If you think frozen meals are ready to eat and just need to be reheated in microwaves, think twice.

An investigation into a case where 44 people got food poisoning after eating frozen chicken-and-rice meals in 18 states in the US revealed that the outbreak of Salmonella bacteria - that caused food poisoning - was owing to "improperly" microwaving food.
Most of the people who fell ill cooked frozen meal in a microwave but not all of them let the meal stand for the recommended time inside before they began eating, said a press release from Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Follow all directions when it comes to microwaving food - including letting food 'stand' after cooking, it added.
Microwave standing time is part of the cooking process.
"Microwave cooking is a critical control point to ensure raw and uncooked ingredients reach a sufficient temperature to render them safe from microbial hazards," the report said.
Advertisement
Source-IANS