Preventing Food Poisoning: At Home

Taking simple precautions in your home can reduce your family's risk of contracting food poisoning, also known as foodborne illness. Unfortunately, many Americans are unaware of the dangers of contaminated food. They have no idea how severe food poisoning can be.

This article will discuss how to prevent food poisoning. This includes E. coli, salmonella, and listeria. It will also briefly discuss what to do if you get food poisoning after eating at a restaurant or buying food from your local grocery store.

What Are the Symptoms of Food Poisoning?

If you've ever had food poisoning, you know how terrible it can be. Thankfully, most cases are minor. You may experience an upset stomach and diarrhea. You can usually manage with sports drinks and other drinks with electrolytes in them. However, you may become hospitalized if you suffer from a severe foodborne disease.

You must be able to spot food poisoning symptoms. These include:

• Stomach cramps
• Fever
• Nausea
• Severe dehydration
• Diarrhea
• Sweating

Visit your healthcare provider immediately after ingesting spoiled or contaminated food. This is especially true for pregnant women and young children.

Foods That Pose a Risk of Food Poisoning

Certain foods are more likely to make you sick. Of course, undercooked beef can make you seriously ill. The same applies to other ground meats not cooked to the proper internal temperature.

Shellfish is also tricky when it comes to food poisoning. You need to make sure it's cleaned before you cook it. You must also check to see if your guests have a shellfish allergy.

Some of the other foods that can make you sick if not stored, prepared, and served properly include:

• Soft cheese
• Unpasteurized milk and dairy products
• Raw meat
• Raw fish
• Unrefrigerated meat and seafood
• Unwashed fruits and vegetables
• Thawed frozen foods

As long as you care for perishables properly, you should be okay. If an ingredient seems off during food preparation, be cautious and throw it out.

How to Safely Cook Your Food

You must cook meat, poultry, and eggs thoroughly. Cook all poultry to an inside temperature of 170ºF (77ºC) for breast meat and 180ºF (82ºC) for thigh meat. Cook ground beef until a thermometer reads at least 160ºF.

Ground beef can turn brown before disease-causing bacteria die. Use a digital instant-read thermometer to ensure thorough cooking. The risk of contracting an illness increases the pinker the meat. Wash the meat thermometer in between tests to avoid cross-contamination.

Drink only pasteurized milk, juice, and cider. Avoid consuming unpasteurized or raw dairy products and eggs.

Drink and cook with municipal water treated with chlorine or another effective disinfectant.

Avoid Cross-Contamination of Foods

Keep uncooked meats separate from produce, cooked, and ready-to-eat foods. Wash your hands, work surfaces, countertops, cutting boards, knives, and other utensils thoroughly with hot, soapy water after contact with or handling uncooked foods.

To avoid recontamination, place cooked meat on a clean platter and not on surfaces that hold raw meat. You can prevent cross-contamination by using separate cutting boards for different foods.

Refrigerate Leftovers

Bacteria multiply at room temperature. Therefore, you should refrigerate leftovers promptly if you aren't going to eat them within four hours. This is true for all leftovers, not only those that contain animal products or dairy.

Divide large volumes of food into several shallow containers to ensure it cools more quickly.

Disinfect Your Kitchen and Refrigerator

You can take steps to keep your food and kitchen free of contamination. If you follow this advice, you'll reduce your chance of food poisoning. Communicate your kitchen rules to friends and family helping you prepare a meal.

Some helpful hints for avoiding food poisoning include:

• Always wash hands with soap and warm water before and after handling raw foods.
• Wash fresh fruits and vegetables to remove visible dirt and grime.
• Remove and discard the outermost leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage. Bacteria can grow well on the cut surface of a fruit or vegetable.
• Don't contaminate foods while slicing them on a cutting board.
• Avoid leaving cut produce at room temperature for several hours.
• Never work with raw poultry, meat, or other uncooked foods while tending to an infant.
• Ensure persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully and frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of infection.
• Avoid swallowing lake or pool water while swimming. Anyone with a diarrheal illness should avoid swimming in public pools or lakes, sharing baths, and preparing food for others.
• Wash hands with soap and water after contact with pet feces.

Some of these things seem like common sense. However, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Reporting Suspected Food Poisoning

If you suspect you got food poisoning from food sold at a local restaurant or grocery store, report it to your local health department. Infections can arise from various sources, and public health authorities need to understand how a particular disease spreads to take appropriate action to stop it.

The cooperation of healthy and sick people in public health investigations is vital after an outbreak.

Potluck Food Safety

If you're hosting or attending a potluck, be extra careful with your food preparation. The last thing you want to do is make your friends and neighbors sick. As food sits, it can harbor harmful bacteria that can make people sick. If their injuries are severe, they may sue you for damages if they can prove that your food caused their severe injury.

The same is true if you get sick from someone else's dish. If you believe the third party is responsible for your illness, contact a personal injury lawyer and see if you have a valid claim.

Legal Rights if You Suffer Food Poisoning

You have rights if you get food poisoning after eating food stored or prepared by a third party. You may have a valid claim for damages. It depends on whether you can prove the other party is responsible for your illness.

Your attorney must demonstrate that the person who prepared or sold the food was negligent. In other words, they didn't store or prepare the food properly, which became contaminated.

You must also prove that you were injured. If you only suffer minor symptoms, it is unlikely that an attorney will take your case. You'll have to prove that you suffered significant injuries to collect damages.

Visit our attorney directory to find a personal injury lawyer near you.