Nine common cooking mistakes that can be dangerous to your health.
Every year, around 600 million people around the world suffer from food-borne diseases and about 420,000 people lose their lives due to such diseases.
The main cause of these diseases is the bacteria that develop in rotten food or food that is not properly stored.
These bacteria can cause severe infections in the stomach and intestines, which in some people manifest as severe vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of dehydration.
These World Health Organization figures have always been the focus of Yulinton Pinto, professor of microbiology at the Food Research Center at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
This is the reason why he has set up a team to research the diseases caused by bacteria.
According to the first review published in 2019 by the team of Prof. Yulinton Pinto, between 2018 and 2020 in Brazil, 247,000 people became ill due to eating the wrong food, of which 195 died. They lost.
"One of the things we observed was that a lot of people got sick from home-cooked meals," says Professor Pinto.
Then, in the last months of 2021, Professor Pinto and his team started a new study that aimed to find out what we do wrong when cooking food at home and storing it in the refrigerator etc. Germs are born and we get sick.
Based on the research done by Professor Pinto and his team and discussions with some other experts, we have compiled a list of mistakes that can be avoided to greatly reduce the chances of developing gastrointestinal diseases.
Rinse the meat under the tap
According to a survey of Brazilian experts, most people make mistakes when washing meat.
Many people think that if you wash the chicken under the sink in the sink, the thin layer of grease on the chicken will come off and the meat will be very clean.
But in terms of hygiene, this habit can be harmful. The biggest problem with this is that when the water from the faucet falls on the chicken, the droplets can spread around the sink. For example, imagine that there are plates, pots or cloths near the sink, where splashes of water from the meat can fall on these objects. Thus, the bacteria on the chicken meat can get on the cleaned dishes. After some time, if you put something in your mouth with an apparently washed spoon, the invisible bacteria and other germs on the spoon can enter your stomach.
Professor Pinto explains that 'chicken meat contains some bacteria and the best way to get rid of these bacteria is to cook the meat.
That's why experts say there's no need to wash chicken before seasoning it or putting it in the pot (or oven). But if you are not satisfied without washing the meat, then wash it very carefully so that the splash of water does not fall on other utensils etc. lying nearby.
Another thing to keep in mind while cooking meat or egg curry is that the temperature should be at least 70 degrees Celsius. This ensures that most of the bacteria found in meat and eggs are killed at this temperature.
It can also be beneficial to use a cooking thermometer to make sure the meat is cooked through.
