Kitchen Basics: How to keep your food safe

When you start living under your own roof, regardless of whether you live in the dorms or off-campus, it’s vital to know the basics of food safety.

Without parents around to remind them, the average college student may be putting their health and well-being at risk by not taking the proper precautions or practicing the right habits in the kitchen.

Food poisoning is a serious issue and, according to the Center for Disease Control, food-related diseases affects millions of people and kills thousands. But most food-related diseases can be dealt with through preventative measures.

Food safety can go beyond the “washing your hands before you eat” maxim. In fact, knowing the right information is half the battle. FoodSafety.gov has a neat site that lists any pertinent news, such as recalls of food products or alerts, as well as easy-to-read tips for the would-be cook.

FoodSafety.gov lists four simple steps to keep yourself safe from food poisoning:

1. Clean
2. Separate
3. Cook
4. Chill

This essentially breaks down into washing your hands, utensils, and vegetables and fruits. keeping your meat and poultry separate from your fruits and vegetables, cooking your food to the proper temperature (and using a thermometer), and refrigerating your foods promptly.

While some college students may possess the know-how, often times college dorm rooms and apartments will be littered with gross violations of basic food hygiene: Boxes of pizza left out from last night, weeks-old burritos tucked forgotten into the fridge, frozen meats left out on the counter to thaw.

The USDA offers answers to questions frequently posed by college students or, more likely, their parents. The article deals with a range of issues from whether or not you should eat leftover pizza, tailgating, and camping.

Safe food handling can go a long way in preventing food-borne illness on college campuses. These simple steps can save you a costly trip to the health clinic and, more importantly, keep you well enough to keep going to those classes your tuition money is paying for.