Kitchen Tips: Handling Food Safely

Unfortunately we will find bacteria everywhere. But there is good news: some bacteria are good, like those that turn cheese blue or mouldy, milk into yogurt and those that help with the digesting of food. However there are bacteria that are very harmful and if you are not careful they can make you very ill or even kill you.

There is not much that you can do to rid yourself from bacteria, even the cleanest of clean kitchens will still have them. But you can do things to control the amount of bacteria and prevent the ugly ones from going out of control.

Bacteria loves to grow in raw fish, meat, diary products, soups, stocks, and starchy things like rice, pasta and beans. Cover your food so that you can stop bacteria that is lurking in the air from landing in it. Make sure your poultry, fish or meat from your local butcher/fishmonger is wrapped up nice and tight and once your food is cook place a lid on it.

Don't leave your meat or fish lying around for too long at room temperature. Bacteria loves temperatures between 8°C and 75°C so make sure you don't keep your food in those temperatures for too long.

PREVENT CROSS-CONTAMINATION!!!

Cross Contamination is when we carry bacteria from one object to another object. We can cross contaminate our food by failing to wash our hands before we cook and failing to use separate plates for cooked and uncooked food. For Example: Chopping your raw chicken and then using the same knife and chopping board to prepare a green salad. Therefore your salad will be contaminated with the bacteria from the raw chicken.

****This type of cross-contamination is especially dangerous if raw foods comes into contact with cooked foods.****

Here are some examples of food-to-food cross-contamination:

In a refrigerator, meat drippings from raw meat stored on a top shelf might drip onto cooked vegetables placed on lower shelf. Raw chicken placed on a grill touching a steak that is being cooked.

Here is some very important RULES to prevent Cross-Contamination:

Once you have finished preparing raw meat, fish or poultry it is imperative that you give your chopping board, knife and hands a good scrub in HOT WATER in order to kill the harmful bacteria. This way you will prevent the bacteria from spreading. Try having two chopping boards on dedicated to your raw foods and cooked foods.

If your vegetables are very dirty and muddy it is best to wash them in the kitchen sink. Make sure your hands and kitchen sink is spotlessly clean before you do anything else.

Store your raw meat, fish or poultry on the bottom shelf in your fridge and keep your ready to be eaten food on the upper shelves. This way you prevent your bloody chicken dripping on your food that is ready to be eaten.

Wash your hands. I have an anti-bacterial soap right by my kitchen sink and every time I touch something that might have bacteria on it I just give my hands a quick wash with warm water and my anti-bacterial soap.

Keep your work surfaces in your kitchen spotlessly clean. Wipe them down regularly with antibacterial cleaning products. And most importantly don't forget to wash your kitchen cloth or sponge in hot soapy water as this is the biggest breeding ground for those nasty germs.