Cebu City - Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill. These four simple rules from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) are steps that help protect us and our loved ones from food poisoning.

Step 1 – Clean. Wash your hands and surfaces often. Germs that cause food poisoning can survive in many places and spread around our kitchen. Therefore, we must always wash our hands, our cooking instruments, and most especially, our meats, fruits, and vegetables under running water.

Step 2 – Don’t cross-contaminate. It is important to separate pork, beef, poultry, seafood, and eggs separate from each other since germs easily spread between them. From purchasing to cutting, and to store, these items must have their separate chopping boards and bags to ensure safety when our family consumes them.

Step 3 – Cook to the right temperature. When food is safely cooked when the internal temperature gets high enough to kill germs that can make you sick. Food poisoning can still occur when food is cooked inadequately even though they have been stored and chopped carefully and separately. Since all raw meat may potentially carry harmful bacteria, it should be cooked thoroughly every time to kill most types of food poisoning bacteria.

Step 4 – Refrigerate promptly. When food is left at room temperature, the moisture left in the food plus the room temperature causes bacteria to form and multiply. Always store cooked food separately from raw food, especially raw meats, poultry, and fish. It is ideal to store raw meats and poultry at the bottom of the fridge to avoid raw juices dripping onto other food. Also, always ensure that all food is covered or sealed. // ND II Mary Carmeli Garrovillo, RND