Cross-contamination: Do you like to know how it occurs?

How does cross-contamination occur?

“Give me a loaf of bread, 500 g of sugar, a packet of detergent powder, and a bar of baby soap.” Now you may be wondering who this guy is coming for. Let’s find out.

The main purpose of this article is, as I said in my previous article, “Is your refrigerator like this?” Explain the cross-contamination mentioned with examples. Maybe this word is new to you, but it is something you often experience in everyday life. The above is an opportunity for you to experience it. What is abuse? We return to the example above.
When you request goods from the store in this way, you will get all these items in one polythene bag. What do you think? Can you put all these items in the same polythene bag? It is totally unacceptable. Here, pounds of bread and soap cubes touch. Sunlight and baby soap cubes are highly fragrant. After a while, that aroma is absorbed into the loaf of bread. Then when you eat bread, you will taste the taste of soap. Do you agree with me? I have experienced it myself.

Now it is clear to you what unintentional abuse is. Simply put, food is misused by another food or non-food substance. Furthermore, microorganisms such as bacteria/viruses that have been abused in a food, surface, or device can move to another food. Also, as I mentioned in the example above, this abuse also involves the transformation of the odor, taste, etc. of a non-food substance into a food substance.

Main types of contamination.

Now you may think that food can be consumed with a non-food substance, but how can food be consumed with food. The answer to that was also mentioned in my previous article and I hope to show you some more examples here for your further understanding.

There are three main types of food that can be abused.

contamination of food by food
Food contamination by humans
Consumption of non-food items or equipment

1. Contamination of food by food

This is the worst abuse and can be caused by microorganisms such as bacteria in one food, especially in cooked food, especially uncooked food.

Raw meat can be kept on the top shelf of the refrigerator while cooked dishes can be kept on the bottom shelf.
Mix the leftover rice with the freshly cooked rice. The micro-organisms present in the old rice are used up by the freshly cooked rice.
When storing food, care should be taken to group the food and store it separately. Or the pigments or flavors in one food can be exchanged with other foods.

2. Food contamination by humans

Food is also consumed by humans and the following are some examples.

Use food without washing hands thoroughly after using the toilet.
After consuming raw meat, wash your hands thoroughly and use other foods such as vegetables.
Using the same piece of cloth to cook between different dishes (this refers to different foods, e.g., meat and vegetables) as well as the same piece of cloth used to cook the surface (such as the table used for cooking).

3. Consumption of food by non-food items or equipment

Food can also be wasted by cooking utensils (such as knives/cutting boards) and cutting boards.

Use of uncleaned utensils for cooking.
After cutting a meat-like food with a knife, use the same knife to cut a salad-like dish without cleaning it.
Putting fragrant substances such as incense sticks, soap powder, and soap powder together with food items.
Putting a mosquito coil in contact with a poisonous substance such as a mosquito coil (I have seen some shops cover a mosquito coil with a newspaper page and put it in a polythene bag containing other foods).

No doubt you have a clear understanding of what constipation is, so you will naturally have an understanding of how to prevent this constipation. Thus simply explaining how to prevent food abuse,

Be aware of the food you eat.
Always consider whether the practices they use in cooking or eating are correct.
Make it a habit to live a healthy life by eating clean and quality food.

Then regular food intake will be avoided.