You can’t always blame the takeout you had on your tummy ache. The truth is,” many cases of food poisoning probably come from carelessness in your own home.” Follow these common-sense rules and you’ll significantly decrease your chances of getting food poisoning.

· Wash your hands before preparing food to avoid passing on bacteria such as staphylococcus (commonly found on the skin and in the throat) or shigella (passed from fecal matter). Wash again after handling raw meat and eggs.

· Don’t eat raw protein food like fish, fowl, meat, milk, or eggs. Avoid sushi, oysters on the half shell, Caesar salad made with raw eggs, and unpasteurized eggnog. Don’t use cracked eggs. Raw food can harbor bacteria.

· Heat or chill raw food. Bacteria can’t multiply above 150° or below 40°F.

· Cook meat until the pink disappears, poultry until there are no red joints, and fish until it flakes. Complete cooking is the only way to ensure that all potentially harmful bacteria have been killed.

· Use a meat thermometer, especially when microwaving large meat and fowl. This also ensures that they are cooked thoroughly.

· Don’t taste test the raw pork sausage stew, the fish chowder, or even the cookie batter before it’s done.

· Don’t let raw meat juice drip onto other food. It can taint otherwise harmless food.

· Use a separate chopping board and utensils when handling raw meat and sanitize them with soapy water or bleach after use. It’ll help [...]