Making Baby Food Safely

Before making baby food at home, you must take precautionary measures to prevent bacteria and viruses from forming in your baby's food.

It is extremely important to sterilize and disinfect the area and products you will use to make your baby's food. Bacteria such as deadly salmonella and staph can be living on your kitchen surfaces so take the precautionary measures you need to protect your baby's health.

Before you get started always remember to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water, use an anti-bacterial sanitizer like Purell, and never cross-contaminate. Use food-handling gloves for extra safety.

Run all pots, pans, utensils, food storage items and food processor parts in the dish washer before cooking. Running items in the washer steams-clean products to kill any bacteria living on the surface.

Disinfect all counter surfaces and cutting boards you will be using to make your baby food. You can never be too careful!

If you will be storing your baby food product, the correct way is to cool in a bowl floating in a larger bowl of ice water. Stir constantly until the food reaches 40 degrees F. and pop in the freezer immediately. You do not want bacteria to start forming on your baby’s food before storage. Frozen food can stay for up to 3 weeks in the freezer. Fresh food should be used within 3 days.

For free gourmet baby food recipes please see www.gourmetbabyfoodrecipes.com!

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