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Food Safety Cooking Series

Now that you're back at home, store foods promptly and properly.

Rinse fresh fruits and vegetable under running water, including things like oranges and bananas whose skins won't be eaten.

Break out the soap and water and give your hands a thorough scrub, along with work areas and tools. Clean work surfaces, hands, and cooking equipment again and again during food preparation.

To clean up spills, paper towels that are thrown away after use are also more sanitary than cloth towels which can provide a great breeding ground for germs.

Don't trust the dial in the back of your refrigerator. Settings like cold, colder, and coldest or a 1-10 dial aren't good enough when it comes to food safety. Invest in thermometers for your refrigerator and freezer, then keep the refrigerator temperature at 40° and the freezer temperature at 0°.

Now that your cold storage is at the proper temperature, remember this: don't store meats in refrigerator where meat juices can drip down on top of other items. Also, pay attention to the "use or freeze by" date on the packaging, and be sure to act accordingly.

• Proceed to Lesson Three