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As anyone who has undergone food hygiene training will know, there are different ways to handle different types of food. If you work or own a business which serves, sells or prepares food, you need to know the right way to handle different food products.

Raw meat

When handling raw meat, you must:

• Wash everything that has touched the meat after handling it, from chopping boards, knives and surfaces to your hands
• Defrost and store it in the refrigerator, at the bottom so it does not drip on other food
• Cleaning up drips from meat right away

Fish, eggs and poultry

When handling these food products, you should make sure to:

• Keep all poultry, fish and eggs refrigerated until ready to use
• Never serve or eat raw or undercooked poultry or eggs
• Cook fish until it is white and flaky, and cook poultry until juices are clear and meat is white in the centre
• Wash hands after handling all of these items

Fruit and vegetables

Whilst easy to handle safely, when dealing with fruits and vegetables you must remember to:

• Throw away anything that is shrivelled, mouldy, bruised, slimy or too soft, as well as any item that has an unpleasant odour or that is past its use-by date
• Store fruit separately from vegetables, as some fruits have high levels of a ripening agent known as ethylene which can cause the premature ripening of vegetables.
• Wash or rinse fruits and vegetables with clean, cold water before using, and use a scrubbing brush to get rid of dirt

If you want to learn more about handling different types of food, you will gain a more in-depth understanding by taking an advanced food safety training course.