Preventive Medicine offers safe food preparation tips

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Preventive Medicine offers safe food preparation tips

By Spc. Vincent Farally

WRAMC Preventive Medicine

The holiday season is fast approaching, and Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Environ-mental Health Section is providing people with safe food preparation tips to help prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses.

Things to keep in mind while preparing your holiday meals are:

Thawing: Plan ahead and allow approximately 24 hours for each 4 to 5 pounds of turkey in a refrigerator set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Frozen turkeys should not be left on the back porch, in the car trunk, in the basement, counter top or any place where temperatures cannot be constantly monitored.

Cooking: Buy and use a meat thermometer. Dark meat takes longer to cook, so always insert the thermometer in the thickest innermost part of the turkey thigh and⁄or the thickest part of the breast. A whole turkey and turkey parts are safe when cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit as measured with a food thermometer.

Handling: Minimize bare hand contact with the food being prepared. If someone is sick, the person should not be allowed in the food preparation area. Pre-cut larger items prior to serving to reduce the number of people touching and or contacting the food item. Clean food contact surfaces thoroughly avoiding cross contamination of food items.

The most important protection barrier against food-borne illnesses is to ensure proper hand-washing procedures are used when handling food — 90 percent of all food-borne illnesses are caused by not thoroughly washing hands.

Education is the best prevention to ensuring a safe and risk free holiday. For more information, visit the Environmental Health Web site on the WRAMC intranet, or call (202) 782-3962.