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It's very important to prepare food safely, to help stop harmful bacteria from spreading and growing.
Your hands can easily spread bacteria around the kitchen and onto food. This is why it's important to always wash your hands thoroughly at each of these times:
Don't forget to dry your hands thoroughly, because if they are wet they will spread bacteria more easily.
Raw meat contains harmful bacteria that can spread very easily to anything it touches, including other foods, worktops, chopping boards and knives.
It's especially important to keep raw meat away from ready-to-eat foods, such as salad, fruit and bread. This is because these foods won't be cooked before you eat them, so any bacteria that get onto the foods won't be killed.
To help stop bacteria from spreading, remember these things:
Cooking food properly will help make sure that any harmful bacteria are killed. Eatingfood that isn't properly cooked could make you ill.
To test if food has been properly cooked, check that it is 'piping hot' all the way through. This means that it is hot enough for steam to come out.
Cut open the food with a small knife so that you can check that it is piping hot in the middle. Generally, if food is piping hot in the middle, then it will be piping hot all the way through. But if you're cooking a very large dish, you might need to check it in more than one place, because some parts of the dish may be less hot than others.
Some foods change colour when they are cooked. Looking at colour is especially useful for checking meat.
It's very important to make sure poultry, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs are properly cooked all the way through.
If you are checking a burger, sausage, or a portion of chicken or pork, cut into the middle and check there is no pink meat left. The meat should also be piping hot in the middle.
If you're checking a whole chicken or other bird, pierce the thickest part of the leg (between drumstick and thigh) with a clean knife or skewer until the juices run out. The juices shouldn't have any pink or red in them.
Kidneys, liver and other types of offal should be cooked thoroughly until they are piping hot all the way through.
It's fine to eat steaks and other whole cuts of beef and lamb rare, as long as they have been properly 'sealed'. Steaks are usually sealed in a frying pan over a high heat.
It's important to seal meat to kill any bacteria that might be on the outside. You can tell that a piece of meat has been properly sealed because all the outside will have changed colour.
It's OK to serve beef and lamb joints rare too, as long as the joint is a single piece of meat, not a rolled joint (made from different pieces of meat rolled together).
But pork joints and rolled joints shouldn't be served rare. To check these types of joint are properly cooked, put a skewer into the centre of the joint. The juices shouldn't have any pink or red in them.
Remember, you shouldn't eat these types of meat rare:
This is because these types of meat can have bacteria all the way through them. So if they aren't properly cooked then any bacteria in the meat might not be killed.
If you have cooked food that you aren't going to eat straight away, cool it as quickly as possible (ideally within one to two hours) and then store it in the fridge. Don't keep leftovers for longer than two days.
When you reheat food, make sure that it's piping hot all the way through. If the food is only warm it might not be safe to eat. Don't reheat food more than once.
Keeping your kitchen clean is essential to keep food safe. Otherwise bacteria can grow and spread.
It's very important to keep worktops and chopping boards clean because they touch the food you are going to eat. If they aren't properly clean, bacteria could spread to food and make you ill.
If you have a dishwasher, this is a very effective way to clean plastic chopping boards. Dishwashers can wash at a very high temperature, which kills bacteria. Otherwise, wash chopping boards thoroughly with hot water and washing-up liquid.
Ideally, it's better to have separate chopping boards for raw meat and for ready-to-eat food.
Dirty, damp cloths are the perfect place for bacteria to breed. So it's very important to wash kitchen cloths and sponges regularly and leave them to dry before using them again.
Ideally, try to keep different cloths for different jobs. For example, use one cloth to wipe worktops and another to wash dishes. This helps to stop bacteria spreading.
If you want to choose the safest option, you could use disposable kitchen towel to wipe worktops and chopping boards. This is because you throw the kitchen towel away after using it once, so it is less likely to spread bacteria than cloths you use again.
Tea towels can also spread bacteria, so it's important to wash them regularly and be careful how you use them. Remember, if you wipe your hands on a tea towel after you have touched raw meat, this will spread bacteria to the towel. Then, if you use the tea towel to dry a plate, the bacteria will spread to the plate.
It's important to keep knives, wooden spoons, spatulas, tongs, etc. clean to help stop bacteria spreading to food. It's especially important to wash them thoroughly after using them with raw meat, because otherwise they could spread bacteria to other food.
If you have a dishwasher, this is a very effective way to clean knives and other utensils because dishwashers can wash at a very high temperature, which kills bacteria. Otherwise, wash them thoroughly with hot water and washing-up liquid.
It's very easy for hands to spread bacteria all round the kitchen, because we touch so many things, from food to fridge handles, towels to can openers. So to keep your kitchen clean you need to keep your hands clean.
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water at each of these times:
Dry your hands thoroughly, because if they are wet they will spread bacteria more easily. The safest option is to use disposable kitchen towels, otherwise use a towel that you only use for drying hands - not your apron or a tea towel.
It's important to take care how you store food, to make sure it's safe to eat.
Some foods need to be kept in the fridge to help stop bacteria from growing on them, such as foods with a 'use by' date, cooked foods and ready-to-eat foods such as desserts.
To help stop bacteria from growing, remember:
Many foods don't need to be kept in the fridge to keep them safe to eat, for example dry foods such as rice, pasta and flour, many types of drinks, tinned foods, and unopened jars. But it's still important to take care how you store these foods.
Here are some tips:
It's especially important to store meat safely to stop bacteria from spreading and avoid food poisoning.
It's OK to freeze raw meat providing you do the following things:
When meat thaws, lots of liquid can come out of it. This liquid will spread bacteria to any food, plates or surfaces that it touches. Keep the meat in a sealed container at the bottom of the fridge, so that it can't touch or drip onto other foods.
Always thoroughly clean plates, utensils, surfaces and hands after they have touched raw or thawing meat, to stop bacteria from spreading.
If you defrost raw meat and then cook it thoroughly, you can freeze it again, but remember never reheat foods more than once.
When you have opened a can of food and you're not using all the food straight away, empty the food into a bowl, or other container, and put it in the fridge.
Don't store food in an opened tin can, or re-use empty cans to cook or store food. This is because when a can has been opened and the food is open to the air, the tin may transfer more quickly to the can's contents.
This advice doesn't apply to foods sold in cans with resealable lids, such as golden syrup and cocoa.
References and sources
Food Standards Agency http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/keepingfoodsafe/
All information supplied here is done so freely and Adveticus Limited takes no responsibility for the outcome if any or all of this advice is taken. All advice used from these pages is at your own risk.