Office of Health Protection

How to Prevent Foodborne Illness

Clean

• Wash hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds before preparing, serving, and eating food.
• Clean all food preparation surfaces that will come in contact with food.
• Wash fresh fruits and vegetables with plain water before eating or cooking.
• Wash hands, utensils, plates, platters, and countertops after contact with raw meat or poultry and before contact with the same food when cooked.
• Keep dishwashing sponges and cloths clean.
• Serve cooked products on clean plates, with clean utensils.
• Discard all outdated, obviously spoiled, and possibly unsafe food.

Separate

• Do not let raw meat or poultry or their juices come in contact with other foods.
• Enclose individual packages of raw meat and poultry purchased at the grocery store in plastic bags to avoid contaminating other foods.
• Thaw frozen meat or poultry in the refrigerator or in a microwave oven, not on the countertop.
• Use different utensils and platters to prepare food for cooking and to serve food after cooking.

Cook

• Maintain the internal temperature of cooked foods that will be served hot at 140ºF or above.
• Use a meat thermometer to measure proper cooking temperatures.
• Cook ground meat and fresh meat to at least 160ºF.
• Cook fresh poultry to at least 180ºF and ground poultry to at least 170ºF.
• Don't taste meat, poultry, eggs, fish, shellfish, or any other food of animal origin when it's raw or during cooking.
• Cover and reheat leftovers to 165ºF before serving.
• Cook eggs until the yolks and whites are firm.

Chill

• Refrigerate all products marked "keep refrigerated."
• Freeze all products with a "keep frozen" label.
• Keep the refrigerator at 40ºF or below and the freezer at 0ºF or below.
• Keep cold foods cold (40ºF or below) until served.
• Arrange items in the refrigerator and freezer to allow cold air to circulate freely.
• Refrigerate or freeze leftovers in covered shallow (less than 2 inches deep) containers as soon as possible and always within 2 hours of cooking.

Source: Preventing Foodborne Illness, A Guide to Safe Food Handling, USDA, Sept. 1990.