Safe in the kitchen
Design & Technology · Early Years · The School
Washing hands
Warm water. Soap. Twenty seconds. Go between the fingers. Go under the nails. Then dry your hands. Twenty seconds is much longer than it feels. That is why people are told to hum something while they do it. Wash again after you touch raw meat. Wash again after eggs. Wash again after the bin.
Three hazards
HOT things: pans, ovens, steam. Steam burns worse than boiling water. SHARP things: knives, graters, tin lids. SLIPPERY things: spills on the floor, wet hands on a handle. Name the hazard out loud before you start. That is what a professional kitchen actually does.
Raw and cooked apart
Raw meat, fish and eggs carry bacteria. Cooking destroys them. But raw meat juice sometimes touches food that will not be cooked. Salad. Bread. Then the bacteria go straight to the plate. That is CROSS-CONTAMINATION. Use separate boards. Use separate plates. Wash in between.
Here is what goes wrong. Raw chicken is chopped on a board. The board is not washed. The same board is then used for salad. The salad is not cooked. Now any bacteria from the chicken are in the salad. Nothing will kill them. That is cross-contamination. It is the commonest cause of food poisoning at home. The fix: use separate boards. Or wash the board in hot soapy water in between. And always wash your hands after touching raw meat.