t in this case, either. The officials discovered that the real culprit was partly cooked ground beef that had been stored right above the already-roasted chicken tenders. Juices from the beef dripped on the chicken, which was served without further cooking.
A safer move: Keep raw meats, poultry, and seafood on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, where it’s cooler anyway. Be sure they’re securely stored in containers or sealed plastic bags to prevent the juices from contaminating other foods. Clean up any spills in the fridge immediately, and at least once a month thoroughly clean shelves and all other surfaces inside. For an extra measure of food safety, wipe them down with a mixture of 1 teaspoon of bleach in 1 quart of water.
6. Rinsing Poultry Before Cooking
There’s no culinary or cleanliness benefit to doing this, and it could make you sick. Washing the bird could splash bacteria all over your sink, your countertops, and nearby utensils or dishes.
A safer move: Skip this step and save yourself some time.
7. Scrolling While Cooking
Mobile phones and tablets have become kitchen staples, whether to look up recipes, play music, text, or use social media. Almost half the 4,000-plus people who participated in the 2016 Food Safety Survey conducted by the FDA and the USDA used a mobile device while cooking, but only about a third washed their hands afterward.
Although no studies specifically link mobile device use and food poisoning, it makes sense that cell phones and tablets could be a vector. Research has found that they’re teeming with bacteria, which can be carried from your hands to your food. You can also transfer bacteria from the food to your phone. In the USDA turkey burger experiment, 6 percent of the people contaminated their mobile devices.
A safer move: Some of the people in the Food Safety Survey said that they tried to avoid cross-contamination by using their pinkies, elbows, or knuckles to touch their phones. But a better bet is to avoid touching your phone while you’re cooking, and if you can’t, wash your hands immediately afterward.
8. Not Checking the Refrigerator Temperature
Some types of disease-causing bacteria can breed and spread rapidly in your refrigerator if the temperature inside isn’t cold enough.
A safer move: Use a refrigerator thermometer to check the temperature regularly. It should be below 40° F (our experts say 37° F is ideal), and the freezer should be no higher than 0° F for optimal food safety.
9. Allowing Pets on Kitchen Counters
The Royal Society for Public Health in the U.K. recommends that you keep pets out of your kitchen entirely because they can spread pathogens. If that’s not practical, at least keep your cat or other pet off the kitchen counters and dining tables. (Remember, cats walk into and out of a litter box!)
A safer move: Keep counters and tables free of food so your cat doesn’t get a treat when she jumps up on them, which would reinforce the behavior. Or try this tip from the Animal Humane Society: Buy several inexpensive plastic placemats and cover one side with double-sided tape. Put them out on the counters and tables when you aren’t using them. Cats don’t like the sticky feeling and will soon learn to avoid the area. If all else fails, at least clean your counters and tables before preparing food.
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