How Safe Is Your Kitchen?

So, you scrub, you clean, you sanitize.  But just how safe is your kitchen?  Are you doing everything right and everything you can to prevent food-borne illnesses?  Her's a few facts taken from "The Old Farmer's Almanac" that just may surprise you.

1)  When washing your hands, water needs to be at least 120 degrees to thoroughly cleanse and sanitize them.  Not true.  It's the time you take to wash your hands that's important, not the temperature of the water.  Lather up and scrub, scrub, scrub for at least twenty seconds.

2)  Toss that old, stinky kitchen sponge every one or two weeks.  Bacteria loves wet, moist environments and the sponge is the perfect place for bacteria to grow.  Here's a great hint, too - every couple days microwave a soaking wet sponge to kill any bacteria that may be growing.

3)  Did you know you don't have to refrigerate butter for it to be safe to eat?  Butter and oleo are quite safe kept at room temperature, although the taste of butter will probably turn rancid after a day or two.  Yuck.

4)  Five second rule.  We've all heard about it, but is it safe to eat food after it's been on the floor for five seconds?  No way!  Germs and bacteria are transferred immediately on contact.  So if your fries fall on the floor, toss 'em!

5)  Power goes out in a storm.  You have a refrigerator full of food.  How long can the power be out for refrigerated food to be considered safe?  About four hours is a good rule to follow.  TV dinners and frozen meat in the freezer?  Don't fret.  In a power failure, frozen food should be safe for about 24 hours.

There you have it.  Want to know more?  Pick up a copy of "The Old Farmer's Almanac"; it's chock full of info to keep your kitchen sanitary and your family safe from food-borne illnesses.