Byline: Bob Susnjara
bsusnjara@@dailyherald.com
How clean is your kitchen?
That clean? Really?
That's what I thought until I suggested a special restaurant- style Lake County Health Department inspection while I prepared a meal fit for special guests.
If you have a pet, a refrigerator not running at maximum efficiency or an inaccurate meat thermometer, you run the risk of food-borne illness.
Food-preparation flaws aren't tolerated in restaurants, but can be fairly common with home cooks.
That doesn't mean your holiday feast has to include a trip to the emergency room and be a disaster. Once you realize the problems exist, it's easy to make corrections and ensure your party is a success.
Here are some things I learned from health department food program specialist Pam Smith, who inspected my kitchen as part of a public education effort:
Pets
Jake, my 9-year-old German shepherd, was a quick casualty of Smith's inspection. Jake will have to stick to working security instead of trying to be a sous chef.
Smith nailed my kitchen with a critical violation after Jake trotted in offering assistance when I prepared breaded, parmesan- encrusted chicken breasts. Jake was a good boy and didn't get near the chicken, but the health department wasn't impressed.
'Pets should not be in the kitchen because of the fact they do carry diseases and they could contaminate the surfaces where the food goes, and then you could ingest those,' Smith said.
Sanitizer vs. soap
Ever see that hand sanitizer stuff in a plastic bottle with a pump? You think it'll keep your hands clean, especially after working with raw meat. Right?
Smith kept an eye on me as I dipped uncooked chicken breasts in egg and rolled them in a mixture of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. I thought I was a culinary genius when my next move was to carefully pump the sanitizer gunk on my hands.
But Smith frowned on that move, saying the sanitizer isn't strong enough to kill bacteria on your hands after handling dangerous raw products such as chicken.
'Well, now that I have been standing here with you and kind of observing what you did to make this meal, the first thing is you have to have hand soap,' Smith told me.
'Have to have hand soap. I understand people will also have dish soap. It does work, but again, have a container with a pump on it so it's easier to wash your hands.'
Smith said it's easy to have the mistaken notion that hand sanitizer is a convenient substitute for using water as hot as you can tolerate with soap.
Meat thermometer
I figured the chicken was about done when I inserted a metal- stem thermometer in one of the breasts. I was pleased to see the chicken at a safe 165-degree internal temperature.
Guess what?
Smith found my thermometer was inaccurate. I hadn't checked it by placing it in ice water and calibrating it to 32 degrees before using it.
Do Bobby Flay or Rachael Ray do that?
On Smith's digital thermometer, the chicken was 185 degrees. At least the chicken I thought was 165 degrees was a tad overdone and wouldn't get anyone sick.
'Every house should have a metal-stem thermometer,' Smith said.
Fridge running?
Food handling isn't all that inspectors examine in a kitchen.
Smith checked my refrigerator. The milk and beer are always plenty cold, so there didn't seem to be anything to worry about.
I was surprised when she told me the milk and sour cream were barely in the safe zone at 41 degrees. The good news was the freezer checked out fine.
Peeking under the fridge, Smith noticed the coils were dusty and likely affecting its performance. She even gave me a non-critical violation for that on her inspection report.
To improve the fridge's performance, Smith recommended vacuuming the dusty coils. I guess you learn something new every day.
Not so clean
Smith's nearly two-hour visit to my kitchen concluded with her detailing one critical and four non-critical violations for the Lake County Health Department's routine pass/fail restaurant inspection.
While the kitchen passed, it didn't get the high marks I expected.
'I think a lot of people think their houses are just spotless,' Smith said.
'And what I consider soiled and what you might consider soiled are completely different things. So that's why the standards are different for restaurants. You can't run the risk of possibly contaminating people.'
Home kitchen safety tips
- Don't handle raw foods such as chicken and then clean hands with just a hand sanitizer. Use hot water and hand soap for at least 20 seconds. Sanitizer can be used after washing with hot, soapy water.
- Have single-use paper towels by the sink.
- Avoid wooden cutting boards.
- Defrost chicken, fish and other dangerous foods in a refrigerator, not on a counter. Place that food on the lowest refrigerator shelf.
- Use a metal-stem thermometer that goes from zero to 200 degrees to measure food temperature. Properly calibrate the thermometer to 32 degrees by placing it in a cup of ice water.
- Keep pets out of food preparation areas.
- Hold all hot foods at 140 degrees or above.
- Keep all cold foods at 41 degrees or below.
- Be careful with eggs. Bacteria can creep into eggs if they are out of the refrigerator for just 15 minutes.
Source: Lake County Health Department
