Play It Safe

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Cooperative Extension Service	Agricultural Experiment Station
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Be Safe - Don't Get Sick • Keep Food Clean • Tip • Did You Know? • Do a Fresh Test • How Does It Work? • Facts About Germs • Try the "Fuzzies On My Bread" Experiment • My Discoveries

Cartoon picture of dishes being washed. Bacteria are tiny microscopic organisms. They can cause you to get sick if the foods you eat are not properly stored. It usually happens because foods that spoil easily were left for some time at room temperatures. Hurry-up cooking techniques (heating foods until warm and not hot) or lazy preparation methods (not washing hands before cooking) can also make you sick. Every year, approximately seven million Americans suffer from food poisoning. The symptoms of food poisoning include stomach cramps, diarrhea, headaches, fever, vomiting, or chills.

Be Safe-Don't Get Sick

Buy foods that are in good shape.
Store foods in the proper place.
Wash your hands before and during cooking.
Keep all cooking surfaces clean.
Use kitchen utensils for only one job at a time.
Thoroughly clean all dishes, equipment and utensils with soapy hot water after use.
Thaw foods in the refrigerator or microwave and not on the kitchen counter.
Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
Refrigerate or freeze leftovers right away.
Reheat leftover foods to hot temperatures.

Keep Food Clean

When you're tasting food, use a clean spoon every time you dip into the food so you avoid spreading your germs to the food.
Thaw frozen foods in the microwave or overnight in the refrigerator.
Wipe and dust the dirt from the tops of cans, boxes, and bottles before you open them.

Do you have to clean only when you're cooking? Think about it. Every time you do something to food you have to remember to keep it "clean" so it is safe to eat when you want to eat it. This means every time you:

buy
store
prepare
serve food

you have to do it "clean." It sounds like a big bother, but if you just get the hang of doing things with food the clean way, you'll start doing them naturally without thinking about it!

Tip:

Cooking clean is the best way to make sure those germs on your hands are not getting into the food you're cooking. Cooking clean means:

the cook is clean;
the working space is clean;
equipment and utensils are clean; and
the food is clean.

Egg man professor next to easel mounted paper with question mark.

Did You Know?

To keep the quality, flavor, color and nutritive value of eggs, it's important to refrigerate them. As eggs lose their freshness, whites become thinner and yolks flatten out.
To retain freshness, store eggs in their cartons in the refrigerator. This way, moisture loss is kept as low as possible.

If a food looks spoiled when you take it out of the refrigerator, has something weird growing on it, smells funny, or in any other way makes you think about whether you should eat it, it's best to discard it. Never taste food you're not sure about. WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT!

Do a Fresh Test

Since eggs lose their freshness, the longer they are stored, you want to make sure the eggs you use in cooking or baking are fresh. Opening up a rotten egg is a stinking mess!

Get an egg, and place it in a bowl of water. If the egg sinks, it's fresh. If the egg floats, it's old and it might be rotten.

How Does It Work?

Every egg has an air space that gets larger as the egg gets older. A rotten egg floats because its air space is larger than a fresh egg's air space.

Cartoon drawing of one glass filled water with an egg on the bottom and 1 glass filled with water with an egg floating on top. clipart of smiling child with 'A' plus report card in hand.

Facts About Germs

The air you breathe is full of many tiny organisms that are too small to see with just our eye. They're called microorganisms. You may know then as germs. Some of them are bacteria and others are molds.

Sometimes you can even see mold on food. If it looks that bad, it probably smells bad, too, and you know there's no way you should eat it! Your instincts tell you that stuff's not safe to eat! But, the problem is that many times you can't see those germs, or smell them. If most foods have germs on them, how can you tell what's safe to eat and what's unsafe? You can't. That's why it's important to keep the food clean and to use clean cooking habits.

Try the "Fuzzies On My Bread" Experiment

(You might need your parent's permission first).

You need:

re-closable plastic sandwich bag
slice of bread
spoon

Leave a slice of bread on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes, then place in a re-closable plastic sandwich bag.

Add one tablespoon of water to the bag.

Seal the bag.

Keep the bag in a dark warm place (like a cabinet near the refrigerator, oven or dishwasher) for three to five days. Be sure to tell a parent where you put it!

Look at the bread everyday through the plastic. If you have a magnifying glass, use it to look at the mold growth. Discard the bag and its contents after you record your observations.

--------DO NOT TASTE THE BREAD--------

My Discoveries

What did you see growing on the bread?
Why did you leave the bread on the counter for 30 minutes before you placed it in the bag?
How can you prevent bacteria and mold from getting on the food you eat?
How can you slow down the growth of bacteria and mold on the bread during the summer when it is especially hot and humid?

Back to Gotta Eat

University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
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Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 • USA
Phone (501) 671-2000 • Fax (501) 671-2209

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