Don’t Spread Bacteria in Your Kitchen (2304)

Cross-contamination is a great food hazard in your kitchen. According to microbiologists, this happens whenever bacteria are transferred into cooked foods by utensils or fingers that have picked up the bacteria from raw foods or other sources.

Uncooked food usually contains bacteria. Most bacteria are harmless, but food may have food poisoning bacteria despite strict inspections, hygienic handling and other precautions.

The bacteria salmonella can be found on fresh meat and poultry. Although you can kill salmonella if you cook these foods properly, there is a danger that you can spread salmonella from these products when you prepare them in conjunction with other foods. Unless you wash the knife, the cutting board, and your hands with soap and water before you chop salad vegetables or other foods that are not going to be cooked, you can transfer these bacteria to those foods. You could wind up eating a fresh vegetable salad teeming with salmonella.

The safe way to prepare raw meats or poultry and other foods is to use the following approach: After cutting up the fresh meat, you should wash the knife, cutting board and your hands with soap and water, and then chop the fresh vegetables or other foods. Because the fresh meat has been in contact with the knife, the cutting board, and your hands, consider all that contacted the raw meat as contaminated.

The most common food poisoning bacteria have different characteristics, but they thrive when you mishandle food. They are easy to kill during cooking, but they can grow again on warm food if it is re-contaminated.

Perfringens bacteria grow and multiply in large masses of food when you have cooked out the oxygen, when you do not quickly cook the food, and/or you reheat it for use. Refrigerating gravy or stock in a large kettle, or holding such foods for a long period of time at less than 150 degrees F will encourage perfringens to grow. Watch that temperature!

Staphylococcus also grows best in warm, not cold or hot, temperatures. It lives on the skin, in sores and pimples, and in respiratory passages of humans and animals.

It is easy to transmit to foods and grows well in a warm kitchen. Staph bacteria produce a toxin, or poison, that causes illness; this toxin is highly resistant to heat. It is not easy to destroy, so reheating food in which staph toxin has already had a chance to develop will not assure its safety. You must prevent its development in the first place.

High standards of cleanliness, strict adherence to recommended food handling procedures, and proper holding temperatures can prevent foodborne illnesses.

For more information on food safety, contact your local extension office.

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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