Learn About Food Safety

Female Speaker: Food safety is a hot topic these days whether it a backyard barbecue or back lettuce, we all want to protect ourselves, but are we doing the right things. We took to the streets to test people's food safety IQs. Okay first question true or false. It's safe to use milk upto one week after the "sell by" date. Male Speaker: I think it depends on whether it's skimmed to what percent. I am not sure, I think is that right. Female Speaker: Oh true, false. Male Speaker: Probably is but, but it's probably not a good idea. Female Speaker: Who is right? We turned to food safety expert Dr. Christine Mo. Dr. Christine Mo: The answer is true. Male Speaker: True. Really wow! Dr. Christine Mo: The "sell by" date is actually for the retailers and for the grocery stores, but the consumer can feel free to use the milk for probably seven days after the "sell by" date. You shoud use good judgment, however and if the milk smells bad or if you have doubt, then you should throw it out. Female Speaker: Staying inside the fridge. Here is our next question. How long do refrigerated eggs stay fresh after you buy them? Male Speaker: I think three weeks should be a guess. Male Speaker: Lets us say a month. Female Speaker: I think it's a couple of months, like three, six. Female Speaker: A week, three weeks. Dr. Christine Mo: You can keep eggs in the fridge for three to five weeks. Female Speaker: You are good Jack. Dr. Christine Mo: It is important though to keep your fridge between 32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, because if the fridge gets warm, if it's not working properly, you can have more rapid food spoilage and possible growth of dangerous bacteria. Female Speaker: Okay, on to those kitchen sponges that might be packing a germy surprise. Which of the following is an effective way to clean them. Is it A) soaking them in bleach and water solution B) putting them in dish washer or C) zapping them in the microwave. Male Speaker: I will say B) the dish washer. Smells better than when it went in. Female Speaker: Soaking them in a bleach and water. I think I will with that too. Dr Christine Mo: Surprisingly the answer is all of the above. All of those methods are effective at cleaning your sponge. Most people don't realize it. But sponges can be one of the dirtiest germiest objects in your kitchen and your sponge can be spreading germs from one part of your kitchen to another part. Everyone I run my dish washer I put one of my sponges in the dish washer. Female Speaker: If you microwave yours, two minutes is fine, but make sure that they are damp when they go in. If you go the bleach out, one teaspoon for every cup of water is a good ratio. Just remember to rinse the sponge thoroughly after cleaning it. Female Speaker: Now on to a picnic favorite. When it comes to spoiled food, potato salad always comes to mind. But just how long can perishables like that sit out safely. Male Speaker: I would say, may be about 10 hours. Female Speaker: 10 hours, we have a risk taker, think lower much lower. Male Speaker: I would need you think it's more than an hour to two hours Female Speaker: That's more like it. Dr. Christine Mo: The USFDA recommends that you put food away or that food should not sit out the counter for more than two hours after it has been prepared. Potato salad in particular gets a bad rap and may people saying because of the mayonnaise. But actually commercial mayonnaise is very safe. It's pasteurized; it has high acid content. So it's more likely that it's the potatoes or it's the egg part of the potato salad that's the problem. Female Speaker: And finally ever heard of the "5 second rule". Male Speaker: If you drop a piece a food, you can eat it, if you pick it up within 5 seconds. I think that's the idea. Female Speaker: Yep. That's it. But is it really true. Male Speaker: Absolutely. Three kids the ground and its up within 5 seconds, its still good. Male Speaker: We can go anywhere from ten seconds to five minutes. Dr. Christine Mo: My children would be disappointed to hear this. But this 5 second rule is actually been put to the test by researchers at the University of Illinois. And what they did is they coated some ceramic tile with e-coli bacteria and they dropped cookies and candy and after five second they picked it up and sure enough, they were able to detect e-coli bacteria on the cookies and the candies. So 5 second rule no longer safe. Sorry. Female Speaker: He got them all right. So how did you do? Female Speaker: Four out of five. Well done. It's an eighty. That's a big, thank you. Female Speaker: How do you think we do?