How to prepare and cook your meals safely

If this is your first time living away from home and cooking for yourself, or it's your first time preparing food in a communal kitchen, then it's essential that you get yourself up to speed on food hygiene and kitchen safety.

Studies have long shown that our kitchens contain the most germs in the home but, with one study from the NHS suggesting that the average kitchen sink contains 100,000 times more germs than the bathroom, it's one area that you'll want to pay special attention. 

With nasty germs like E. coli, campylobacter and salmonella able to enter the kitchen easily on your hands and on raw food or poorly cooked, stored or handled food potentially leading to food poisoning, colds, flu and other conditions, it's essential that you follow the basics and avoid any unpleasant consequences!

Here are a few essentials to be aware of before you get started.

Wash your hands 🙌

Our hands are one of the main ways that germs are spread, so it's important to wash them thoroughly with soap and warm water before cooking, after touching the bin, going to the toilet, and before and after touching raw food.

Wash your fruit and vegetables 🥕

It's always advisable to wash fruit and vegetables under cold running water before you eat them. This helps to remove visible dirt and germs that may be on the surface. Peeling or cooking fruit and vegetables can also remove these germs.

Never use washing-up liquid or other household cleaning products, as they might not be safe for human consumption and you may accidentally leave some of the product on the food.

Storing and preparing meat 🥩

When you need to store raw meat and fish, always keep it in a clean, sealed container and place it on the bottom shelf of the fridge, where it can't touch or drip on to other foods.

Raw meat, and especially chicken, can contain harmful bacteria that can spread easily to anything it touches, for example, other food, worktops, tables, chopping boards and knives, so be very careful during when working with or preparing.

There is no need to wash raw chicken before cooking as the cooking process will kill any harmful bacteria. In fact, washing the chicken in the sink could result in any harmful bacteria being splashed onto the worktop and anything else in the area. 

It always a good idea to use different chopping boards for different food types to help avoid cross contamination. Take particular care to keep raw food away from ready-to-eat foods such as bread, salad and fruit. These foods won't be cooked before you eat them, so any germs that get on to them won't be killed.

Cooking 🧑‍🍳

Cooking food at the right temperature will ensure that any harmful bacteria are killed so always follow the guidance provided by the cooking instructions and recipes.

The foods below need to be cooked thoroughly before eating:

• Burgers
• Fish
• Kebabs
• Offal (Including Liver
• Pork
• Poultry (Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Goose)
• Rolled Joints of Meat
• Sausages

You should always check that food is piping hot throughout before you eat it and there are ways that you can tell that your meat is cooked.

🍔 When cooking burgers, sausages, chicken and pork, cut into the middle to check that the meat is no longer pink, the juices run clear and it's steaming hot throughout.

🍗 When cooking a whole chicken or other bird, pierce the thickest part of the leg (between the drumstick and the thigh) to check there is no pink meat and that the juices are no longer pink or red.

🥓 Pork joints and rolled joints shouldn't be eaten pink or rare. To check when these types of joint are ready to eat, put a skewer into the centre of the meat and check that there is no pink meat and the juices run clear. 

🥩 It's safe to serve steak and other whole cuts of beef and lamb rare (not cooked in the middle) or blue (seared on the outside) as long as they have been properly sealed (cooked quickly at a high temperature on the outside only) to kill any bacteria on the meat's surface.

Top Tip: For around £20, you'll be able pick up a good meat thermometer from the shops so, if you and your flatmates want to chip in and get one for the flat, it would definitely be a worthwhile investment.

Storing leftovers safely ❄️

If you've cooked food that you're not going to eat immediately, cool it at room temperature (ideally within 90 minutes) and store it in the fridge. Putting hot food in the fridge means it doesn't cool evenly, which can cause food poisoning. 

Cleaning up 🧼

After you have finished your cooking, wash down all your worktops and chopping boards as they can be a major source of cross-contamination.

When you find out that the average kitchen chopping board may have around 200% more faecal bacteria on it than the average toilet seat it makes it easy to see why!

It's also very important to wash and replace kitchen cloths, sponges and tea towels frequently. Damp sponges and cloths are the perfect place for bacteria to breed and studies have shown the kitchen sponge to have the highest number of germs in the home! 

Looking for more information on food safety and hygiene?

For more info on food hygiene be heat to the UK's Food Standard Agency's Student guide to food safety and hygiene.