Foodborne Illness Risk: Simple Steps to Protect Your Family

Understanding the foodborne illness risk is the first step to protecting your family. By adopting simple, practical steps today—clean hands, safe temperatures, and smart storage—you can dramatically lower the chances of kitchen mishaps turning into illness. Start with hands: wash with soap for at least 20 seconds before you handle any food, after touching raw meat, and after using the bathroom. Keep raw and cooked foods separate, and make sure leftovers are cooled and stored promptly to minimize the foodborne illness risk. In the kitchen, practical tips matter. Use separate cutting boards for raw meat and ready-to-eat foods, and never reuse marinades that touched raw meat unless you’ve boiled them first. Cook poultry to 165°F (74°C), ground meats to 160°F (71°C), and reheat leftovers to at least 165°F (74°C). Refrigerate perishable foods within two hours (or one hour if it’s hot outside), keep your fridge at or below 40°F (4°C), and freeze items at 0°F (-18°C) or below. By combining these routines with mindful storage and dating of foods, you actively reduce the foodborne illness risk for your household. Beyond standard hygiene, you can think about gut health as part of overall resilience. InnerBuddies offers a modular Gut Health Operating System that both consumers and companies can use to power gut microbiome testing and insights. Its Gut Microbiome Health Index (a 0–100 score) provides a snapshot of overall gut health based on an exclusive IP deal with EAFIT University in Colombia. It also presents Bacteria Abundances and Bacteria Functions, along with Target Group analyses for topics like Healthy Aging, Endurance Sport, Power Sport, and Skin & Hair Health. With personalized nutrition advice drawn from 3-day food diaries and stool samples, plus tailored probiotics and prebiotics guidance, InnerBuddies helps you translate data into actionable steps. Learn more about their consumer options on the microbiome test page: InnerBuddies microbiome test, and consider adding a Gut Health Membership for ongoing support. If you’re exploring gut health solutions for families or partners, InnerBuddies also offers a B2B path to bring these capabilities to your products or services. You can explore becoming a partner here: InnerBuddies partner program. All of the options—from consumer gut tests to subscription-based guidance and business partnerships—are designed to complement everyday food safety practices, helping you reduce risk and support your family’s wellbeing today.