Food safety education: Safe recipe style guide
Organization: Health Canada
Published: 2024-06-04
Safe recipe style guide: Shaping food safety behaviours
Your mission as recipe writers, food journalists, bloggers and chefs: To create recipes that encourage everyone to follow food safety steps at home.
On this page
- About foodborne illness
- The safe recipe style guide and why we need it
- Style guide food safety tips
- How to use the safe recipe style guide
- Food safety editorial content: Extra tips to share with your readers
About foodborne illness
In Canada, 1 in 8 people, or 4 million people in Canada get sick each year from eating contaminated food. This is called foodborne illness. Most foodborne illness is preventable with proper food handling. You can prevent many illnesses and even deaths by following simple food safety steps.
The safe recipe style guide and why we need it
Research has shown that when food safety instructions are incorporated directly into recipes, consumers are more likely to follow them. Consumers play a key role in preventing foodborne illness and keeping themselves and their families healthy.
The style guide provides you with an easy and flexible way to add food safety tips to your recipes on your blog, article, cookbook, social media channels, etc. Use the style guide as it suits your recipes and your needs. It is voluntary.
By using the style guide for your recipes, you will be helping people improve their food safety practices at home. This may help reduce the risk of people getting sick because of foodborne illness.
The recipes incorporate food safety messages from these 4 key areas:
- clean: wash hands and surfaces often, rinse vegetables and fruit
- separate: don't cross contaminate from raw to cooked food
- cook: cook foods to proper temperatures and check to be sure
- chill: keep cold food cold by refrigerating or freezing promptly
Health Canada's Safe recipe style guide: Shaping food safety behaviours was inspired by the Partnership for Food Safety Education's (the Partnership) Safe Recipe Style Guide (2019) from the United States. We are pleased to collaborate with the Partnership to help reduce foodborne illness in North America.
Style guide food safety tips
This section provides concise wording for the food safety tips. It breaks them down into the 4 key areas: clean, separate, cook and chill, and describes the situations in which to use them.
Message for recipe | When and how do I use this message? | Where do I put this message? |
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Wash hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. |
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Wash all surfaces, like [blank 1], [blank 2], and [blank 3] used for food preparation. For example: |
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Message for recipe | When and how do I use this message? | Where do I put this message? |
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Gently rinse ____________ under cool running water. For example: |
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Scrub _____________ with a clean vegetable brush under cool running water. For example: |
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Message for recipe | When and how do I use this message? | Where do I put this message? |
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Don't rinse raw poultry or meat. |
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Wash [blank 1] after using it with raw [blank 2] before reusing it. For example: |
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Use separate equipment and utensils such as [blank 1] and [blank 2] for handling raw food and cooked food. For example: |
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Don't reuse marinades that were used on raw foods. |
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Message for recipe | When and how do I use this message? | Where do I put this message? |
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Cook until internal temperature reaches ___ ºC (___ºF) on a digital food thermometer. |
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Keep hot food hot at or above 60°C (140°F) before serving. |
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Reheat leftovers to an internal temperature of 74°C (165°F). |
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Message for recipe | When and how do I use this message? | Where do I put this message? |
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Keep cold food cold at or below 4ºC (40ºF). |
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Put leftovers away in the fridge within 2 hours, or sooner if they are in warm location. |
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Follow safe food storage guidance in Storing leftovers to help save money and decrease food waste. |
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How to use the safe recipe style guide
Here are some ideas for using the style guide:
- Choose the specific food safety tips that work for you and your recipe.
- Ideally, start every recipe with the instruction to wash hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.
- However, you can be as creative as you like. Perhaps you could place this food safety tip in a call out box to draw attention to it.
- Another idea is to scan through your recipe and determine which overall food safety tips you will use and create a 'tips box'.
- Check out the style guide food safety tips to learn which ones you can add to recipes.
- Use the style guide food safety tips wording as closely as possible for consistency.
- However, you can make changes as needed to work for your recipe(s).
- Add food safety tips to your new recipes and adapt your existing recipes.
- You may need to use food safety tips from all key areas for some recipes, while you may only need tips from 2 or 3 key areas in others.
- You can choose the tips that work for your recipes.
Food safety editorial content: Extra tips to share with your readers
Cleaning tips
- Wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. Do you know how long that is? Twenty (20) seconds is how long it takes to sing Happy Birthday to yourself twice! Whether you sing out loud or not, well, that's up to you.
- Hand sanitizer doesn't replace handwashing. It's only second best. Always use soap and water when it's available.
- It's important to rinse fresh vegetables and fruit under cool running water just before eating, even if you plan to peel them. This is because bacteria can spread from the outside to the inside during cutting.
Separating tips
- Never rinse poultry before cooking it because you can spread bacteria wherever the water splashes, like the sink, the countertop and your clothes.
- If you want to use some of the marinade to baste cooked meat or use as a dipping sauce, make sure to set some aside at the beginning of the recipe. It's very important that it hasn't touched raw meat. Never use leftover marinade that has touched raw meat on cooked food.
- Using different coloured cutting boards is a good way to keep raw meat and raw vegetables separate. For example, use a red cutting board for raw meat and a green cutting board for chopping rinsed veggies.
Cooking tips
- You can't tell if food is cooked just by looking at it. You need to use a digital food thermometer to make sure.
- Be sure to check all pieces of meat with your digital food thermometer in case they are different sizes and cook at different rates, Also, your oven, barbecue or frypan may not distribute the heat evenly.
- You need to cook beef hamburgers to 71°C (160°F). Each type and cut of meat needs to be cooked to its own specific internal temperature. Use a digital food thermometer to check that it's cooked to a safe temperature.
Chilling tips
- The safest way to thaw food, especially raw meat, poultry, fish or seafood, is in the refrigerator. Never defrost food at room temperature because harmful bacteria grow quickly at these temperatures and could make you sick.
- Refrigerate all leftovers promptly in small portions, using multiple shallow containers so they cool quickly. Promptly means within 2 hours, or sooner if the weather is warm. Bacteria grow quickly at warmer temperatures.
- Think chill when grocery shopping too. Buy your refrigerated and frozen food at the end of your grocery trip. Bring them home in an insulated bag, then refrigerate or freeze them as soon as possible.
For more information
For food-related professionals and industry associations
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