Do you also leave cooked food on the counter to let it cool? Everyday shortcuts like this may make your work in the kitchen easier, but leaving food out for too long can increase the risk of food poisoning.
You may associate food poisoning with eating out, but even home-cooked meals require careful handling and storage to stay safe. Ingredient quality and hygiene during cooking, sure, are relevant for food safety, but what happens after a meal is prepared is also significant. How long the food is left out, how it is refrigerated, and how it is reheated can all affect food safety. Moreover, proper food storage can help prevent unnecessary food wastage too. An expert commented on how storage mistakes can compromise food safety. Dr Eileen Canday, the head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, simplified the guidelines for storing, refrigerating, and reheating food safely. Food left out in warm conditions for too long may become unsafe to eat as bacteria multiply. This means food may look and smell fine but still pose a risk of food poisoning. Food poisoning is not limited to junk food, nor is it caused by spiciness itself. Even home-cooked meals can cause food poisoning if they are not handled or stored properly. Canday urged people to watch out for these common errors that can prompt food poisoning:
The dietician explained, “Most food poisoning bacteria tend to grow at the rate of doubling their numbers every 20 minutes between 5C and 60C.
