Clean Hands, Equipment, and Countertops
Bacteria spread throughout the kitchen as our hands touch equipment, food, counters, or cupboards. Wash your hands, surfaces, and utensils often.
- To wash your hands, use soap and hot water for 20 seconds. It takes 20 seconds to sing a chorus of Jingle Bells or the Alphabet Song, so sing along while you wash.
- Wash your hands with hot soapy water before handling food. Wash your hands after using the bathroom, changing diapers, and handling pets.
- Wash your hands after sneezing, coughing, or blowing your nose. Throw away dirty tissues. Don’t put them in your pocket.
- Wash cutting boards, dishes, can openers, utensils, and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing food. Cutting boards should be made of plastic or other nonporous material. These boards should be washed in the dishwasher or in hot soapy water after each use. Replace boards that have cracks and deep cuts.
- To sanitize, clean, or wash surfaces, wipe them with a solution of 1 teaspoon of chlorine bleach in a quart of warm water. Make this solution as you need it, because it loses its strength when it is stored longer than 24 hours.
- To clean kitchen surfaces, use fresh clean cloth towels, dish cloths, or sponges every day. Wash towels and cloths in the hot cycle when you wash clothes. Or use paper towels instead of cloth.
For more information about safe food handling and preparation, call USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline (1-800-535-4555) or FDA’s Food Information and Seafood Hotline (1-800-332-4010), or contact the University’s Extension office in your county.
Cook Food to Proper Temperatures
Foods are properly cooked when they are heated long enough and at a high enough temperature to kill the harmful bacteria that cause food-borne illness.
- Use a clean meat thermometer, which measures the internal temperature of cooked foods, to make sure meat, poultry, casseroles, and other foods are cooked all the way through.
- Cook roasts and steaks to at least 145° F. Whole turkey or chicken should be cooked to 180° F. Fish should be cooked until the flesh is no longer clear and flakes easily with a fork.
- Cook ground beef to at least 160° F. Do not eat ground beef that is still pink.
- Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm. Don’t use recipes in which eggs are raw or only partially cooked. Don’t taste dough or batters that contain raw eggs. Use pasteurized eggs if raw eggs are essential.
- For even cooking in a microwave oven, make sure you stir or rotate the food two or three times. Make sure there no cold spots in the food. Heat thoroughly.
- When reheating soup, sauce, or gravy, bring it to a boil. Reheat other foods thoroughly to at least 165° F.
For more information about safe food handling and preparation, call USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline (1-800-535-4555) or FDA’s Food Information and Seafood Hotline (1-800-332-4010), or contact the University’s Extension office in your county.
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