Thursday, June 4, 2009

Making Sure Your Food Storage Is Safe for the Family.

By Greg Shuey

We have been accustomed to eating left-over foods from last night's dinner or the breakfast earlier. With the help of the microwave oven, we can whip up a meal in no time. The need for keeping food storage seems to be placed on the back burner.

The question now is "Are the foods we eat from last night's dinner safe?" You can never tell if the sandwich or piece of meat you just ate is free from germs. The lack of food storage seems to be the issue here. If you have available food stored somewhere, would you bother eating left-over food? I think not.

There is one thing we can learn from this: food storage is very important so here are some important things you need to know.

For cold storage: When you store foods in the refrigerator, make sure that the temperature is maintained at 41 F. Do not store too much food in your fridge up to the point that you can't put anything more. Let the air circulate freely to chill foods quickly. Consume foods before they expire. Take note of the "first-in, first-out" policy when consuming foods.

Place foods in moisture-proof containers to prevent contamination. This will also help maintain the food's quality. If you have left-overs, remove them from their original containers and put them in containers with air-tight lids.

For dry storage Maintain items like canned goods, flour, sugar, rice and cereals in room temperature between 50 to 75 'F. Always keep your dry food storage area clean. Maintain a cleaning schedule for shelves for food storage. In this way your food will be free from rodents and insects. Check your shelves for items especially canned goods that are near expiration or that already expired to avoid poisoning.

Do not store foods together with cleaning products because this may contaminate the food. It is a potentially dangerous process.

Keeping food storage is very important to all households. It doesn't only serve as a source of food when mom failed to buy groceries. It serves a much higher purpose. Food storages can help sustain your family in times of severe disaster and crisis-times when there are no food sold in stores.

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