Kitchen Hygiene and Food Safety: The Essential Rules

A delicious meal is a safe meal. Many cases of foodborne illness start at home, simply because a few basic rules were skipped. The good news is that these rules are few and easy. In this lesson we gather the essential hygiene and food safety habits every cook should have.

It all starts with your hands

• Wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds before you start cooking and after touching raw meat, poultry, fish or eggs.
• Wash them again after touching your phone, the bin or your pet.
• If you have a cut on your hand, cover it with a plaster and wear a glove.

What is cross-contamination?

It is when germs from raw meat, poultry or unwashed vegetables are transferred to food that is already cooked or will be eaten raw. It usually happens through knives, cutting boards, hands and worktops.

• Use two cutting boards: one for raw meat, poultry and fish; one for vegetables, fruit, bread and cooked food.
• Never chop salad on a board you used for raw chicken without washing it first.
• Do not serve a marinade that held raw meat as a sauce unless you boil it first.
• Do not put cooked meat back on the plate that carried it raw.
• Do not wash raw chicken under the tap. Splashing water spreads germs over the sink, the worktop and nearby food. Cooking kills the germs anyway.

Caring for cutting boards

• Wash thoroughly with hot water and detergent after every use, then stand upright to dry.
• Plastic boards can go in the dishwasher. Wash wooden boards by hand and never soak them.
• Replace boards with deep knife grooves; germs hide in them and they are hard to clean.

Safe internal temperatures

Judging whether meat is cooked by its colour is unreliable. The best method is a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part. These are the minimum internal temperatures recommended by international food safety authorities:

• Chicken, turkey and all poultry (whole, pieces or minced): 74 °C
• Minced meat and meatballs (beef, lamb, mixed): 71 °C
• Whole cuts of beef, lamb and veal (steaks, chops, roasts): 63 °C, then rest for at least 3 minutes
• Fish: 63 °C, or until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily with a fork
• Egg dishes: 71 °C; cook until both yolk and white are firm
• Reheated leftovers: 74 °C

Minced meat needs a higher temperature than a whole cut because grinding mixes surface germs into the meat.

The danger zone and the two-hour rule

Bacteria multiply fastest between 5 °C and 60 °C. So:

• Never leave cooked or perishable food at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Above 32 °C, that drops to 1 hour.
• You do not need to wait for hot food to cool completely before refrigerating it. Divide a large pot into small, shallow containers so it cools faster.

Fridge rules

• Keep the fridge at 4 °C or below and the freezer at -18 °C or below. Check with a simple thermometer.
• Store raw meat, poultry and fish on the bottom shelf, in a covered container or on a plate, so juices cannot drip onto other foods.
• Keep cooked and ready-to-eat foods on the upper shelves.
• The door is the warmest part of the fridge. Keep milk and eggs on the inside shelves instead.
• Cook or freeze raw mince and poultry within 1-2 days, and whole cuts of raw meat within 3-5 days.

Thawing safely

Never thaw frozen food on the worktop at room temperature. The outside spends hours in the danger zone. Safe methods:

1. In the fridge: The safest method. Put it on the bottom shelf in a container the night before. Small pieces thaw overnight; large cuts and whole chickens take 1-2 days.
2. In cold water: Seal the food in a leak-proof bag, submerge it in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes. Cook it as soon as it has thawed.
3. In the microwave: Use the defrost setting and cook immediately afterwards.

Food thawed in the fridge can be refrozen without cooking, although the texture suffers. Food thawed in cold water or the microwave should be cooked first.

Leftovers

• Refrigerate leftovers in covered containers within 2 hours.
• Eat cooked food from the fridge within 3-4 days. Freeze it if you want to keep it longer.
• Reheat until steaming hot all the way through, to 74 °C; bring sauces and soups back to the boil.
• Do not reheat and cool the same dish over and over; reheat only what you will eat.
• Cool cooked rice and pasta quickly and refrigerate them too; rice left out at room temperature for a long time is also risky.
• When in doubt, throw it out. Smelling and tasting are not safe tests; some harmful bacteria change neither smell nor taste.

A quick checklist

• Did I wash my hands?
• Did I use separate boards for raw and cooked food?
• Is the meat cooked through?
• Has the food been out for more than two hours?

Make these four questions a habit and your kitchen will be both a delicious and a safe place.