Food poisoning is awful. Here are 9 tips to help avoid it.

Kaitlin Reilly
How to avoid foodborne illness. (Getty Creative)
How to avoid foodborne illness. (Getty Creative) (Toshiro Shimada via Getty Images)

One of the least fun things to experience? Food poisoning. Whether you caught a foodborne illness from that chicken you thought might be undercooked last night or the fried rice you left sitting on the counter for a few hours before chowing down, it doesn’t matter: You’re likely stuck in the bathroom for the foreseeable future.

If there’s one thing you want more than a Gatorade in these moments, it’s a time machine to go back and “un-eat” whatever the offending food was. While that's not possible, you can learn about how foodborne illness happens in the first place, so you can avoid it in the future. Here’s what experts want you to know.

Foodborne illness (also called food poisoning) occurs when we ingest harmful bacteria, chemicals, viruses or parasites. That happens when our food is contaminated, and it can happen in a number of ways, such as:

  • Poor hygiene, including not washing hands before preparing food

  • Improper cooking, namely undercooking foods so that bacteria is not killed off

  • Cross-contamination, such as raw, contaminated chicken touching vegetables

  • Storing food at incorrect temperatures, where bacteria and viruses can thrive

There are a variety of foodborne illnesses, but according to the Food and Drug Administration, the most common are those caused by organisms such as salmonella, norovirus, campylobacter, E. coli and listeria. Symptoms of these illnesses vary, but all cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting​.

Since the pathogens that cause foodborne illness are invisible, it’s hard to avoid foodborne illness entirely. However, these tips can make your food is safer to consume.

Ensuring that your food is safe when at home involves understanding proper cooking methods, food scientist Bryan Quoc Le tells Yahoo Life. This means that you should cook foods to at least the specific temperatures that “ensure significant microorganisms are killed off, greatly reducing the risk of foodborne illness and giving our immune system a chance to kill off the rest,” he says.

For example, whole cuts of beef should be cooked to a minimum of 145° Fahrenheit, per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food safety guidelines, and ground beef and chicken should be cooked to 160° to 165° Fahrenheit. You can check these temperatures with a meat thermometer.

While you may not bring your meat thermometer to a restaurant, epidemiologist Vanessa Coffman, director of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness, tells Yahoo Life that you can prevent foodborne illness while you’re out to dinner by avoiding foods that are cooked rare or uncooked — like, say, steak tartare or runny eggs.

Remember: Consuming any food can give you a foodborne illness, given that cross contamination and poor hygiene is possible with anything you eat. However, there are certain situations that call for taking extra precautions, such as if you’re pregnant, immunocompromised or elderly.

The FDA lists these foods as the ones most likely to cause food poisoning:

  • Raw or undercooked meat

  • Raw shellfish

  • Raw eggs

  • Unpasteurized dairy products

  • Unpasteurized juices

  • Prepared salads (especially with creamy dressings)

  • Raw sprouts

  • Unwashed fruits and vegetables

While some measures can help make some of these items safer — such as pasteurizing eggs, or flash-freezing fish used for sushi to kill bacteria — they are higher risk than other choices. Also, it’s often difficult to know for certain what precautions restaurants or other food establishments are taking — and food poisoning is twice as likely to happen at restaurants than it is at home. If you’re concerned about foodborne illness, you may want to order a less risky meal.

#4: Wash your hands — and your veggies

Foodborne illnesses happen when people don’t use proper hygiene while preparing food. This could include not washing one’s hands after using the bathroom, contaminating food with fecal matter. While you can’t control what happens to your food when you eat out at restaurants, there are steps you can take when preparing your own food, such as washing your produce.

Also remember that using gloves only works to protect you from foodborne illness if your gloves remain clean on the outside as well — if you touch items that could potentially be dirty with your gloves, such as a door handle, you could get the pathogens all over the food you’re attempting to keep safe.

It’s not just the cleanliness of your hands you should worry about: Make sure the cooking utensils and surface areas that you use are clean as well.

You can avoid cross contamination by not using the same cutting board or utensils for raw meats (that would need to be cooked in order to be safely consumed) and other foods you’re preparing, such as chopped vegetables.

Foodborne illness doesn’t only happen during the food prep process. You can also pick up some of these less-than-fun illnesses from grocery shopping. Use this checklist from Coffman next time you’re shopping.

  • Bag raw meats separately and place them at the bottom of your shopping cart to prevent cross contamination from dripping juices.

  • Purchase refrigerated and frozen items last, and ensure they are promptly stored at home within two hours.

  • When selecting dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt, choose pasteurized options to minimize bacterial risks.

Reusable grocery store bags are a great way to be eco-friendly. However, they can also retain bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that could contaminate the new food you purchase. For example, you don’t want raw steak drippings to get onto your apples. Coffman also recommends washing your reusable grocery store bags after use to avoid this issue.

Another way to put yourself at risk for foodborne illness is to leave out food for too long at an unsafe temperature, which helps bacteria and viruses thrive. This is especially problematic during summer outdoor events, such as at barbecues or picnics.

According to the USDA, bacteria multiply quickly between 40° Fahrenheit and 140° Fahrenheit — a range known as the “danger zone.” To prevent foodborne illnesses, refrigerate food promptly and never leave it out for more than two hours. When temperatures are above 90°F, food should not be left out for more than one hour to ensure safety.

Le says that if you are having an outdoor food-based gathering like a barbecue or picnic, it’s ideal to use alcohol burners to keep food above 165°F, ensuring the food remains outside the danger zone. He adds that foods meant to be eaten fresh or cold should be “kept on ice before serving, and there should always be enough ice so that it does not all melt.”

One solution if you’re the host? Have a friend who is arriving to the party on the later side pick up a bag of ice on the way — it’ll ensure all the food remains at a cool and safe temperature.

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