Food Safety During Pregnancy
Often there is a lot of advice on what NOT to eat during pregnancy - because reducing the risk of bacterial infection which can make your baby ill, is super important. Just as important, for the same reason, is safe food preparation and handling.
Here are some food safety tips during pregnancy:
- Shop with a cooler bag
- Put any food that needs to be kept cold directly in the fridge
- Only eat chilled foods if they have come straight from the fridge
- Defrost and marinate food in the fridge, especially meats
Keep it hot
- Cook/reheat foods until they're steaming hot
- Make sure there's no pink left in cooked meats/fish
- Look for clear juices before eating freshly cooked chicken or pork
- Heat to boiling all marinades containing raw meat juices before serving
Keep it clean
- Wash and dry hands thoroughly before starting to prepare or eat any food, even a snack
- Separate raw and cooked food and use different cutting boards and knives for each
- Don't let raw meat juices drip onto other foods
Check the label
- Use food within the use-by-date
- Follow storage and cooking instructions
- Ask for information about unpackaged foods e.g. ready-to-eat salads
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