Health and Safety

Health and Safety

Food safety and hygiene are critical to our health. From purchasing and preparing food to cooking and dining out, eating right begins with eating safe. Here are some information and tips about food safety and hygiene.

Food Safety : Avoiding Cross Contamination

Some foods naturally have much higher in bacteria than other, and need to be handled with lots of care. The most important raw food to look out for are meat and fish, as the bacteria found on them can easily lead to food poisoning.



For example, you or you're family member is cooking grilled fish and salad for dinner. If you chop up the raw fish on a chopping board before cooking it , then use that same knife and board to prepare your salad, the salad would be infected with the bacteria from the raw fish.

There are many ways to avoid cross contamination, you can start by, storing raw meat and fish on the bottom shelf of your fridge, and storing food that is ready to be eaten like salad, dairy food
or cooked food on the shelves above. Doing this stops the juice
from the raw meat and fish can't drip onto the cooked food or ready
to be eaten food and cross contaminate them.

Another way to avoid cross contamination is by, being aware of your surroundings because there may be germs and bacteria in the soil or any muddy vegetables. Peel your food in the sink and remember to rinse it well before you use or cook it, also remember to clean the sink and wash your hands before you start to do anything else.

Always wash your hands after touching anything that might contain lots of bacteria on it, for example touching your pet, the rubbish bin and more, and never forget to wash your hands after going to the washroom.

Food Safety : How to Cook Safely

• Always wear an apron, not only does it keep you from ruining your clothes but it's used so that if you’re splashed with hot oil or water you can just easily pull the apron away from yourself before the liquid soaks through to your skin.

• If you are cooking with other people around you and you spill something, tell everyone in the room to watch out and quickly clean it all up. It is best to tell people you spilled something or to watch out for something because you don't really want people to start slipping and sliding all over the place.

• When you're cooking on the hob, always angle your pans so that the handles face out to the side over the worktops. It's not safe for the handle to stick out over the edge because it would be really easy to knock into them and cause a huge spillage, especially when it's hot.

• When you're moving something really hot like a hot pan or a pot full of hot water and you're trying to move it to the sink to empty it or clean it, make sure people know about it or no one is around you.

• Unless the metal handle is cool, always pick it up with an oven glove or a folded up tea towel, you don't want to burn your hand.

• You don't really want children or pets laying around the kitchen while you're cooking because you don't want them to knock stuff down or cause a spillage or hurt themselves. Also in the kitchen there are many sharp knifes and you don't want them to go to the wrong hands.

Food Safety : Knife Safety

This is a very strange way but to avoid accidents using the knife is by actually making your knives
sharp because using a blunt knife, you will have to use more force when you push it down and that is when things could slip. Always remember to sharpen your knife.

Always use the right knives for example when you're trying to cut small ingredients, trim or peel always use a paring knife, if you're trying to chop, dice, slice a loaf of bread use a chef's knife.

When you're using a cutting board always put a damp towel underneath it before using it, this will prevent the board from slipping and moving while your trying to cut, chop, slice something.

If you ever have grease or oil or what ever slippery substance on your knife's handle stop what you're doing and clean it, because if you can't get a good grip on the knife it could slip off your hands and you could get hurt.

When you've finished with a knife, clean it then put it away immediately or you could just put it in a place where people can see it. I recommend you not to leave a knife in a sink with a whole lot of stuff, or in soapy water because people might suddenly reach in to wash something and might hurt themselves with the knife.

After finishing with a knife, put it in a knife block, if you don't have a knife block just lay them flat in a drawer not filled with lots of stuff and people can see them. Putting them in a drawer with tongs, whisks, wooden spoons and other utensils where you have to dig around is a bad idea.