Here are four common kitchen mistakes that can make you sick . . .
1. You only own one cutting board. You should have at least two . . . one for raw meat, and one for everything else. And the one for meat should be plastic, not wood.
The quickest way to sanitize a cutting board is by using a spray bottle with bleach water. The right mix is one tablespoon of unscented bleach for every gallon of water.
2. Washing raw meat. A lot of people do it even though it actually INCREASES your chances of getting sick. When water from your faucet hits the meat, it splatters the juice all over your kitchen. So you end up with things like e. coli and salmonella everywhere.
3. Using the same sponge for way too long. You should replace it every two weeks. Tossing it in the dishwasher or microwaving it kills some of the bacteria, but not all of it.
4. Letting leftovers sit out too long. As a general rule, don’t let anything sit out for more than two hours. After that, there could be enough bacteria to make you sick.
You may have heard you’re supposed to let turkey cool down before you refrigerate it, but that’s actually a MYTH. People used to do it with Thanksgiving turkeys 40 or 50 years ago, but only because refrigerators weren’t as good back then.
They couldn’t stay cold with a big hot turkey in there. So things like milk would spoil. But fridges are much better now. So just get everything in there as soon as possible, even foods like turkey and chicken.
(Business Insider / USDA / Live Science)
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