Safe food storage

Safe food storage is an important step towards healthy living. By properly storing your food, you can save money, make less shopping trips to replace spoiled food, and avoid food-related sicknesses.   

Here are a few tips for safe food storage:

• Keep the refrigerator temperature under control. When refrigerating veggies, cheeses, beverages or freezing meats, ice cream, and dinner meals, you should keep the temperature under control. Safe refrigerating temperature should be between 34F and 40F degrees. If the temperature is above 40F, then the food becomes spoiled quicker. Safe freezing temperature should be between 0F and 5F. Any temperature higher than 5F will not keep frozen food safe. Remember, if the freezer can’t keep the ice-cream solid, then you don’t have the right temperature in your freezer.  
• Use special green plastic bags for fruits and veggies. The green plastic storage bags for fruits and veggies are the best way to keep them fresh longer. You can buy these bags at any grocery store. Statistics show that, if kept in green plastic bags, the fruits and veggies last twice longer than in regular plastic bags. These bags work by absorbing and removing gases that fruits and veggies release, keeping food fresh.   
• Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours. When bringing leftover food from restaurants, you should refrigerate it as soon as possible. You should refrigerate your food within 2 hours after leaving the restaurant. The longer you delay refrigeration, the higher risk you take of food going bad. 
• Keep dry food in glass or ceramic containers. The safest way to store dry food is in glass or ceramic containers. Even such dry foods as flour, rice, and pasta that have a very long shelf life can eventually get spoiled or attract unwanted visitors such as flour bugs. Use storage containers that have sealed covers. Do not store your dry food in cardboard boxes because they absorb moisture.