No one wants to cause food borne sickness and of course no one wants to get sick themselves.
It’s often tough to identify the source of a food bourne illness. Food may start in a field, be picked, transported, processed in a plant, trucked out, handled at the supermarket level, handled by other supermarket customers and then handled by you. There are many opportunities for contamination to happen and it could happen during any of these steps. Any food can be compromised, but the higher risk foods are raw fish, shellfish, raw sprouts, red meats, poultry, eggs, cheese and any dairy product. That covers most of our staple foods.
This article covers the basic principles for being a safe shopper.
1. Go with your gut. If you don’t like the looks of it, don’t buy it. If the packaging is damaged, especially if it’s leaking in any fashion, don’t buy it. Veggies have tell tale signs that they’re past their prime. Dents, discolorations and wrinkling should be a red flag. In the proteins section, be especially weary.
2. Read the packaging carefully and obey the “use by” and “sell by” dates. A supermarket wants you to buy stuff so they don’t mark those dates randomly. It’s the date they know they can sell it by and still have it be safe for you to eat. Also, you should check the dates on the product in the front versus the product in the back. The back is typically the most fresh. Watch out for “managers specials” and check the dates before buying. It could be that they simply ordered too much of that product and they need to get rid of it, or it could be that they are quickly approaching the sell by date.
3. When buying an item like apples, remember how many you pick up or touch before buying. Everyone else is doing the same thing. Try to buy them from the back of the pile and of course wash well before eating.
4. Be aware of how long it takes to get home and make sure to buy only items that will last through that drive. Don’t put perishable items in the trunk. Keep them in your cool backseat.
5. Just don’t buy anything that looks or smells gross. Obviously.
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