Nichole Lettich of the state’s Department of Agriculture shows the proper storage of cutting boards at the Centerplate restaurant in Harrisburg. The boards are color-coded to indicate what type of food will be cut on each of them. Suzette Wenger/(Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era) Staff photos

“Applying restaurant standards to a home kitchen may not be as easy as you think.

“‘When we are in our own kitchens, we take a lot of things for granted,’ said Lydia Johnson, director of the Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

“After perusing those restaurant inspections in your local newspaper, [NOTE: You can find restaurant/establishments service food reports from newspaper reports in Lancaster and York Counties each Sunday at Columbia news, views & reviews] consider this:

“‘People don’t realize how they aren’t as careful when preparing their own food,’ Johnson added. ‘They think that because it’s their own kitchen that there is less of a risk for bacteria, but in reality there is just as much of a risk or more.’

“Pennsylvania food sanitarians’‘ inspect restaurant kitchens and retail facilities that sell ready-to-eat food on a regular basis throughout the year. Each facility must be inspected at least once in a six-month period and the results must be published for the public to view, according to the state Department of Agriculture website, http://www.eatsafepa.com/.

Read the entire article here.