Regardless of how much you enjoy home-cooked meals, there are days you would love some takeout! Getting food from your favorite place can be a refreshing break from your routine. I alway encourage you to make healthy choices and practicing mindful eating, but there is plenty of room in your healthy lifestyle for some fun takeout every so often. There are tons of online food delivery services to get options such as pizza, cheeseburgers, or even the best caviar for sale. What a time to be alive!

So, in this post, I want to focus on a different aspect of healthy eating - food safety. It’s vital to guarantee that what you’re served is safe to consume when getting food from a restaurant or vendor. Here are some tips to ensure that you are eating safely outside your home 

Shorten the time between pickup and eating

The most crucial thing is to shorten the time between picking up your meal and eating your dinner. This goes for those long delivery times in delivery apps, too. Plan to consume your food as soon as you get it home or delivered to reduce the food contamination risk. After you've finished your meal, put leftovers in the fridge right away.

Patronize eateries with open kitchen views

Eating safe takeout encompasses everything that makes contact with your food, including the kitchen, the cook, and the server. Therefore, it is best to select places where you can see the kitchen. This will give you a good idea of the kitchen's cleanliness and the utensils or equipment and whether or not the chef and other kitchen personnel are concerned about personal hygiene. If you’ve ever seen a show like Restaurant Impossible or Kitchen Nightmares, you’re probably on top of this. :-)

Opt for warmer foods over cold foods 

This is crucial when purchasing roadside takeout. Since streetside chefs frequently use pre-prepared foods waiting for customers to come in, their meals may not be warm. Additionally, foods may become colder because they have been left open throughout the day. This would most likely cause the food to be contaminated by various contaminants such as flies and dust. It is advisable to ensure your foods are warm when you purchase them. Warmer foods pose less of a health risk as they eliminate bacteria. 

Ensure optimum personal hygiene 

When you’re at home, you’ll want to be safe, as well. To avoid infection of yourself or others, practice proper personal hygiene by washing your hands frequently. Replace hand towels, washcloths, and sponges regularly, and wipe down kitchen utensils and surfaces with a bleach-based cleaning solution. If you are dining with others, use separate spoons for tasting or sampling.

Reheat takeout food

Takeout's convenience goes even further when you save leftovers. Portions can be huge, so see what you get and then put part of it away in the fridge immediately for the next day. It is more beneficial to reheat your takeout on the stove, in an oven, or in the microwave until the internal temperature rises considerably. Whether it’s takeout or home-cooked leftovers, don’t try to be fancy and use a slow cooker. They aren't suggested for reheating leftovers since they may not produce sufficient heat to kill microorganisms. They could also reheat your food too slowly, allowing bacteria to thrive.

With these tips, you can eat takeouts the healthy way without putting your health at risk.