8 Things Food Safety Experts Would Never Do in Their Own Kitchens

When it comes to storing, preparing, and cooking meals, it can feel like there’s a lot of little rules to remember. You probably know the basics of what you should do—wash your hands frequently, refrigerate food promptly—but what about what you shouldn’t do?

Turns out, there are lots of no-nos in the kitchen that could significantly increase your risk of foodborne illness (and the cramping, puking, and pooping that can come with it). Some are pretty obvious—say, you wouldn’t cut up raw chicken then slice up some salad fixings on the same board—but others may be more likely to fly under the radar. So SELF spoke with several food safety experts about the risky behaviors they avoid in their kitchen to bring some of the lesser-known mistakes to light. If you’re guilty of any of these (or know someone who is), you don’t need to feel embarrassed or ashamed, but you may want to be a tad more vigilant—so take this list as a gentle push to cut those bad kitchen habits out.

1. Take the temperature for granted.

No, sticking your hand inside your fridge or freezer isn’t an accurate way to test its coolness. “You have to make sure that you’re actually looking at a number,” Martin Bucknavage, MS, a senior food safety extension associate at Pennsylvania State University, tells SELF. “You can’t just assume.” Based on FDA data, however, plenty of Americans do just that: In a 2src16 food safety survey, 62% of respondents reported their fridge did not have a built-in thermometer, and of those, 84% had not put one inside.

Per the federal agency (which itself recommends keeping a thermometer in the fridge), the appliance should maintain a temperature of 4src degrees Fahrenheit or below at all times. That “sweet spot” is “going to help your product get the shelf life that it should,” Buckavage says. Beyond that, any organisms hanging out on the food can start to multiply more rapidly—including pathogens such as salmonella. Consider purchasing a refrigerator thermometer if you don’t own one already to make sure the temp stays in the right ballpark.

2. Put empty shells back in the egg carton.

“When I handle eggs, I’m very intense,” Janet Buffer, MS, a senior manager at George Washington University’s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security, tells SELF. Not only does she crack eggs over a dish or pan to catch any stray bits—that way, the contents don’t drip on any other objects or surfaces—and wash her hands immediately afterward, but she is also vigilant about discarding the empty shells right away.

And her caution is well-founded. Eggs are well known to carry salmonella bacteria, so returning an empty shell to the carton runs the risk of contaminating the whole eggs in there. Then, if you don’t cook them properly, you can get sick. Instead, take the extra few seconds to toss the shell into the trash or garbage disposal.

3. Wash raw meat before cooking…

Scrubbing a raw chicken breast before you dice it might seem like the safer action, but the opposite is actually true, Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, PhD, a professor at the University of Georgia and the director of the university’s Center for Food Safety, tells SELF. Like eggs, chicken is a common source of salmonella (as well as Campylobacter bacteria), so if those bugs are present, splashing water on the surface will actually “spread contamination around the sink and around the kitchen,” Dr. Diez-Gonzalez says. Even so, nearly 7src% of respondents to that 2src16 FDA survey said they washed their chicken and turkey.

4. …and let it mix and mingle freely with other food or ingredients.

Given the potential for contamination, you should try to keep raw meat away from other stuff, period. Store it on the bottom shelf of the fridge so leaking juice (and possibly the bacteria along for the ride) doesn’t drip onto items below, and take measures to prevent seepage in the first place (Buffer suggests putting it on a high-edged plate or in a dedicated meat drawer; Dr. Diez-Gonzalez recommends a Tupperware container). “You want to minimize transferring those pathogens to food that normally don’t have those organisms,” Dr. Diez-Gonzalez says. Especially ready-to-eat items like veggies: “Try to keep them separate as much as possible throughout the entire process,” Dr. Diez-Gonzalez adds.