How to Store Shelves Poultry Beef Fish Fda
Meat, Poultry & Seafood from Food Prophylactic for Moms to Exist
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Welcome to Safe Eats, your food-by-food guide to selecting, preparing, and treatment foods safely throughout your pregnancy and beyond!
Meat, Poultry & Seafood | Dairy & Eggs | Fruits, Veggies & Juices | Prepare-to-Eat Foods | Eating Out & Bringing In
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Protein in meat, poultry, and seafood is an important nutrient in your diet, but it can too be an platonic environment for some harmful bacteria. Here's how to keep harmful bacteria at bay and your family safe.
Clean Is Primal!
Your commencement steps in food rubber are...
- Wash hands thoroughly with warm water and lather earlier and after handling raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
- Launder cut boards, dishes, and utensils (including knives), and countertops with soap and hot water later on they come in contact with raw meat, poultry or seafood.
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Sanitize It!
Kitchen countertops that come up in contact with raw meat, poultry, and seafood can be sanitized using a kitchen sanitizer. One teaspoon of liquid chlorine bleach per quart of clean h2o tin also be used to sanitize surfaces. Leave the bleach solution on the surface for about 10 minutes to be constructive.
S-E-P-A-R-A-T-E
Improper handling of raw meat, poultry, and seafood can set the stage for cantankerous-contamination - the spread of leaner from foods, easily, utensils, and food preparation surfaces to some other food. Here'due south how to terminate information technology:
- Split up raw meat, poultry, and seafood from ready-to-swallow foods in your grocery shopping cart, fridge, and while preparing and handling foods at home. Also, consider placing these raw foods within plastic bags in your grocery shopping cart to keep the juices contained.
- To foreclose juices from raw meat, poultry, or seafood from dripping onto other foods in the refrigerator, place these raw foods in sealed containers or sealable plastic bags.
- If possible, use ane cutting board for raw meat, poultry, and seafood and another one for fresh fruits and vegetables. If 2 cutting boards aren't available, set up fruits and vegetables get-go, and put them safely out of the mode. Wash the cutting board thoroughly with lather and hot water. Then, prepare the raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Follow by washing the cut lath again.
- Marinades used on raw meat, poultry, or seafood can comprise harmful bacteria. Don't reuse these marinades on cooked foods - unless you boil them earlier applying.
- Never taste uncooked marinade or sauce that was used to marinate raw meat, poultry, or seafood.
- Place cooked nutrient on a clean plate for serving. If cooked food is placed on an unwashed plate that previously held raw meat, poultry, or seafood, bacteria from the raw nutrient could contaminate the cooked food.
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Arctic!
To go along all meats, poultry, and nutrient in full general safe...
- Your fridge should register at xl° F (4° C) and the freezer at 0° F (-18° C). Identify a refrigerator thermometer in the fridge, and check the temperature periodically. During the automatic defrost cycle, the temperature may temporarily register slightly higher than 40° F (4° C). This is okay.
When storing seafood...
- Buy but fresh seafood that'south refrigerated or properly iced.
- Air-condition or freeze seafood immediately if you're not going to melt it correct away.
Moms-to-be: Advice Nigh Eating Fish
Due to the evidence of benefits from eating fish, women who are meaning or breastfeeding should consume at to the lowest degree 8 and up to 12 ounces per week of a multifariousness of fish, from choices that are lower in methylmercury.
Choices to Avert
Highest Mercury Levels
- King mackerel
- Marlin
- Orangish roughy
- Shark
- Swordfish
- Tliefish (Gulf of Mexico)
- Tuna, bigeye
For more information, see Dietary Communication for Moms-to-Exist.
Pre-stuffed Poultry: Fresh Vs. Frozen
- Avoid purchasing fresh, raw whole poultry that's been pre-blimp. The raw-meat juices mixing with the stuffing tin crusade bacterial growth.
- Frozen, raw whole poultry that'south been pre-stuffed is condom and should be cooked in its frozen land; don't defrost it first.
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Cook IT Correct!
Raw fish (such as sushi or sashimi) or foods made with raw fish are more likely to incorporate parasites or bacteria than foods made from cooked fish, and so it'due south of import to cook fish thoroughly. Here's how...
Seafood
Finfish should be cooked to an internal temperature of 145° F (63° C). When a food thermometer is not available or appropriate, follow these tips to determine when seafood is done:
- Cook fish until it's opaque (milky white) and flakes with a fork.
- Cook shrimp, lobster, and scallops until they attain their appropriate color. The flesh of shrimp and lobster should be an opaque (milky white) colour. Scallops should be opaque (milky white) and firm.
- Melt clams, mussels, and oysters until their shells open up. This ways that they are done. Throw away the ones that didn't open.
- Shucked clams and shucked oysters are fully cooked when they are opaque (milky white) and business firm.
E ating Raw Seafood Is Risky - A pregnant adult female and her unborn baby are at adventure if she eats raw or undercooked seafood. Moms-to-be should avoid eating raw or undercooked finfish or shellfish (including oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops).
Meat/Poultry
Cook raw meat and poultry to safe internal temperatures. Always use a make clean food thermometer to bank check the internal temperature of these foods. Make sure it goes straight into meats, but doesn't come out the other side and impact the pan. Cook meat and poultry to these temperatures:
Meat
Cook beefiness, pork, veal, and lamb roasts, steaks, and chops to at least 145° F (63° C), with a 3 minute rest fourth dimension.
Ground Meat
Cook ground beef, veal, lamb, and pork to at to the lowest degree 160° F (71° C).
Melt ground poultry to 165° F (74° C).
Poultry
Cook all poultry to minimal prophylactic internal temperature of 165° F (74° C).
Consumers may wish to cook poultry to a higher temperature for personal preference.
For a printable chart of cooking temperatures, see the Apply the Heat (PDF - 20.3KB) nautical chart.
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Questions and Answers
"How can I tell if fish is fresh?"
Perfectly fresh fish and shellfish have almost no odor. It's only when seafood starts to spoil that it takes on a "fishy" odour. Fresh fish will have these signs:
- The eyes are make clean and burl a little.
- Whole fish and fillets have firm and shiny flesh and brilliant, cherry gills free from slime.
- The flesh springs back when pressed.
- There is no darkening around the edges or brown or xanthous discoloration.
- The fish smells fresh and mild, not "fishy" or ammonia-like.
Note: Keep in mind that just because fish is fresh doesn't mean information technology'due south bacteria-free. You lot still need to follow the food safe tips above when handling or preparing fresh fish.
"What should I look out for when buying frozen seafood?"
Y'all should follow these guidelines:
- Don't buy frozen seafood if its parcel is open, torn, or crushed on the edges.
- Don't buy packages that are higher up the frost line in the store's freezer.
- If you can see through the bundle, look for signs of frost or water ice crystals, which could mean the fish has been stored a long time or defrosted and refrozen. In this case, you lot shouldn't buy information technology.
- There should be no white spots, dark spots, discoloration or fading, or red or pink mankind to signal drying-out.
"Some of my favorite seafoods are raw clams and oysters. Why aren't they safe to eat?"
They're unsafe because raw seafoods are more likely to contain parasites or bacteria than foods made from cooked seafood. In improver, clams, mussels, and other mollusks get their food past filtering large quantities of water through their shells. In doing so, they tin accrue more than bacteria and viruses than finfish. This makes raw mollusks especially unsafe to eat. Seafood that'southward been cooked thoroughly is safe to eat.
"Should I stop marinating meat, poultry, and seafood at room temperature while I'm pregnant?"
Actually, you should discontinue this practice whether you lot're pregnant or not. Marinade that's been used on raw meat, poultry, and seafood contains raw juices, which may incorporate harmful leaner. And, bacteria abound rapidly at room temperature. Refrigeration slows bacterial growth, and so for your safety, foods should ever be refrigerated while marinating.
For the recommended storage times for foods, see the Refrigerator & Freezer Storage Chart. (PDF | 21.2KB
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Source: https://www.fda.gov/food/people-risk-foodborne-illness/meat-poultry-seafood-food-safety-moms-be