Food Prep Safety Tips

Do you ever wonder if you need to wash the pre-washed bag of greens you bought at the grocery store? Or, do you wonder how to best wash your produce?

(Photo by: twistedstringknits)

An article by news-press.com presents experts' opinions about when to wash what. If you'd like, click here to go read the full article (it's short!).

For those who want the executive summary, here it is:
1. Don't wash meat before cooking or marinating it because you splash and spread the bacteria on it all over your kitchen.
2. Washing produce gets rid of 99% of pathogens, but cooking produce removes 99.9999% of it.
3. The best way to wash produce is to vigorously rinse it under water; using soap or cleaning solutions presents other risks.
4. Dirt and bacteria are still on organic and homegrown produce so still wash it.
5. Produce in a bag labeled 'pre-washed' means it doesn't need to be washed; if you do, you expose it to pathogens.

Now, I know that I can eat the lettuce straight out of the bag!!!!