Your EnvironmentFood Safety

Protect Yourself

Food safety is important for everyone. Sometimes food can have harmful bacteria, viruses, chemicals, or parasites that can make you sick. About 1 in 8 Canadians get sick from a foodborne illness (food poisoning) each year.

Here are some easy ways to help stop food poisoning:

Practice safe food handling
Take a food handling course to learn how to prepare, cook, and store food safely
Check a restaurant’s health inspection report in Check IT CK
Sign up for recall notices from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Report food safety concerns to CK Public Health

Food Safety at Home

Clean

Germs that can make you sick can spread easily in your kitchen. They can get on your hands, cutting boards, knives, and counters. Washing your hands often and cleaning your kitchen tools and surfaces can stop foodborne illness.

Here's how to keep your kitchen safe:

Always wash your hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before preparing food and after touching raw meat.
Clean and sanitize counters, cutting boards, knives, and cooking tools with a mild bleach solution after use and when switching between raw meat and other foods.
Make your own bleach solution by mixing ½ teaspoon of bleach with 4 cups of water. Allow the solution to stay on the surface for 45 seconds to kill germs.
Throw away cutting boards, utensils, or tools that are worn and difficult to clean.

Hands in yellow rubber gloves washing a green chopping board in a sink full of soapy water

Separate

Harmful bacteria often grow on raw meat, poultry and seafood. Keep raw foods and their juices away from any food that won’t be cooked to prevent the spread of germs.

Seal raw meat and seafood in air-tight containers or plastic bags.
Keep sealed meat and seafood on the bottom shelf of your fridge. This helps stop juices from dripping onto other food and making it unsafe to eat.
Use one cutting board for meat and seafood and a different cutting board for other food.
Do not put cooked food on a plate that had raw meat on it.

The inside of a refrigerator, with food stored in separate containers for safety.

Cook

Properly cooking foods kills germs that can make you sick. The only way to know that your food has been properly cooked is to use a food thermometer to check the final temperature.

Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of meat, seafood, and eggs
Cooking times and temperatures vary based on the type of meat or seafood. For more information, see Health Canada’s recommended safe cooking temperatures.

Food Safety - Roasting Chicken in the Oven with Digital Thermometer

Chill

Harmful germs grow quickly at temperatures between 4°C (40°F) and 60°C (140°F). Use a thermometer to make sure that your refrigerator temperature is below 4°C (40°F).

Refrigerate or freeze food within 2 hours of buying or preparing it.
If meat, seafood, dairy, gravy, or custards have been left out for more than 2 hours, throw them away.
Don't over-fill your refrigerator so air can circulate properly and keep foods at a safe temperature.
Do not thaw food at room temperature. Thaw foods in the refrigerator or under cold running water.
Visit Health Canada for information about how long you can safely store certain foods in the fridge and freezer.

The inside of a refrigerator showing the safe storage of different foods.

Food Recalls and Warnings

Sometimes foods that you buy at the store are recalled. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issues food recalls when it believes that a food may not be safe to eat. Some reasons for a recall may be:

People got sick after eating the food item
The food item contains allergens that are not listed on the package
Physical, biological, or chemical contamination

When a food product is recalled the CFIA will issue a recall notice. You can sign up to receive recall alerts by email.

If a product has been recalled, follow the instructions from the CFIA. If you are unsure if something is safe to eat, throw it away.

To learn more about food recalls and to get the most up‑to‑date list of recalled foods, visit the CFIA recalls, advisories and safety alerts webpage.

Your EnvironmentFood Safety

Protect Yourself

Food Safety at Home

Clean

Separate

Cook

Chill

Food Recalls and Warnings

Inspections & Enforcement

Related Content & Links

For More Information

CK Public Health

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