Food safety

Cooking prevent many food borne illness that would otherwise occur if the food was eaten raw.When heat is used in the preparation of food, it can kill or inactivate harmful organism, such as bacteria and viruses, as well as various parasites such as tapeworms and toxoplasma gondii.Food poisoning and other illness from uncooked or poorly prepared food may be caused by bacteria such as pathogenic straits of Estherichia coli, salmonella typhimurium and campylobacter, viruses such as noroviruses and protozoa such as Entamoeba histolytia.Parasites may be introduced through salad, meat that is uncooked or done rare and unboiled water. The sterilizing effect of cooking depends on temperature,cooking time and techinique used.However, some bacteria such as clostridium botulinum or bacillus cereus can form spores that survive cooking, which then germinate and regrow after the food has cooled.It is therefore recommeded that cooked food shoul not be reheated more than once to avoid repeated growth that allow the bacteria to proliferate to dangerous levels.Cooking also increases the digestibility of some foods because many foods such as grains, are inedible when raw and some are poisonous.For example, kidney beans are toxic when raw or improperly cooked due to the presence of phytohaemogglutin, which can be inactivated after cooking for atleast ten minutes at 100 degeree celcius.A slow cooker however maynot reach the desired temperatures and cases of poisoning from red beans cooked in a slow cooker have been reported.Other considerations for cooking include yhe separation, handling and stororage of food.Food should not be stored in temperatures which range from 40-140 degree celcius.Washing of hands and surfaces especially when handling foods reduces the risk of illness due to contaminated cooking implements.