As the grilling season winds down and families prepare more sit down meals at home, it’s important to keep food safety a priority.

September is National Food Safety Education Month, and Washington County Food Safety Specialist Jason Taylor says whether you’re running a business or cooking at home, it’s important to maintain a culture of food safety, “Keeping a culture I would say would be always keeping it in your mind that food can potentially make you sick if you don’t take precautions to make your food safe.”

There are several aspects of food safety, one of which Taylor describes, “The first one would be keep your kitchen clean. Even your household pets can carry different bacterias that you don’t think about, cats use their litter box, dogs will go outside and come back in your house. So you’re constantly bringing stuff inside that you don’t want in your kitchen. So before you start preparing your meals you probably do want to wipe down all your counters if you can use a real mild bleach solution.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness each year, 128,000 people are hospitalized, and 3,000 people die. To learn more about food safety tips click here.