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Food Safety Cooking Series

The first step to food safety is bringing home the best, safest foods possible, so the next time it's time to purchase groceries, plan your trip around the store with safety in mind.

The most nutritious foods are generally found in the outer aisles of the supermarket: fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products. However, there are always staple items like crackers, dried fruits, or peanut butter that need to go into the cart. Shop for those non-perishable items first.

Shop for perishable items—meats, dairy products, eggs, frozen foods, and fresh produce—just prior to checkout time. Take advantage of brown paper insulating bags that are often available in the frozen food section to help cold foods stay as cold as possible while they are out of the refrigerator or freezer case.

When adding meats to your shopping cart, put them in a separate corner, away from fresh fruits and vegetables. Prevent meat juices from leaking out onto other food items by slipping packages of meat into plastic produce sacks.

If you're shopping during the hot months of summer, take along a cooler with frozen ice packs so cold things stay cold during transport.

• Proceed to Lesson Two