[Intro music]
Cross-contamination of food happens when
harmful micro-organisms from raw food such as
meat or vegetables, is transferred to a ready-to-eat food
such as salads or sandwiches for example.
Ready to eat foods will not be prepared
or cooked any further, so contamination at this point
can lead to food poisoning.
It's important to prevent cross-contamination
and be cautious of it while preparing food.
[music] Shocking isn't it.
Well here are some tips on how to prevent cross-contamination.
Cover food as much as possible with plastic food wrap.
And make sure it's pretty tight.
Then keep your protein refrigerated at all times.
If you don't need it, then it should be in the fridge.
Keep raw food separated from ready-to-eat food
in your fridge.
So here I have some ready to eat quiche
with my dairy products.
And I have some ready to eat food on the bottom.
Then I'm going to place my chicken on the bottom shelf
that way the food will be separated from my
ready-to-eat food and if there is any dripping
from the chicken, cross-contamination won't occur.
Always wash your hands after handling raw food.
Designate different cutting boards for different food.
For example, use the green one here for your vegetables,
the red one for your meats,
the blue one for your seafood,
and maybe the yellow one for your poultry.
These types of cutting boards are called Chop Chop.
They are a great buy because they are inexpensive,
quite durable and when they are too damaged,
just throw them away.
Best of all they are easy to maintain
and to be fully sanitized you can put them in your dishwasher.
Clean and sanitize knives between uses on different food.
And place only sanitized knives back in the rack.
Do not peel your vegetables on top of the garbage,
but do it over a bowl.
That way you can take the bowl to the garbage
and dispose all the scraps.
Wash plates between uses or even better use different ones.
For example, I'm going to place that on the barbecue.
The plates will be dirty.
I might rinse it, but bacteria are invisible
and they will still be there.
So do not reuse the same plate,
use a new plate in order to put the cooked meat over.
Do not use the same utensil to cook and to taste
the food because germs will be transferred to the food.
Use a spoon to taste the food and change it each time.
If you don't have a chef jacket then use a bowl
or anything you want and put several spoons.
That is something I usually do with my students,
I taste with one side, taste,
rectify the seasoning and then turn the spoon
and taste with the other side.
I know, but it's a little tip.
If you hurt yourself and wear a bandage,
make sure to wear a disposable glove
before touching any food item.