what is cross contamination?

Question

food hygiene

Answer 1

Basically, you want to keep dirty items away from food items that will be eaten as they are. Cross contamination happens when the foods you are about to eat pick up germs from dirty foods nearby, or from dirty surfaces.

So if you have fresh salad greens and they have some soil and E. coli O157:H7 stuck to them, and you set them on a cutting board. Then you use the cutting board to make a sandwich, the E. coli on the board can get onto the sandwich and make you sick.

Or if your fridge. Suppose you have some raw chicken on a shelf, and there is some bread being stored on shelf under it. The chicken drips onto the bread, contaminating it with Salmonella. Then you go make another sandwich, and get sick on Salmonella.

These are common example of cross contamination. Always put raw meats and eggs on the lowest shelf of your refrigerator. Always wash your cutting boards with hot, soapy water between uses.

Answer 2

if cooked meat comes into direct contact with raw meat this is known as cross contamination

Answer 3

when something is contaminated by something else