June 7th marks World Food Safety Day, established by the United Nations in 2018. It is one of the most important "holidays" of the year but often goes unnoticed amidst the tribal media focused on political disputes and celebrity scandals (or vice versa).
Food safety is one of the key issues throughout the farm-to-table chain. Contamination is a significant cause of food waste and unrecognized hazards to health and life, even to the point of endangering humanity. Have you seen "The Last of Us"? The cause of the apocalypse in that story is precisely food contaminated with fungi. Fungi, bacteria, viruses, mechanical and chemical contaminants, as well as factors such as temperature, humidity, and light. Every year, foodborne illnesses affect 10% of the global population.
It is also important to take care and implement some basic food safety principles at home (and while shopping) to avoid health problems.
At home:
1. Maintain cleanliness.
- Wash your hands frequently and clean kitchen work surfaces and utensils thoroughly. Remember to regularly clean the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets.
- Remember to regularly replace sponges, dishcloths, and scrub brushes. Here, I believe hygiene and food safety should take precedence over ecology. It's great if you use eco-friendly and natural cloths and cleaning agents (which are usually more expensive), but not if it means that the natural sponge will decay or the natural cleaner won't clean properly. There's no golden rule for how often to replace sponges and cloths. You need to figure it out for yourself, but if something starts to smell unpleasant, it's a sign that it's time for a new one.
- Rinse sponges and scrub brushes thoroughly in the kitchen at the end of the day, as there may be food residues on them. Hang dishcloths and kitchen towels to dry, for example, on the edge of the table. No, they don't dry properly on hooks.
- I might further challenge the ideology of ecologism and zero waste, but items such as gloves (preferably nitrile and preferably blue) and paper towels are important for food safety and hygiene, even if they are not essential in the kitchen.
2. Separate workstations.
- Separate dirty and raw products from washed and cooked ones. You don't necessarily have to use separate cutting boards and knives, but if you've been cutting raw vegetables on a board and then you're cutting carrots for a salad that won't be cooked, pay extra attention to cleanliness. Thoroughly wash the cutting board and knife. The rule here is simple: what goes into your mouth without heat treatment requires special hygiene care.
- If possible, separate areas or zones in the kitchen for peeling, washing, cutting, and ready-to-eat dishes. It's easiest to achieve this in a plant-based kitchen because animal products require additional areas for raw meat, eggs, and cheese.
- It's important to be aware of the existence of dirty and clean zones in the house. Typical dirty places include the hallway, entrance to the apartment, and the toilet. This issue is particularly important in households where the toilet is sometimes connected to the kitchen by a wall, or the entire apartment consists of one room, or worse, something called a "studio," which combines a laundry room, toilet, and playroom in one space with the kitchen. The kitchen area should be maximally separated and somehow isolated from the "dirty" parts of the house, the toilet, the entrance from outside where mud is tracked in, and sometimes even dog feces, not only in the forest, like in my case, but also in the city, not just dog feces.
3. Cooking kills almost all harmful microorganisms. However, remember two things:
- Some products require longer cooking times to reach the appropriate internal temperature.
- Cooking does not eliminate toxins produced by microorganisms, so boiling food held under conditions favorable for bacterial growth, such as room temperature, will not provide sufficient safety.
4. Therefore, proper cooling and refrigerating cooked products immediately after they have cooled is important. The proper storage temperature for food is below 5 degrees Celsius. It's good to use a "homemade shock cooler" for chilling.
5. Pay attention to freshness and expiration dates. If you transfer products from their original packaging, label them with the name and expiration date. Make sure that leftovers from uneaten dishes or unused products do not remain in the refrigerator or pantry. Follow the "first in, first out" rule. Use products purchased earlier before those purchased later. Maintain order so that new products are at the back of the shelf, while older ones with a shorter shelf life or open packages are at the front. Pay attention to whether the place where you shop is clean and if the products you buy are fresh. Are raw products (especially meat and eggs) separated from cooked ones? Does the staff use gloves? Does the same person handle money (an enormous amount of microorganisms) and food?
6. Limit or preferably eliminate meat, processed meats, and animal products because they pose the greatest risk (especially raw meat) in terms of microorganisms and toxins.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) provide materials on their websites that discuss the basic principles of food safety in production, sales, and at home. Interestingly, FAO materials (among others) are licensed under Creative Commons, in the same version as the content I publish on the website. I will return to this topic because it is worth emulating, not only in the kitchen.
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