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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : February 19, 2020 9:35 AM IST
Always wash your hands with soap and warm water and dry them before handling and preparing food. ©Shutterstock
It is very important to be careful about what you eat during pregnancy. But avoiding risky foods is only half the challenge during pregnancy, how you prepare and store food in the kitchen is also equally important. Safe handling and cooking habits can prevent the nasty bugs that can cause food poisoning. And it requires you to remember the four 'Cs': Clean, Cross-contaminate, Cook and Chill.
The kitchen is the heart of your home, agree or not? But do you ever thought that it can also be a dangerous zone. Here are some basic guidelines that you should follow to reduce your risk of getting food poisoning.
Always wash your hands with soap and warm water and dry them before handling and preparing food. Do the same after touching raw foods, especially meat. Clean your chopping boards and utensils thoroughly before and after preparing food. Wash fruit and vegetables by rubbing them under water before eating.
Use separate chopping boards for raw food (especially meat) and ready to eat foods. If you are the same board, wash it thoroughly in between preparing different types of food. This will prevent transfer of bacteria from raw food to other food items. Also make sure to clean knives and other utensils thoroughly after using them to prepare food.
Keep raw food (especially meat) and ready to eat foods separately. Best is to keep the raw food on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Always cover raw meat or keep it in a sealable container.
When you cook food, specially meat, fish, or poultry, make sure that it is thoroughly cooked. Pierce your cooked meat if the juice comes out red, it's undercooked. Insert a knife into the deepest part to see if the middle is grey or brown. During pregnancy, avoid all rare (pink) meats, including lamb and beef.
Your fridge temperature should be between 0 and 5oC. If you have leftovers, let the food cool down before you put it in the fridge. Otherwise it may raise the fridge temperature. Eat foods that you have stored in the fridge within 2 days.
