Color-Coded Cutting Boards

One of the most common causes of food-related illness (a.k.a food poisoning) is something called cross-contamination, or the transfer of harmful bacteria from one food product to another by way of contaminated tools, equipment or hands.

In many cases of cross-contamination, cutting boards are a prime culprit. For that reason, using separate, color-coded cutting boards for different ingredients is a great way of preventing cross-contamination.

The colors help you keep track of which cutting boards are for reserved for which types of foods, so that you're less likely to cut lettuce on the same board you just used for prepping raw poultry.

Sound complicated? Fortunately, you don't need to adopt the entire system in order to cook more safely at home. Even having one separate, distinctively colored cutting board that's reserved just for raw meat is a great idea — one that will go a long way toward minimizing your chances of a food-related illness.

Here are the different cutting board colors and their meanings:
Green: Fruits & VegetablesYellow: Raw PoultryBlue: Cooked FoodWhite: Dairy ProductsTan: Fish & SeafoodRed: Raw MeatYou can buy a complete set of color-coded cutting boards including all the colors listed above. Or you can buy the colors separately, in case you don't want the whole set. Compare prices.