This year didn’t get off to the healthiest start. A minor cold and a MAJOR bout of food poisoning came at us while we were traveling. Now that we’re back home, I’ve been steering into the drive-through too often. I’ll admit I got spooked away from the kitchen – the sight of raw meat still churns my stomach a bit. So while everyone else was committing to gym-going, smoothie-making and daily yoga, I decided to focus on family food safety. I made a simple commitment to get us back into a simple, healthy routine.
A Family Food Safety Kit Keeps the Kitchen Clean
We're working with Clorox® today to share a quick and easy food safety kit that can help get your meal prep space into shape. Whether you’re whipping up chicken or salmon, cherries or sushi, Clorox Bleach can disinfect your kitchen before and after your mealtime. Everyone can eat healthy without fear of food poisoning!
Load up on the Supplies
For our food safety kit, we just need a bucket, a sponge or wipe for scrubbing, nitrile gloves and some simple cleaning products. Clorox Bleach products are always our go-to for cleaning because they can be used everywhere from the kitchen to the bathroom and laundry. Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach comes in a convenient spray bottle and is perfect for disinfecting small cook spaces. Clorox® Bleach with CLOROMAX™ kills 99.9% of germs and bacteria, so we always keep that on hand and use it liberally to clean up the larger areas.
Make it Custom, Obviously
I stuck some stickers on my bucket so I’ll feel happy every time I pull it out. It’s the little things in life. I put my cleaning gloves in a delicate laundry wash bag and added some plastic clips to hang that plus the sponge from the side of the bucket. Food safety sounds like an intense topic, but you can totally have fun with it!
Know What each Product is For – And When to Use it
A lot of people are overwhelmed when faced with raw meat. They know that it can be a big food safety issue, yet they aren’t sure how to clean up before and after meal prep.
Here’s a quick rundown: before you start, use Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach on any surface areas around your food, like countertops, sinks, stove, etc. Sweep off crumbs, spray the product on the surface from 4 to 6 inches away, and let sit for 30 seconds. Then, rinse it or wipe it clean with a wet sponge.
Next, simply prepare your food according to your recipe! If you’re switching from prepping a dish that will be cooked (such as chicken) to a raw dish (such as a salad), go ahead and give the surface area another spray and rinse in-between. You’ll repeat this process when you’re finished cooking to remove left-behind food residue and potential germs.
Clorox® Bleach with CLOROMAX™ comes into play when it’s time to wipe down the larger surfaces. Bleach forms a protective shield on hard surfaces to repel stains so cleaning is quicker and easier. We dilute it and use that to wipe down the bigger surfaces in our kitchen like countertops below the cabinets, sink, tile floor, etc.
Gloves Are Multi-Purpose
If you get food-safe gloves, you can use those to handle the food while you’re preparing it AND you can use a new set to keep your hands protected while you’re scrubbing after you eat. I personally don’t like to have my hands wet or damp or grimy at all. It just makes me feel yicky. That’s always been one of the major hurdles in food prep and cleanup for me, so this is a huge help in terms of keeping the kitchen clean.
Prep to your Heart’s Content with Food Safety Taken Care of
As long as I’m in the food safety mode, I like to take advantage prepare a bunch of food at once. We often make a dozen hard boiled eggs and several chicken breasts to keep in the fridge for quick, healthy snacks or an easy addition to a salad.
Have a Go-to Storage Space
Your supplies should have a HOME. I showed you guys our cleaning closet in our litter box post, and that’s exactly where this bucket goes. Having it close at-hand in the kitchen means that both Nate and I are more inclined to pull it out and clean up after ourselves.
Hop on over to our cleaning list for a rundown on how we quickly refresh the WHOLE house before company comes over.
Has your family ever been hit by food poisoning? How do you prioritize food safety?