ALEXANDRIA (KALB) – A new study released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) highlights common mistakes individuals make when preparing meals at home.
Families are at risk of illness by washing or rinsing raw poultry, as well as inadequate hand washing. Millions of Americans get sick from food borne illness each year, resulting in roughly 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) conducted meal preparation studies to evaluate consumer food handling behaviors in a test kitchen. The results of the observational study showed how easily bacteria can be spread when surfaces are not effectively cleaned and sanitized.
Sixty percent of participants contaminated the inner sink with tracer bacteria after washing the raw chicken and twenty-six percent of the side salads were contaminated by those participants that washed the chicken.
View the full report here: https://bit.ly/30qbG3h