Is food safe in your home?

Can your home kitchen pass the tests that health department inspectors use at restaurants? The Salt Lake Valley Health Department is offering the public a chance to see.

It has posted a test online of 10 questions that it says are important to keeping food safe at home. It is available at www.slvhealth.org/eh/food/foodquiz.html.

It comes less than a week after the Deseret Morning News reported results of health inspections for the past two years at more than 5,000 restaurants in Salt Lake and Utah counties. (Those results are still available at Diner detectives: Health inspections unveil eateries' good, bad, ugly.)

An example of the questions posed by the health department in its new online test is: The temperature of the refrigerator in my home is: (A) 50 degrees Fahrenheit; (B) 41 degrees; (C) I don't know, I've never measured it.

"A temperature of 41 or less is important because it slows the growth of most bacteria," said Jeffrey Oaks, food protection supervisor for the health department. "However, recent surveys show that in many households, the refrigerator temperature is above 50 degrees."

In another topic, the Morning News analysis this week of restaurant inspections disclosed that inspectors found 2,275 instances in the past two years of the "critical" violation of "improperly storing food," including such things as storing raw meat over ready-to-eat foods such as raw vegetables.

"In my house, we have two vegetable crisper drawers down at the bottom of the refrigerator, and one is designated just for raw meats," Oaks said. "We never allow raw meat, poultry and fish to come in contact with other foods."

Allowing such contact, and uncooked meat juices dripping onto other food, could cause contamination with germs such as salmonella or E. coli.

Along those lines, a question in the new online test is: If a cutting board is used in my home to cut raw meat, poultry or fish and it is going to be used to chop another food, the board is: (A) Reused, as is; (B) Wiped with a damp cloth; (C) Washed with soap and hot water and sanitized with a mild chlorine bleach solution.

The health department says the correct answer is C.

Another common violation found in restaurants —No. 2 overall with 6,067 occurrences, according to the Morning News analysis — is the "critical" violation of dirty food-contact surfaces, such as tables, cutting boards, can openers or refrigerators.

One of the questions on the new online test is: I clean my kitchen counters and other surfaces that come in contact with food with: (A) Water; (B) Hot water and soap; (C) Hot water and soap, then a bleach solution; (D) Hot water and soap, then commercial sanitizing agent.

The health department says the best answers are C and D but gives partial credit for B.