Preventing Salmonellosis

Minimizing Your Risk

Wash your hands

• Wash hands after using the bathroom and changing diapers, and before handling or eating any food.
  
  
• Make sure that persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully and frequently with soap to reduce the risk of spreading the infection.
  
  
• Always wash hands after contact with farm animals, pets, animal feces, and animal environments.
  
  
• Hand Hygiene
  Wash Your Hands!
  
  

Keep your food preparation areas clean

• Keep raw meat and poultry separate from produce and other foods when shopping for and storing groceries.
  
  
• Wash hands, cutting boards, countertops, cutlery, and utensils after handling uncooked poultry.
  
  
• Wash raw fruits and vegetables before eating.
  
  
• Cross-Contamination
  Food and kitchen tools and surfaces may become contaminated from raw food products.
  

Avoid unpasteurized foods

• Avoid unpasteurized (raw) milk and foods made from unpasteurized milk
  

Cook and store your food at the appropriate temperatures

• Do not eat raw or undercooked eggs. Use pasteurized eggs when making items that do not require cooking, such as hollandaise sauce, salad dressing, uncooked pies, or homemade ice cream.
  
  
• Thoroughly cook raw meat and poultry to destroy the bacteria. Meat, poultry, and hamburgers should be cooked until they are no longer pink in the middle.
  
  
• Storage and Cooking Temperatures
  Learn more about storage and cooking temperatures
  
  
• Defrost food in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. Food should be stored in a refrigerator that is 40°F or cooler or a freezer that is 0°F or cooler.
  

Be careful when handling animals

• Always wash hands after contact with farm animals, pets, animal feces, and animal environments.
  
  
• Minimize contact with animals with a diarrheal illness.
  
  
• Do not eat food in areas where animals are present.
  
  
• Intestinal Illness Acquired From Animals
  More about illnesses and animals:
  • Reptiles and Amphibians: Salmonella
  • Chicks and Ducklings: Salmonella

Use caution when swimming

• Avoid swallowing lake or pool water while swimming.
  
  
• Anyone with a diarrheal illness should avoid swimming in public pools or lakes, sharing baths with others, and preparing food for others.
  
  
• CDC: Healthy Swimming
  CDC; Contains information on recreational waterborne illnesses.
  

Do you suspect that you have a foodborne or waterborne illness? Visit reporting suspected foodborne/waterborne illnesses.