Food safety and food handling

These notes combine advice from 8 reviewed passages across 7 workouts.

Overview

Coach’s advice

Food safety and food handling is about the practical steps taken before food is eaten and while it is stored. These include removing the label from an apple, washing chicken thoroughly, keeping meat and soup so they stay edible, and judging whether food that has passed its printed date is still good.

Coach’s advice

Fruit and fish have their own handling habits. Strawberries are thought to carry more microscopic life than plums, and only one particular type of fish can be eaten cold, a practice distinct from sashimi and sushi.

Cleaning chicken

Coach’s advice

Chicken goes through troublesome processes, so wash it thoroughly, inside and out, before cooking. The chicken water can be used afterward.

Coach’s advice

The reason for washing chicken so thoroughly is not settled. Many people who cook wash chicken extensively, which suggests there may be a reason, but the practice needs more research.

Storing meat and soup

Coach’s advice

Keep unfrozen meat for no more than four days; spoilage begins after that. In the freezer, meat keeps for about a month. When you are ready to cook it, thaw it for several hours first.

Coach’s advice

Chicken soup keeps in the refrigerator, but it spoils if it is stored in a wardrobe.

Expiration dates

Coach’s advice

Use-by dates are set a few days early, so an egg can still be eaten a few days after the printed date. The body can tell from appearance when something has gone bad.

Handling fruit

Coach’s advice

Remove the label from an apple before eating it; the label paper provides little benefit.

Coach’s advice

Strawberries are thought to carry more microscopic life than plums, and material comes out of them when they are soaked in water.

Eating fish cold

Coach’s advice

Only one particular type of fish can be eaten cold; this is distinct from sashimi and sushi. The old Mongols supposedly ate fish this way.

Coach’s experience

In his own eating, the coach feels more comfortable with plums than strawberries, but he still eats strawberries.

In his own kitchen, the coach used to put chicken in water. He was told to stop doing that and to wash the chicken thoroughly instead.