The food supply in the United States is among the safest in the world. However, when certain disease-causing bacteria or pathogens contaminate food, they can cause foodborne illness, often called “food poisoning.” The federal government estimates that there are about 48 million cases of foodborne illness annually – the equivalent of sickening 1 in 6 Americans each year.
Know the Symptoms
Bacteria usually cause illness within 1 to 3 days of eating the contaminated food. However, illness can occur within 20 minutes or up to six weeks later. Symptoms of foodborne illness can include vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain – and flu-like symptoms, such as fever, headache, and body aches.
Handle Foods Safely
Most healthy people will recover from a foodborne illness within a short period of time, some can develop chronic, severe, or even life-threatening illnesses. Additionally, pregnant women, young children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems (such as transplant patients and individuals with HIV/AIDS, cancer, or diabetes) are at a higher risk for foodborne illness. To prevent foodborne illness at home, there are simple steps you can take to protect you, your family and friends from getting ill:
Keep your hands and surfaces clean:
- Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food and after using the bathroom, changing diapers, and touching pets.
- Wash your cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot, soapy water after preparing each food item.
- Consider using paper towels to clean up kitchen surfaces. If you use cloth towels, launder them after use.
- Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water, including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten. Scrub firm produce with a clean produce brush.
- Never wash poultry before preparing it. This can spread dangerous bacteria around the area.
Handle and store foods properly:
- Separate uncooked meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs from other foods at the grocery store and in your kitchen. Store these items below other items in your refrigerator.
- Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a different one for raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
- Never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs until the plate has been washed properly.
- Don’t reuse marinades used on raw foods.
Cook foods properly:
- Color and texture are unreliable indicators of safety. Using a food thermometer is the only way to ensure the safety of meat, poultry, seafood, and egg products for all cooking methods. These foods must be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature to destroy any harmful bacteria.
- Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm. Only use recipes in which eggs are cooked or heated thoroughly.
- When cooking in a microwave oven, cover food, stir, and rotate for even cooking. If there is no turntable, rotate the dish by hand once or twice during cooking. Always allow standing time, which completes the cooking, before checking the internal temperature with a food thermometer.
- When reheating foods, they should be cooked to 165° F.
Keep foods that grow bacteria cold:
- Use an appliance thermometer to be sure your refrigerator is consistently 40° F or below and the freezer temperature is 0° F or below.
- Refrigerate or freeze meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, and other perishables within 2 hours of cooking.
- Never thaw food at room temperature, such as on the countertop. Safe ways to defrost food include in the refrigerator, under cold running water, or in the microwave. Cook food immediately after thawing when thawing in a microwave.
- Marinate food in the refrigerator.
- If you have large amounts of food, split it up into smaller portions before cooling.