We`re all familiar with the idea of taking your tea or coffee to work in a thermos, but did you know that you can keep food warm in that handy container, as well? It`s nice to have a hot meal ready to go, even if you`ve been hard at work all morning and your thermos can help you do just that.

1. Soup. This one is pretty obvious, since it`s liquid. However, it`s worth mentioning because you can literally have a different soup every day for a month and never repeat! From minestrone to chicken noodle and cheddar chowder, you can enjoy delicious hot meals poured right out of your thermos.

2. Pasta. If you`ve ever had a hankering for ravioli at your noon break, this is a great way to satisfy it. You`ll find that this works best with a wide mouth thermos, as do most foods. When you cook your pasta, make sure you cook it to just over half done. That means, if you bite a piece of spaghetti in half, it should still have a white center. Other pastas should still be chewy. Pour the drained pasta into your thermos, add your favorite topping or sauce and seal it up.

3. Veggies. Cold, boiled vegetables are just nasty in most cases, but it doesn`t have to be that way. Pour them into your thermos, add a dab of butter and some salt and let them stay there until you`re ready to eat your steaming hot, delicious vegetables.

4. Pudding. If you don`t relish the thought of having lukewarm pudding in your Tupperware at noon, then try putting the cold pudding into your thermos in the morning. It will stay nice and cool until you`re ready to treat yourself.

5. Chili. Not technically a soup, this dish tends to taste best when hot, so put it in your thermos and pack a few slices of cornbread to enjoy with it. Your chili will still be piping hot when you`re ready to sit down to lunch at the office.

You can make it easier on yourself by purchasing a wide mouth thermos that will let you easily put food in and dump it back out. A long handled spoon is also very useful for getting the last bits of food out of the bottom of the thermos. And with that, you`re ready to start eating great, healthy meals at work.

Do you like the taste of plastic? Probably not. Many times, we use plastic bags to store our food, and the chemical taste of plastic leeches in to whatever we’re storing. If you want to prevent that taste from cropping up and ruining your lunch, follow this quick guide.

To begin, there are many things you can do to prevent the taste of plastic tainting your food. You should start by not leaving plastic bags in the sun. The hot sun slightly melts and weakens the plastic,while releasing chemicals in the process. These chemicals contaminate the food that was in the bag, are harmful in large quantities, and also do not taste nice.

If you absolutely have to keep your food stored in a plastic bag, then you should try to prevent the food from touching the plastic. Wrap whatever you’re storing in a paper towel or something similar. This works great for sandwiches, but isn’t ideal if you’re trying to wrap some tortilla chips.

One of the best alternatives to plastic is the paper bag. Both pollute the world, but the paper bag will eventually deteriorate. The paper bag also doesn’t leave a chemical taste on your food. If you want to store some tortilla chips, try storing them in a paper bag and not a plastic one.

If you don’t want to store your food in a paper bag, you can use a glass container. Glass is inert and won’t leave any chemical traces on the food that is stored inside it. Glass, however, is not very strong. It could be dangerous to bring a glass container on a long trip or to school, as it can break and hurt yourself or others.

Another wonderful alternative to plastic is a wooden container. Wood has been utilized by humans for a very long time, and thus has proved itself as a worthy container for food. Certain woods like cedar or maple may leave a woody taste in your food, but that’s much better than the chemical taste of plastic.

The great thing about wood is that it’s very sturdy. A wooden lunch box could last for a very long time if kept properly. Since it’s not easily breakable, many people have been bringing back the wooden lunch box. It’s slowly turning into an icon.

If wood isn’t your thing, you could check out a metal lunchbox. Metal lunchboxes are great for storing food, and are also stylish. There have been a few re-issues of this old style, and many people are embracing the metal lunch box because of it’s usability. Since it’s so lightweight, it makes a great food carrier.

You should take caution not to get your metal lunchbox wet. If its made of steel, it will probably rust. Chances are good that if you don’t like the taste of plastic, you won’t like the taste of rust, either.

Instead of getting a container, you can try wrapping your food in different papers. Wax paper and butcher paper have been used for centuries to wrap food, and they work just as good today as they did 100 years ago. Paper is also safer for you than plastic, and won’t leave any tastes on the food.

Now that you know how to avoid that plastic smell, you should try out these ideas. I fought the plastic monster for nearly 25 years, and finally beat it after thinking outside of the box and making the decision to move away from this impure substance. You can beat it, too, if you just stop using it.

A Food borne illness is any illness caused by consuming foods or beverages contaminated with disease-causing microorganisms, hazardous chemicals or physical hazards. A food borne disease outbreak is when two or more people have the same illness after eating the same food. The food service industry regularly experiences tremendous financial losses due to food borne illness. Such losses can be significantly reduced, however, through knowledge and education.

Food borne illness and outbreaks are associated with such behaviors as poor personal hygiene, time and temperature abuse and cross contamination. These topics will be discussed in a later section. A food handler must report to their employer if they are diagnosed with,exposed to or exhibiting symptoms from Norovirus, hepatitis A virus, Salmonella typhi, Shigella spp. or shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli.

When a food handler becomes ill, proper precautions must be taken. To ensurethe safety of the consumers, the manager of the establishment will either restrict or exclude the ill food handler. Restriction is when a food handler(who does not serve highly susceptible populations) is allowed to work in the food establishment but is not allowed to perform tasks that would cause contamination of food or utensils. Exclusion is when a food handler is not permitted to work in a food establishment until they provide a written release from the proper authority.

The employer shall restrict food handlers that have been diagnosed with the following diseases: sore throat with fever, lesions containing pus, an infected wound, or discharges from the eyes, nose and mouth. Employees exhibiting these symptoms must report them to their employer.The employer shall exclude food handlers that have been diagnosed with the following diseases: Norovirus, hepatitis A virus, Salmonella typhi, Shigella spp. or shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. Employees exhibiting these symptoms must report them to their employer.

There are additional requirements for contacting ready-to-eat foods with bare hands. Food handlers may contact ready-to-eat food with their bare hands if documentation is kept, that the food handler has signed, stating that they have received training on hand washing and additional control measures and that the establishment requires that employees must utilize two or more safeguards. These safeguards include double hand washing, nail brushes, hand sanitizer (antiseptics) after hand washing, incentive program or other approved control measures. These safeguards, however, are in addition to proper hand washing.

Documentation must be maintained at the food establishment that corrective actions are taken when any of the food borne illness, good hygienic practices or bare hand contact of ready-to-eat rules are not followed. In Texas it is best to be aware of these protocols by obtaining your Texas Food Handlers Certification and Food Handler Permit Texas.