People often use the beginning of the new year as a chance to clean the slate and set goals for the upcoming year. These often include reducing stress, saving money, helping others, being more kind, losing weight, eating healthier, exercising more, and so on. What if one of your goals was to be more food safe? Luckily, there are simple ways to accomplish that.

Holiday Kitchen Recovery

Likely, your kitchen saw a lot of action during the holidays with the making of delicious foods and treats. Helping your kitchen recover from that aftermath by cleaning surfaces and appliances is a great step to being more food safe in the new year.

First, wash your surfaces and appliances with warm, soapy water. Then, rinse and sanitize the areas. The best sanitizer to use is a mixture of 1 teaspoon of unscented bleach per 1 gallon of water. This will help reduce bacteria from developing.

Appliances—especially larger ones like the refrigerator and oven—deserve a deep clean to start the year as well. In the refrigerator, clear out any holiday leftovers, which helps empty shelves and allows for an easy cleanup. While the oven is often the last kitchen cleaning chore on the list, don’t skip out on cleaning it.

You can also take this time to clean out kitchen cabinets and drawers. A lot of people get new kitchen gadgets and tools as holiday gifts, so this will help you get rid of broken or unused items and make way for the new gadgets and tools.

Staying Clean and Food Safe

Routinely cleaning and sanitizing your kitchen will set you up to be more food safe throughout the year. However, that also extends to your hands. No matter how clean the kitchen is, you should always prepare food with clean, washed hands. Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before preparing food.  Also, always wash your hands after handling raw meat and eggs, using the restroom, and handling pets. This practice will not only keep your food safe but will also help keep your family healthy.

Another simple step to preventing foodborne illness is to purchase a food thermometer. Foods must always be cooked to the correct internal temperatures to reduce and illuminate foodborne illness.

More Information

For more information, visit the Food Safety section of the Alabama Extension website, aces.edu.