#food-safety

#food-safety

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), all ground meat, as well as poultry (even those with longer expiration dates) should be used or frozen within the first 48 hours of coming home from the store. Raw steaks, pork chops, and roasts can go a bit longer, at three to five days.

The safest way to thaw frozen chicken is to place the sealed package in a bowl of cold water under a running faucet. The sealed bag should be fully submerged in cold water, and the water must be changed every 30 minutes to prevent it from becoming too warm. One of the biggest mistakes people make when defrosting meat is using hot water. Defrosting chicken in warm or hot water can increase bacterial growth and the risk of foodborne illness.

Food safety isn't just about how you cook your food; it's about how you cool and store it. You don't need a degree in microbiology to meal prep safely. Wash your hands (for a full 20 seconds), refrigerate food within two hours, cool fast and in shallow containers, and stop trusting your nose.

For many, going out to a restaurant is a treat, so the last thing anyone wants is bad food. That really puts a downer on the whole experience. That's why we turned to Reddit to see what restaurant workers would never order. After all, they spend most days in the kitchen or serving customers, so they see and hear things behind the scenes that most of us don't.

Public health officials are investigating a Salmonella outbreak linked to Rosabella-brand moringa powder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC, Food and Drug Administration and state public health officials are looking into drug-resistant Salmonella infections linked to some lots of the product. Seven illnesses, three of which resulted in hospitalizations, across seven states could be linked to the Rosabella capsules, according to the FDA, which said it continues to investigate the outbreak.

Among the many tips for making the absolute best grilled chicken, one vital step is to salt your chicken at least a day prior to grilling. Known as dry brining, this technique is important to let the flavors and tenderizing effects of the salt fully permeate your chicken to give it an optimal taste and texture when grilled. Though similar to a marinade or wet brine, the difference with dry brining is that it's considerably less messy than a liquid-based brine.

E. coli - you don't want it. You really, really don't. Properly known as Escherichia coli, E. coli are bacteria found in the intestines of humans and animals. While many of them are harmless, some kinds can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, with the most dangerous pathogenic types - such as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) - potentially leading to kidney failure and death, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.

"Glyphosate is a weed killer," DeSantis said. "It's the main ingredient you find in Roundup and other weed-killing brands. It's designed to kill plants, it is not meant to be eaten."

The rice cooker is, without a doubt, one of the greatest inventions known to man - or at least the home chef. Once you've mastered the essential steps of using a rice cooker, you're guaranteed to have perfect, fluffy rice for life. However, even regular users of the kitchen gadget might err, and one of the most common rice cooker mistakes is leaving rice on the "keep warm" setting for too long.

Lentils are an inexpensive source of protein, and they can take on many flavor profiles easily and without much effort. The tiny legumes are great in salads, but they really come alive when simmered with alliums, vegetables, spices, and a flavorful broth. Lentil soups and stews can be simple or extravagant, depending on how you garnish the soup, but they always make for a hearty, satisfying meal.

A Colorado man is suing over the distress he suffered after eating take-and-bake bread without baking it. The lawsuit filed Feb. 3, with Walmart and Anthony & Sons Italian Bakery as defendants claims a sell-by sticker obscured the instruction that the bread needed further baking. The man bought the loaf at a Colorado Springs Walmart store on Sept. 22, 2025, and ate it the next day during his lunch break, the filing says.

My husband apparently believes it is perfectly acceptable-reasonable, even-to use the bathroom toilet plunger in the kitchen sink without washing it first. Not a new plunger. Not a "sink-only" plunger. The plunger. The one whose sole purpose in life is to do battle with human waste. His argument is that "it's fine," "it's basically clean," and my personal favorite, "it's just water."

We've all been there, right? You reach for that bag of flour that's been sitting there for who knows how long, or grab the cooking oil that's been pushed to the back of the shelf since your last attempt at homemade donuts. Most of us assume if something looks fine and doesn't smell off, it's probably safe to use. But here's the thing: some pantry staples can actually become health hazards long before they show obvious signs of spoilage.

I've been shopping on a budget since I got my first job when I was 14, and I have my weekly grocery shopping routine down to a science at this point. Because I'm always trying to save money, I usually go to two or three stores to make sure I'm getting the best deals on my weekly pantry staples. But the one store I look forward to visiting each week is Trader Joe's.

While some recent viral hacks suggest placing the chicken in a sealable plastic bag and to essentially smash it apart, this is neither efficient nor effective. Carefully separating the meat from the bones while your rotisserie chicken is still hot is the most logical choice, since everything is still fairly pliable; once the chicken cools and the fats congeal, it's considerably more difficult.

First snow of the year means SNOW CREAM," "This is literally my childhood," "Ohhhh girlfriend you're not supposed to make snow cream with the first snow of the season," "Hey so I saw an under the microscope of snow and I'd just put that back on the ground.

Classic carbonara receives a coastal makeover in an entree that combines noodles and a sauce of egg yolk, hard cheese, and black pepper with seafood such as shrimp, scallops, mussels, or clams. It may draw you in with its creaminess and maritime promises, but you'll want to resist the urge. It's a dish that's blacklisted even by top seafood chefs themselves.

IoT tech is seeing increased use and paying dividends, fuelling operational efficiency, improving front-of-house guest experiences and reducing downtime in the kitchen, according to research from MachineQ. The 2026 restaurant readiness: ops meets tech report, conducted by independent research firm Censuswide, took the opinion of more than 400 US-based quick service and fast casual restaurant leaders about the effects of technology in their industry, highlighting how technology adoption is transforming day-to-day restaurant operations.

If you want that perfectly crispy, golden skin on a roast chicken, you've gotta make sure the bird is bone-dry before it ever hits the oven," he says. He explains that failing to remove extra surface moisture from the bird will cause it to turn to steam in the oven - which is the last thing you want when you're trying to get crackly skin.

When you think of farming, what ingredients do you generally associate with a successful harvest? The basics certainly come to mind: fertile soil, plenty of sunlight and lots of water. But there are other variables that can also mean the difference between a crop of healthy fruits and vegetables and a large heap of organic waste. And it turns out that one of those variables is a very small hawk.

Loading your fridge with frozen ice packs ahead of time can help keep it cool if the power shuts down, and grouping cold food together can help it stay cool even as the temperature warms. It also helps to have a separate cooler ready to move any perishable items into during a prolonged outage. But no matter how else you prepare, you should also stave off odors by using a sponge.