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Tag: Food Safety

It’s Lunch Time!

Posted on by djbechard

As school starts, it’s time to thinking about nutrition and food safety for school lunch. If you pack lunch for your child, keep these tips in mind:

  • Have your child help with shopping a preparation for their lunch. Chances are your child will eat the whole lunch!
  • Add colorful fruits and vegetables that are ready-to-eat.
  • Change up the menu during the week so meals don’t get boring.
  • Use an insulated lunch bag with a small ice pack. Freeze juice boxes or fruit cups to help keep food cold.
  • Limit convenience foods that add extra fat, sodium, and sugar.
  • Prepare lunches the night before. Refrigerate cold items and add to the lunch bag in the morning.

Source: Iowa State University Extension

By: Jamie Rathbun

Canning Summer Produce? Let Us Help?

Posted on by djbechard

Canning your own garden produce or farmer’s market purchase can be rewarding and a great way to save your food for later use.

Food preservation recommendations have been updated. If you are new to canning, are using recipes that are more than 5 years old, or haven’t canned in a few years, it is important to start out by getting educating yourself on preserving food safely to prevent foodborne illness.

For canning fruits, pickles, jams, jellies, and most tomato products, a water bath canner or large stock pot with a lid and rack is needed. Water bath canners have fitted lids and removable perforated or shaped wire racks. The canner must be deep enough that at least one or two inches of briskly boiling water covers the tops of jars during the entire water bath processing.

For canning plain vegetables, some tomato products, and all meats, a pressure canner is needed. Today’s pressure canners may have a weighted gauge or a dial gauge for indicating and regulating pressure. Dial gauges should be checked for accuracy once per year.

With either method of canning, always read the manufacturer’s instructions before canning any food. Be aware that some canners cannot be used on glass stovetops.

Learn more about water bath and pressure canning at www.rrc.k-state.edu/preservation.

If you have questions about canning safely, need trusted canning recipes, or would like to have your pressure canning dial gauge checked for accuracy contact Jamie Rathbun, 785-524-4432 or jrathbun@ksu.edu.

By: Jamie Rathbun

Spice Up Snacks and Meals with Salsa

Posted on by djbechard

Add taste without adding a lot of calories. A combination of tomatoes, onions, and peppers can add zest to chips. A mixture of fruit, herbs, onions and pepper added to meat or fish can add unique flavors to dishes. There are a variety of salsa options for different preferences and dishes such as spicy, hot, sweet, herbal, and aromatic.

Salsa ingredients and preparation tips:

  • Keep cut fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, and peaches from turning brown by coating them with an acidic juice such as lemon, orange, or pineapple juice. Or use a commercial produce protector and follow the manufacturer’s directions.
  • Cover and refrigerate cut fruit and veggies until ready to serve.
  • Most salsas taste best if refrigerated for about an hour before serving to let the flavors blend.

Serve salsa safely.

  • Perishable foods like dips, salsas, and cut fruit and vegetables should not sit at room temperature for more than two hours.
  • If you will be serving items such as these for a longer period than this, set out a smaller bowl and then replace it with another one when it is empty.
  • Do not add fresh dip or salsa to dip or salsa that has been sitting out.
  • Refrigerate and use up any dip or salsa that has not been served within three to four days of preparation.

Source: University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension

By: Jamie Rathbun

What Do Those Dates Mean?

Posted on by djbechard

Most of us don’t want to serve “outdated” food to our families, but we also don’t want to throw food away unnecessarily. So how can we keep ourselves and our families from getting sick from eating food that is past its prime of safety, but also not waste food?

  • The only food product on which expiration dates are federally regulated is infant formula. Therefore, you should NOT buy or use baby formula after its “use-by” date, for both safety and nutritional reasons.
  • Some states do require dating for foods, but other than infant formula, there is not regulated food dating system across the United States. Dates are put on products in a variety of ways. The United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) does provide the following definitions for various terms used on food product labels.
    • “Sell by” date: Tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before that date.
    • “Best if used by (or before)” date: Recommended for best flavor or quality. It is NOT a purchase or safety date.
    • “Use by” date: The last date recommended by the manufacturer for the use of the product while at peak quality.

*Note that these dates generally refer to food quality, rather than safety. However, they can give a general idea of how long the food has been in the market.

  • Many canned foods are required to have a packing code, which enables manufactures to rotate their stock and locate their products in the event of a recall. These codes are NOT meant for consumers to interpret in any way as use-by dates (unless they are clearly marked as a use-by date).

By: Jamie Rathbun

Food Safety While Eating Outdoors

Posted on by djbechard

Picnic and barbecue season offers a lot of opportunities for outdoor fun with family and friends. But these warm weather events also present opportunities for foodborne bacteria to thrive. As food heats up in summer temperatures, bacteria multiply rapidly.

To protect yourself, your family, and friends from foodborne illness during warm-weather months, safe food handling when eating outdoors is critical.

  • Keep Cold Food Cold. Place cold food in a cooler with ice or frozen gel packs. Cold food should be stored at 40oF or below to prevent bacterial growth. Meat, poultry, and seafood may be packed while still frozen so that they stay colder longer.
  • Organize Cooler Contents. Consider packing beverages in one cooler and perishable foods in another. That way, as picnickers open and reopen the beverage cooler to replenish their drinks, the perishable foods won’t be exposed to warm outdoor air temperatures.
  • Keep Hot Foods Hot. Hots foods should be kept at an internal temperature of 140oF or warmer. This is the temperature that is required to keep bacteria at bay. Use a food thermometer to check. Use or keep food hot in chafing dishes, slow cookers, and warming trays.
  • Remember the 2 Hour Rule. Discard any perishable food left out at room temperature for more than 2 hours, unless you are keeping it hot or cold. If the food is being served in a place where the temperature is above 90oF, the safe-holding time is reduced to 1 hour.
  • Don’t Cross Contaminate. Be sure to keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood securely wrapped. This keeps their juices from contaminating prepared/cooked foods or foods that will be eaten raw, such as fruits and vegetables.

By: Jamie Rathbun

Does “Green” Mean Clean?

Posted on by djbechard

Regular use of cloth bags is considered important to “save the environment,” but isn’t personal and family health just as important? The inside and outside of reusable grocery bags can be a breeding ground for dangerous foodborne bacteria which can pose a serious risk to our health.

Reusable bags if not properly washed between uses, create the potential for cross contamination of foods.

When transporting foods, keep food safety in mind. Juices from meats can leak from packaging and contaminate ready-to-eat foods like fruits and vegetables in the cloth bag. A good rule-of-thumb is to put raw meat in a separate plastic bag before packing in reusable bags, or use a separate cloth bag for meats.

Where do you place your reusable bags while putting groceries away? The outside of the bag may be contaminated from the grocery cart, the store counter, or from the floor of your vehicle. If you set bags on the counter when you get home, the germs on the outside of the bag are now on your countertops. Remember to wash and sanitize your countertops before preparing food.

When shopping for reusable cloth bags, look for ones that are washable and remember to launder bags often. Simply washing reusable cloth bags between uses in the washing machine, or by hand, with soap is effective at reducing bacteria by 99.9%.

By: Jamie Rathbun

Cooking Ahead for Holiday Meals

Posted on by djbechard

Last-minute hurried food preparations can drain any cook’s holiday spirit. This month Post Rock Extension aims to help you take some of the hassle out of your holidays, while keeping food quality and food safety a top priority.

All perishable foods

Avoid leaving perishable foods at room temperature for more than two hours. This includes the total time for preparation AND serving. Perishable foods include: meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cooked dry beans, dairy products, and cut fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables

  • Assemble vegetable casseroles a day in advance, cover and refrigerate. Bake on the day of your dinner, planning 15 to 20 minutes extra heating time. Heat until they are hot and steaming throughout.
  • Cut washed fruits and vegetables within a day of your meal for salads and relish trays. Keep cut fruits from turning brown by coating them with lemon, orange, or pineapple juice, or a commercial anti-darkening preparation. Cover and store in the refrigerator above raw meats and below cooked items.

Protein foods

  • Purchase fresh raw meat, poultry, or seafood no more than 1 to 2 days before your holiday meal. Freeze for longer storage.
  • If you have frozen meat, poultry, or seafood, place it on a tray on the lowest shelf in the refrigerator and allow approximately 24 hours for each 5 pounds of weight for it to thaw.
  • If you cook meat, poultry, or seafood the day before your meal, refrigerate it in small portions in shallow pans within 2 hours of cooking. You can place loosely covered foods in the refrigerator while they are still warm. Cover them tightly when completely cooled. On the day of your meal, reheat them until hot and steaming, to 165°F as measured with a food thermometer.

Baked goods

  • Almost all types of cookies, cakes, breads, and muffins can be baked in advance and frozen for up to 2 months. Avoid freezing cakes with whipped cream or other soft fillings, since this will result in a soggy cake upon thawing.
  • Cook baked goods completely before storing them in airtight, moisture-proof containers.
  • Thaw cheesecake in the refrigerator, covered, where it will remain fresh for seven to ten days. Thaw non-perishable baked goods at room temperature in their freezer container to prevent them from drying out.

Adapted from: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension

By: Jamie Rathbun