A delicious meal, the previous night or earlier today...so much cherished while consuming but turned out to be a bad tummy feeling and then diarrhea can spoil everything..even those wonderful memorable moments spent with friends or family during that dining time. How long can we stay away from eating out or cooking a special dinner? There has to be a cheat sheet to identify a possible Food Poisoning occurrence in the future. Here are some tips to make sure there is no food poisoned, neither such food consumed..

1.  Don't leave food outside:

Any food item, be it home-made, restaurant-made or store-bought, that is left outside in room temperature tends to develop bacteria and toxins, quickly. Between 5-60 degrees celcius, i.e,.40-140 degrees Fahrenheit, the bacteria-spores thrive on food items, and tend to be dangerous when consumed. Soups, sauces, rice and previous day's leftovers are more prone to developing this bacteria quickly, if left outside, sametime, no food item should be left out in room temperature for more than two hours. With warm climate around, and Summer approaching in India, we should be smart to use our refridgerators well. These bacterial spores maynot cause serious illness, but may leave ones body weak for 24hours, feeling dizzy, nauseous due to diaarhea or tummy aches because of indigestible too.

2. Reheat food properly:

Any food item if too cold maynot be conveniet to consume, except for icecreams. Specially, rice and meats should be reheated to consume again. Bacteria in rice grains is killed when cooked, first time. But the spores survive, however, they tend to grow back to bacterial state if rice is left outside for longer or if it is not reheated to steaming hot levels. Hence, it is important to make sure, rice is steaming hot when reheated, donot just heat it to be warm enough..it may contain bacteria in a warm state. Even meats tend to be rotten if left outside for longer. Throwing them away is better than eating them after long hours of leaving them outside or not properly reheating them.

3. Cook meats correctly:

Most common food borne illnesses in the Western countries are due to meats, as there are more number of Eat-out Fast-food chains and they sell mostly Meats. Not washing them thoroughly or following proper hygiene when cutting them and processing them for packaging or before cooking causes bacterial damage. Raw meat is another culprit...large quantities of meat and mass range cooking for restaurants, fast food chains or during parties causes under cooking and meat when undercooked tends to provide for bacterial growth. Turkey and Duck are more prone to spoilage due to bacteria than Chicken. Improper thawing and freezing techniques could cause food spoilage problems too. Food once thawed is not appropriate to be refreezed, once thawed it is only fit for cooking or consuming, but never for freezing again. Following proper hygiene while cutting and preparing meats for cooking can hel reduce their exposure to bacteria and spores.

4. Wash fruits amd vveggies thoroughly right before consumption:

Fruits and vegetables are grown under Sun, in soil and get exposed to fertilizers or organic manures and many hands, all these conditions force them to be prone to developing bacteria and toxins easily. More than vegetables which we wash and cook, fruits are eaten without cooking. While we wash Apples before eating, we dont bother much to pop a grape or take a bit of a red ripe strawberry without washing thoroughly. It is not only recommended to wash fruits and vegetables, it is also advised to wash them with salt or vinegar diluted water to remove the toxic sprays and pesticides sprayed during farming. Peeling a Cantaloupe and sometimes even an Apple if they are not Organically ( pesticide-free farming) grown is a better practice these days, instead of swallowing those harmful toxins.

Food poisoning happens every now and then, just that they are mostly mild and donot make us run to the emergency room but in the long run, we better keep away from recurrences even though mild..their affect on the digestive system and body is definitely harmful, if not big to the human eye. By following few smart steps as mentioned above, we can all make sure food poisoning is out of our books.

...Pratyusha