Sanitize Your Home to Prevent Foodborne Illness

Your kitchen is the heart of the home and keeping your house safe and clean is imperative to your family’s health. This is especially important during the holiday seasons when guests come and go all period long.  

For many, a kitchen is centered around delicious home-cooked meals and spending time with relatives. While making your home look and feel clean is important, you can’t forget about sanitizing and disinfecting where the real magic happens—your kitchen. 

What is foodborne illness?

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), foodborne illness is a harmful bacteria infection experienced after “swallowing food that has been contaminated with a variety of germs and toxic substances”. Nearly 48 million people each year get sick from consuming exposed meat, poultry and other food.

So the unsettling feeling in your stomach after eating food may be more than just an upset stomach, it could be a foodborne illness.

What causes it?

There are many factors that can lead to cross contamination, whether at a restaurant or in the comfort of your own home. From viruses to chemicals, foodborne illness bacteria finds sneaky ways to contaminate your food. However, the most common root of contamination is by handling food in an improper manner. For instance, when food in the refrigerator is stored in shallow containers near raw meat, chemicals from cleaning supplies leak or pesticides engage other perishables will provoke the spread of bacteria onto surrounding foods.

Bacteria comes directly from contaminated food including undercooked or raw meat, poultry, egg dishes and other foods containing dairy. Some foods actually have a higher chance of spreading bacteria than other foods. Likelihood of raw or undercooked food, like ground meat, from cross contamination is much greater than fruits and vegetables. However, any food is still at risk of contacting bacteria during the food assembly process such as cooling, thawing, washing, prepping, cooking or storing.

Top germs that cause foodborne illness:

• Norovirus 

• Salmonella 

• Clostridium perfringens 

• Campylobacter 

• Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) 

Tips to Prevent Foodborne Illness

Meals must be prepared on a surface you have designated for food prep, whether it’s a cutting board or a section of your counter. It is crucial to keep these surfaces clean of any bacteria or pathogens, especially when you’re cooking with meat. We love our turkey, ham and brisket, but cooking with raw meat is a leading cause of foodborne illness at home. Simply using soap and water isn’t enough to keep your family safe. 

The longer bacteria is left on a surface, the more it multiplies. This means that it’s important to quickly disinfect any surfaces that make contact with raw meat. That way, you can rest assured that you’re giving your guests a good meal—not foodborne illness.

You may be a professional chef or the meal provider for your family and still be unaware if you aren’t handling food properly. Therefore, let us prepare you with the safe methods to use and proper temperature to cook food.  

Keep raw food separate from cooked food

When handling food for preparation, make sure to separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from ready-to-eat foods like fresh fruits. Neither food item should touch each other in any shared space, whether it’s on a cutting board or in the sink to thaw. After the food thawed, it’s best to cut fresh fruits or vegetables on separate cutting boards from raw meat to prevent cross contamination from raw food of any kind. If financially able, try to designate certain cutting boards strictly for prepping whole meats—whether you’re cutting, adding season or slicing cooked meat. Some professional chefs recommend a color code method for their cutting boards to eliminate most risks of cross contamination.

Adding a little flavor and spice is essential to most dishes. So, after you marinate food put it directly into the refridgerator to sit and chill, do not leave it on the counter. Additionally the raw meat or poultry should be cooked immediately after thawing out. Never try to freeze meat again if it has already been thawed out from the freezer. If you find it necessary to add dressing to leftovers, bring sauces with you and add to the cooked meat after it has been reserved in the refrigerator.

Use a food thermometer

Many food safety issues that lead to foodborne illnesses are caused by common mistakes made in the kitchen. One simple fix to prevent cross contamination is by using a food thermometer when cooking meat to regulate a safe internal temperature. A safe minimum internal temperature for roast and steaks is 145ºF. Meanwhile when you cook food like poultry and seafood, the proper temperature is at least 165ºF.

Once the meat is at a safe temperature, insert the food thermometer to the thickest part of the food, check the gauge and be extra certain and safe its at the right temperature. After dinner is finished, put perishable food in the refrigerator within 2 hours or less after for quicker cooling.

Wash hands, fruits and cutting boards

As important as it is to take care of the counterspace and cutting boards when preparing a meal, taking care of the germs on your hands and food is just as critical. Before the start of each meal or cooking process, wash your hands with hot, soapy water for at least 20 seconds. If you typically feed your pet dinner before you eat your own meal, make sure to wash your hands after handling pets and their food.

Putting practices into fruition will eventually form a habit and washing fruits or vegetables after returning from the grocery store is a healthy habit. However, we can all forget simple tasks sometimes and especially those we do weekly and not daily. Just to be safe, wash fruits and vegetables before you place them in a dish or on a board to cut.

In order to maintain a safe and clean space in your kitchen, it’s suggested to wash dishes as you are cooking. Once you are are finished with using kitchen tools, place them in the sink and run with soap and hot water for a nice rinse. After chopping your veggies, it’s recommended to wash cutting boards before you start cooking the next food item. Most kitchen settings are close to chaos and this task probably seems impossible, which is perfectly okay. However, keep other dishes away from the board that was used to cut raw meat and other foods with higher risk of contamination. Sanitize the board down with one of our sanitizers, wait 10 to 60 seconds and place in the dishwasher for a hot cycle.

Symptoms of a foodborne illness

When the body eats contaminated food, the virus or toxins is unsettling to the stomach causing symptoms to occur. Luckily, there are several symptoms to identify the illness called food poisoning. The most reliable indicator of foodborne infection is diarrhea, which may lasts for 1 to 7 days. Additional symptoms to ocurr are abdominal cramps, fever, dehydration, fatigue and vomiting.

After consumuption of contaminated food, it can take as little as 30 minutes for certain symptoms such as nausea, stomach cramps, and diarrhea to arise. However, certain viruses can take several days after you swallow them to transpire. If any symptoms still occur after 7 days, contact your doctor for medical attention. For additional concerns about serious side effects of foodborne illness, please read the article posted by the CDC.

People with more severe reactions after eating contaminated food

Everyone has an equal chance of becoming ill after eating contaminated or undercooked food. However, people of certain ages or situations may be at higher risk of infection due to weaker, less-developed or shared immune systems. Their bodies are more prone to illness and have less strength to internally fight off disease.

• Adults 65 and older

• Children 5 and younger

• Pregnant Women

• People with compromised immune systems

Top sanitizers to improve food safety

When it comes to setting the table and sitting down for a meal, make sure any foodborne illnesses are no where near. You don’t want to invite family or friends over for a meal and send them home with a foodborne illness. Our sanitizers are purposely used for eliminating tough and stubborn germs on food contact surfaces in food manufacturing facilities and someone’s home.

Sanitizing sprays

Alpet D2 sprays are highly evaporative, which means you can use them on water-sensitive surfaces. We recommend washing each cutting board, surface area and utensil to remove debris. Then, simply spray your cutting board or counter and walk away knowing you have killed any harmful pathogens. In just 60 seconds, the surface is sanitized! That’s peace of mind knowing that your family is taken care of. 

Alpet D2 Surface Sanitizer is one of the most popular sanitizers in the industry and perfect for protecting your home.

• 60 Second Kill on food contact surfaces

• Kills 99.999% of tested pathogens like Salmonella

• Clean, Sanitize and Disinfect surfaces with one product

Sanitizing wipes

Alpet D2 Surface Sanitizing Wipes provide powerful, bacteria-killing results that will keep your home and kitchen safe from pathogens. These disinfecting wipes clean and sanitize high touch surfaces including the sticky residues on your kitchen counters. The 90-count wipe canister features heavy-duty wipes, which are ideal for commercial use. For your home, we recommend the 160-count wipe canister of medium-duty wipes. The durability is perfect for keeping a home kitchen in tip-top sanitary shape.  

Alpet D2 disinfecting wipes kill 99.999% of Salmonella enterica (Foodborne Illness) within 60 seconds of reacting to a surface. Alpet D2 is safe to use on food contact surfaces, equipment, utensils and more surfaces to create a food safety environment in your home.

• Kill 99.999% of bacteria in 60 seconds

• Kill 99.9% of tested pathogens in 10 seconds

• Pre-moistened wipes

How to Properly Sanitize your Kitchen Surfaces

Maintaining a clean and sanitized kitchen is crucial for preventing the spread of germs and sustaining good hygiene, especially while cooking. It is very time consuming and hard for one person to do the cooking and cleaning. Therefore, establishing a system of chores within your family may help each task get done daily.

After dinner is finished, begin by cleaning all the surfaces in the kitchen including the sink, counters, cutting board and utensils. Use a bleach solution or surface sanitizer to wipe down the surfaces and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before wiping down with paper towels. Dispose of garbage and scrape food debris into the trash can. Before putting plates and silverware in the dishwasher, run them through warm water under the faucet to remove extra sauces and food. Hand wash large dishware or dishes that are not dishwasher safe in the sink. Turn the faucet to warm water and test to make sure it is at the right temperature for handwashing with soap. Let the utensils and equipment air dry on a drying mat or rack. Once surfaces are clean, wash your hands under some cold water and relax with a freshly, cleaned kitchen everytime.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about sanitizers, feel free to reach out to us at 800-608-3755 or success@southlandorganics.com. For bulk orders, check out southlandsanitize.com.