Copycat Recipe Food Safety

Posted in Food Safety,Our Blog on August 18, 2026

We all have that favorite dish to get at popular restaurants. For me it happens to be a Caesar salad from a very popular steakhouse. It just tastes so good, but the price is something left to wonder about. I know the cost of the ingredients, especially when purchased in bulk, can’t be near what they lead us to believe. Either way, since Covid more and more people have been led to creating their favorites and calling them copycat recipes. I have to admit many of them taste eerily close to the restaurant versions and make us think twice before taking the family out to eat. My personal favorite to make at home is Japanese Yum Yum sauce, but that took a LOT of fails before I was able to yield one worth eating much less repeating.

The online home chefs make all of this look so easy. They have their aesthetically pleasing looking kitchens, designer bowls filled with the freshest ingredients, voice overs that make us all swoon and of course at the end a meal resulting in drool worthy plating. All of that is great and it does keep a viewer around, but at the end of the day was this prepared safely? We know the outcome, but how did we even get here?

Keep Food Safety in Mind

When choosing to imitate our restaurant favorites, we have to think about food safety first and foremost as no one wants a case of food poisoning just for trying something new in the kitchen. I am always super cautious, especially when cooking with ingredients I am not familiar with. Key example being a few weeks ago my husband asked for a copycat seafood alfredo that he loves getting when we go out. I am not going to lie I was super anxious especially cooking scallops for the first time.

So lets brush up on some basic kitchen food safety tips:

Wash Your Hands

These tips may seem like a lot, but once you get into habits of hand washing it becomes second nature.

Wash your hands the right way:

• Use plain soap and water—skip the antibacterial soap—and scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
• Rinse hands, then dry with a clean towel
• Wash your hands often, especially during these key times when germs can spread:
  • Before, during, and after preparing food
  • After handling raw meat, poultry, seafood, or their juices, or uncooked eggs
  • Before eating
  • After using the toilet
  • After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
  • Before and after caring for someone who is sick
  • After touching garbage
  • After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
  • Before and after treating a cut or wound
  • After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
  • After handling pet food or pet treats.

Clean surfaces and utensils after each use:

• Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot, soapy water, especially after they’ve held raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs.
• Wash dish cloths often in the hot cycle of your washing machine.

Wash fruits and vegetables, but not meat, poultry, or eggs:

• Rinse fruits and vegetables under running water without soap, bleach, or commercial produce washes.
• Rinse fruits and vegetables before peeling, removing skin, or cutting away any damaged or bruised areas.
• Scrub firm produce like melons or cucumbers with a clean produce brush.
• Dry produce with a paper towel or clean cloth towel.
• Don’t wash meat, poultry, eggs, or seafood to avoid spreading harmful germs around your kitchen.
• Produce labeled as “pre-washed” does not need to be washed again.

Use separate cutting boards and plates for produce, meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs:

• Use one cutting board for fresh produce or other foods that won’t be cooked before they’re eaten, and another for raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Replace them when they are worn.
• Use separate plates and utensils for cooked and raw foods.
• Use hot, soapy water to thoroughly wash plates, utensils, and cutting boards that touched raw meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, or flour.

Keep certain types of food separate:

• In your shopping cart, separate raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs from other foods and place packages of raw meat, poultry, and seafood in plastic bags if available. When you check out, place raw meat, poultry, and seafood in separate bags from other foods.
• At home, place raw meat, poultry, and seafood in containers or sealed, leakproof plastic bags. Freeze them if you’re not planning to use them within a few days.
• In the fridge, keep eggs in their original carton and store them in the main compartment—not in the door.

Temperature Control

Don’t forget to cook until ideal internal temperatures are reached because that’s just as crucial as the hand washing and sanitary conditions in the kitchen itself.

Refrigerate leftovers in proper containers in an appropriate time. I try to have everything cleaned up as soon as I know everyone is finished eating simply because it just seems safer to me. I feel the quicker that things are put away the better off we will be for avoiding any development of bacteria.

For more food safety tips please follow Make Food Safe as we update the blog daily with facts, recall information and so much more.