Practical food safety, food quality, food adulteration, storage, hygiene and safe cooking information explained by Chef RBS.
Think about the last time you bought a burger, takeaway pizza, or a bag of fries. The food may have been wrapped in paper designed to resist grease, keeping oil from soaking through your hands or the packaging. It seems like a small detail, but the materials that touch our food deserve more attention than…
That leftover rice in your fridge may look completely harmless. But would you know when it becomes unsafe to eat? Rice is one of those foods we cook in batches, save for later, and reheat without giving it much thought. I do the same in the kitchen. The important part isn’t simply reheating rice. The…
A loaf of bread looks simple when it comes out of the oven. Behind that soft crumb and uniform shape, however, food manufacturers can use ingredients that most home bakers never think about. One of them is azodicarbonamide, or ADA. ADA has a very specific job in commercial baking: it can act as a dough…
One of the quiet battles in food manufacturing happens long before a packaged food reaches the shelf: how do you keep fats and oils from oxidizing? Once oxidation starts, fats can develop stale or rancid flavors, which can shorten the useful life of a product. Food manufacturers therefore use antioxidants and other preservation methods to…
Food Safety Temperatures: Why They Matter Food safety starts with something as simple as knowing when food is actually cooked safely. A dish may look ready on the outside, but its center can still be at a temperature where harmful bacteria may survive. In professional kitchens, I don’t rely on appearance alone. I use a…
Is freeze-dried food safe? Yes, it can be, but freeze-drying itself does not make unsafe food safe. This is something I think is often misunderstood when people talk about food preservation. Freeze-drying removes most of the available moisture from food, which can greatly improve its stability and shelf life. But it does not replace proper…
Introduction How long does cooked chicken last in the fridge? It is a simple question, but the answer depends on more than just counting the days. Cooked chicken is one of the most common leftovers in home kitchens. You might roast extra chicken for dinner, save grilled chicken for lunch, or order more food than…
Are Frozen Blueberries Safe? Frozen blueberries seem like one of the easiest foods to trust. They are convenient, have a long shelf life, and can go straight into smoothies, desserts, breakfast bowls, and sauces. But a current food safety investigation in the United States is putting frozen blueberries under the spotlight. The FDA is investigating…
Lettuce seems like one of the simplest foods on a restaurant menu. It appears in salads, burgers, wraps, and sandwiches, usually served raw and ready to eat. But in 2026, lettuce became the center of a major food safety story in America. A multistate outbreak of Cyclospora illness was linked to iceberg lettuce, leading to…
Chicken is one of the most commonly eaten proteins in the world, but it also requires careful handling in the kitchen. A mistake that seems small, such as using the same cutting board for raw chicken and vegetables, can create a serious food safety problem. The important thing to understand is that chicken does not…
