food poisoning: June 2008 Archives

Necessary implements for preventing food poisoning from your leftover food:

1 Sharpie pen

1 regular pen

Tiny Post-it notes

Refrigerator and Freezer storage chart from the FDA

Common sense

Can't remember if it was last Friday or Saturday (or was it Thursday?) when you put that leftover chicken salad in the fridge?

It's a good idea to break out a Sharpie pen and scrawl the date across the empty ziploc bag before placing food in it, or take a Post-it and tag that takeout container. Yes, yes, you don't' have time, you have to get a pen, it's a phenomenal pain. So is doubling over with diarrhea.

Keep the pens in the utensil drawer (unless you have a small child and don't care about your walls) with the sticky notes.

And remember, the refrigerator is not a time capsule, so almost no food will stay fresh there for a week. Raw hamburger, for example, needs to be used in 2 days max (if you're not going to use it get it to the freezer).

If you're playing a guessing game, don't go over 3 days for most open containers of cooked (but print the FDA chart for the exceptions).