Reflecting On My History of Food safety practices

Reflecting on my family’s cooking practices and knowledge of food safety, I remember very little about their practices. As a child, and even as a teenager, I was never allowed in the kitchen. I would get in the way in our tiny kitchen and it was quicker for my family to cook without my assistants. The things I remember about my parent’s food safety habits that I picked up from glances in the kitchen, before being promptly “shooed” away, mostly involve the thawing of raw meats. My father mostly did the cooking when he was home from work. His method of thawing raw meat was putting it into hot water in the sink or simply placing the meat in the sink to thaw. I picked up on this habit when I moved out because it was all I had known. I know now that hot water is not the safest way to thaw raw meats and I choose to prepare in advance by thawing meats in the refrigerator. There was one district memory of my childhood where my father had made a dish with old potatoes, and my entire family came down with a food-borne illness. We were all sick and helpless to help each other. Before taking Food Science 1000, I was not as conscious of preventing cross-contamination. After becoming more aware, I consciously watch and try to prevent habits like turning the water on with the same hand that touched raw beef when making tacos. I also am very cautious to prevent the lettuces for Taco Tuesdays get anywhere near the raw beef. These are items of my daily life I wasn’t as aware of. I am thankful that I have not encountered any illnesses due to my previous unsafe habits.