Most of us love the smells associated with making holiday meals. The turkey or ham cooking, mashed potatoes in all their buttery goodness, sweet potatoes, and the pies! The house is filled with smells of apples and cinnamon and other foodie smells worth salivating for. It’s not just the food for most people though. It’s also the chance to see faces you may not have seen for a while. This time of year is about taking a pause in your daily routine and just spending some quality time together as a family. Unfortunately, it is also a time for all those germs and bacteria you have been keeping at bay all year to creep in. Your gift for the holidays should not include listeria, E.coli, or the myriad of other bacteria that often plague kitchens around this time of year. Food poisoning is NOT festive!
How Does Food Poisoning Happen?
Certainly we would never dream of poisoning our loved ones. However, this very thing happens in homes every year. Each year 48 million people find themselves sick with food poisoning, seeking help from hospitals and doctors. The holidays are a prime time for foodborne illness. With everything you have to prepare it’s no surprise so many people overlook important details. It can happen to anyone by simply not checking that your food is the right temperature to kill the bacteria, or simply forgetting about cross-contamination. There is also the grocery store to consider. More people are shopping for food during the holidays. More strangers are touching the raw produce in shops while production and manufacturing companies push themselves to process food more quickly to keep up with the holiday demand. All these factors leave room for error and contamination in our food.
What Can You Do About Food Poisoning?
You already are aware of the dangers of raw meat and being very careful with cross contamination. But there is more you can do to make sure you are keeping your family safe from food poisoning. First, you can purchase food thermometers. Buy a meat thermometer and a separate one for your pies that may contain egg- like pumpkin pie. You don’t know how the food was handled before it came to you. You don’t know how the holiday meat was handled during processing. You also don’t know what you may have come in contact with during your holiday shopping. The only way to feel truly secure is to use a good food wash on all your food. (Not simply just rinse your veggies with water!). Rinsing is great, but it doesn’t remove the bacteria that can make you sick. People have contracted E.coli from organic raw green onions! But you need something that will break down those nasty pesticides and pollutants that are threatening your festivities! iGOZEN offers not only a Fruit/Veg Wash but also a Meat/Fish wash. You can even wash your turkey! But be careful of splashing to avoid cross contaminating and always clean your kitchen with a safe non-toxic and chemical-free cleaner like iGOZEN’s Everyday Cleaner. With safe organic food washes and cleaners you can serve up the holidays with confidence!
Applications & Resources about Protecting Against Food Poisoning
- Check out what one article from Harvard posted concerning the holidays and protecting yourself
- Go to the Food Safety News for another account of the uninvited guest (food poisoning)
- Read more at Food Safety.gov and protect your family
- Wash your food and everything you may touch while preparing your food with a chemical-free cleaner!
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