Written by Bamba, Delroy Daley, Adanna Onyeagucha, and reviewed by Daniel Quinn (PhD in Microbiology) of the AUC School of Medicine.
Hey friends! It's Bamba here! Are any of you good cooks? I thought I was until my friend Marly taught me about food safety. He showed me how to make sure my food was delicious and safe to eat! Let’s talk about food safety and how to avoid getting sick from contaminated foods!
Food safety is very important because our food comes from many different places. For example, I love to eat chips and we get chips from potatoes. Where do we find potatoes? In the soil. What else is found in soil? Bacteria! So, it is good to know how to make food, without bacteria making you sick.
Did you know that there are “good” bacteria and “bad” bacteria? The good bacteria are like superheroes – some protect us from getting sick and some others even make our food taste better. The bad bacteria are like villains that make us sick. Hmmm… If I used a microscope, I wonder if I would see bacteria battling on my cheeseburger. LOL!
How do we avoid “bad” bacteria? When preparing food, we must first wash our hands, because bacteria can live everywhere, even on us – yikes! So it is important to make sure our cooking area is clean and that we use clean cooking utensils, like knives and spoons as well. Some bad bacteria like E. coli can be found on food like undercooked meats and veggies. So it is important that we fully cook our food so the heat kills the bad bacteria and we do not get food poisoning. What does E. coli do? E. coli can cause stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, and even diarrhoea. Wow, now that's a bad bug!
Did you know that some bacteria help to make delicious foods like cheese or pickles? Yes, that’s the good bacteria! To make cheese, some bacteria create lactic acid that helps give cheese its flavour. Also, in our intestines, we have a source of good bacteria that breaks down foods that we couldn't digest by ourselves, like the outer coats of corn and celery – we are basically a tag team!
What do we need to practice food safety? A great tool to have is a meat thermometer to make sure our food is cooked at the right temperature to kill bacteria. Cooking wear, like oven mitts, will help us handle hot dishes to prevent burn injuries to our hands. Also, wearing an apron can help prevent food spills over our clothes. This is cool because I hate cleaning up big cooking spills!
Did you know bacteria can still grow on food after you cook it? After dinner, Marly warned me that bacteria can still grow on my food and that placing food in the refrigerator or freezer should help prevent bacteria from growing for a little while. Whenever I am ready to eat leftovers, I must make sure I reheat it to the right temperature so I kill any new bacteria that grew since I last cooked it.
All right, friends and future chefs, there you have it – all the information we need to be great cooks! Let's get in the kitchen and make something yummy!
’Til next time. Bamba out!
