Technology: Avoid food poisoning: Keep your refrigerator safe

Food that goes bad can make you sick. So, it’s important to care for food and the way you store it in order to avoid contamination and sickness. Sometimes what appears to be the flu or a stomach bug is often a food borne illness that could have been prevented. Keep food in a refrigerator safe to keep yourself healthy. To start with, always make sure you know what goes where in your fridge, right. It is very important that germs do not spread from raw foods to ready-to-eat foods. Here are the most basic rules of how you should store food in your refrigerator: • Store ready-to-eat foods such as cheese, yoghurt, cooked meats and leftovers on the middle and top shelves. • Put raw meat, fish and poultry in sealed containers on the bottom shelf so they dont touch each other or drip onto other foods. • Store leftovers in the fridge within two hours of cooking and eat them within three days. Keeping food correctly chilled in the fridge slows down the growth of bacteria. Post a thermometer above the salad drawer to ensure that the temperature stays below 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the refrigerator and 0 degrees Fahrenheit in the freezer. Here are seven simple cool rules that can help to keep foods in your refrigerator safe: • Keep the fridge at 5°C or below. At temperatures between 5°C and 63°C, bacteria on food can grow to a point where they can make you ill. • The numbers on the fridge thermostat dial do not necessarily show the temperature reading, so check the user handbook and use a thermometer to check the temperature. • Keep the fridge door closed tightly, as the temperature will rise if the door is left open. • Don’t over pack the fridge, as this can stop cool air from circulating freely and the fridge may not keep the foods properly chilled. • Don’t put hot food in the fridge as this can raise the fridge temperature. • Never use cleaning products that may leave a taste in food or damage the fridge. Wash all surfaces using warm soapy water, and then rinse them clean. • And finally at least once a week, check for foods that have passed the ‘use by’ date, and throw them out. If you follow these simple rules, you’ll find it’s easy to keep your refrigerator safe and keep yourself free of food-borne illnesses. Chill out safely to stay healthy! Ends