How warm we already have a good morning!! The heat and relaxation of summer are often the ideal breeding ground for food poisoning. However, contrary to what many think, are produced more at home than outside the home, and almost always due to poor maintenance or inadequate hygiene. That’s why on Weekend with Pink Rose we urgently need food safety tips to limit riskswhich come from the expert in food safety and author of the book ‘Eat safely eating everything’ Beatriz Robles.
It is true that during the holidays customs are relaxed, we skip schedules, we eat out, sometimes we neglect some hygiene measures, we prolong the after-dinner but, why does food spoil more in summer? Robles explains that “in summer we have the heat factor and it plays against. Los microorganisms grow very well just at these temperatures. If there is a food contaminated by a salmonella bacterium, that bacterium is not going to do anything to us because we have to do what is known as the ‘infective dose’, that is, many more bacteria to give us the infection. But if we give that single bacterium the optimal conditions for it to reproduce and it does so quickly, it can reach those necessary units. And those conditions are a food to grow in and heat, that’s the risk of these summer meals.”
The official data speak of a higher incidence of food poisoning in the home than outside it. How do they come about? How do bacteria get into our food? Where do they come from? The expert details that “food is not sterile unless it has been sterilizedthey have microorganisms that may have reached them through contact with our skin, they may already be there because they come from primary production, etc., but they are hygienic, that is, sufficiently clean. What we have to do is the final step, washing or cooking for those who require it.”.
For all these reasons, Beatriz explains that microbial contaminations lead to food poisoningwhich “do not only consist of gastrointestinal problems, in those vomiting and diarrhea, but also sometimes they can have serious consequences such as meningitis or botulism, a very serious disease as well. Sometimes we tend to minimize food poisoning thinking that it is a quick illness and many times it is true, but other times it is not and there are cases that can be serious.
The objective is, therefore, prevent dangerous bacteria from reaching our food and preventing them from multiplyingand for this we have to maintain scrupulous hygiene and handle food correctly to reduce risks: “First, a sick person should not handle food. In healthy people, the first thing is to wash our hands and avoid practices that we may not be aware that we are doing but that can dirty them, such as blowing our noses or using a kitchen cloth to dry surfaces or washing and drying our hands or cleaning the countertop. . Must use single-use paper to dry”.
More advice Beatriz gives: “After cooking, refrigerate the food as soon as possible, do not leave it at room temperature, since it is the most dangerous. It is one of the big mistakes we make in the kitchen because temperature is one of the fundamental instruments we have to prevent the growth of bacteria because cold temperatures, refrigeration, stop that growth and it will be an ally. If we leave them on the counter at room temperature, we are creating good conditions for microorganisms to multiply and that is where they can give us a problem. When cooking food, to the fridge as soon as possible, it shouldn’t be more than an hour until we do it. If we put them in quickly, it is true that the refrigerator works more, energetically it is not the best, but this tempering should never exceed 60 minutes”.
The key food arrives: eggs, which are defined by Beatriz Robles as “the daily food that is typically related to food poisoning”so here are the commands: “The first thing, when we get from the supermarket, directly to the fridgewe must refrigerate them on the shelves, not on the door because that is where there are more temperature fluctuations and this can cause bacteria to grow that annoy them. And when cooking, take out only those that we are going to use, not the whole egg cup and there we can wash them in tap water, but never when we get home, immediately before making them”.
To prepare food we usually use boardsbut of course, we usually have one, at most two, but normally there is only one, and Robles tells how minimize risks: “Always clean it between one food and another, otherwise microorganisms can pass through it from one food to another. We are going to put the barriers in place and we are going to cut whatever it is, we clean, we cut more, we clean, always cleaning. And this applies to knives as well.”
There is another matter that raises doubts for many: expiration and preferential consumptionwhich the expert adds that “interpreting them well is one of the keys to avoiding food waste”: “Sometimes we throw away food that could be perfectly consumed and other times we eat food thinking that nothing is going to happen and it can give us poisoning. Expiration date is for highly perishable foods, it is the safety of the food, consuming them until that day is safe and after that day it is not safe; best before date is for less perishable foodssuch as preserves or milk bricks, in pastries without filling, etc., and he tells us about the quality of the product, until that day maintains all its sensory properties but from that date that quality can be reduced a little, maybe it does not have that original texture or it does not taste the same, but it is still safe and can be consumed, as long as the container has not been opened. Once opened, the secondary expiration date comes into play, the one that tells us ‘once opened consume before X days’, that is the one that should serve as a reference”.
The freezer, that mixed bag. Beatriz recommends the FIFO method: “First In, First Out. First thing in, first thing out. When we go to place a food in the freezer, we put the ones that were already there before so that we are aware that they are there and do not lose sight of them. It is also important to label them with what it is and the date. And it is important to know that what is inside will be able to eat without problem, but the quality will suffer because they can go rancid, changes in texture, it’s not good. We have to know that this is going to depend a lot on the food”, he concludes.
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