Home Safety Zone - Food Safety Tips

Food Safety Tips

All children should have some knowledge of the food safety tips that are practiced and repeated both in and outside the home. When children learn from a young age the things that they need to do to ensure their own safety and the safety of others, they are much more likely to take those food safety tips everywhere they go, including into adolescence and adulthood. We have included some other food safety tips in previous pages, but here we highlight some that pertain especially to smaller children.

Food safety tips for the littlest members of the family

To ensure food safety for your little ones add these tips to your list, they are sure to help maintain your child's optimum health.

Do not buy food from any dented, rusting, or bulging cans - if you are not sure, throw it out. It is always better to be safe than to be sorry.
Do not feed young children rare or raw meat. This food safety tip should also apply to all members of the family, especially when eating out.
If the food looks, tastes, or smells unusual - do not eat it.
Only give your children pasteurized juice and milk. Pasteurization is a process that kills harmful bacteria.

As far as kitchen safety goes, it is best of the smallest children stay out of the kitchen altogether. Get some strong gates that will not allow your littlest ones to gain access, there are far to many dangers lurking in the kitchen for your children to take a risk with.

Reduce the risk of choking

About 2800 children and infants die each year from choking-related deaths. The saddest part of this is that the majority of these deaths could have been prevented. The following advice will help you to make a safer environment for you children.

Make sure they are closely supervised at all times
Keep all small objects away from them.
Remind children to chew food thoroughly.
Keep them seated at all times while eating, and do not allow them to eat in a moving vehicle.
Cut food into small pieces.
Take care when giving them some of the foods that are easy to choke on, like hard candies and nuts.

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