Kitchen Hygiene - boring but necessary

While this subject doesn’t make for an exciting blog post, it is one of those things you really need to know.  You may already know all this, but since nobody actually spelled it out to me and I had to find out for myself, I think it’s worth writing this one down.

If you get into the right habits at the beginning, then you don’t have to remember them later. And, believe me, if you get food poisoning you’ll think you are dying.

I’m just going to outline the principles.  If you want to know all the ins and outs of bacteria and pathogens, read your old school books, ask a chemistry student, or look them up on the web.

Before you do anything, wash your hands.

Clean your worktop before you start cooking.  You’re bound to have flat mates with disgusting dodgy habits and you might not want to be cleaning up after them every time you want to prepare a bite to eat.  Now I’m not a believer of anti-bacterial products and obsessive sterilization, so I suggest you keep your own chopping board in your cupboard and make sure you thoroughly clean it before you put it away.

Any utensil or chopping boards or recipients, ANYTHING, that has been in contact with raw meat, especially chicken should never be used on anything else without being thoroughly washed.  That means if you are chopping up pieces of chicken for your curry, don’t use the same knife and chopping board to prepare the rest of the ingredients without washing them first.  You could have a separate chopping board for meat, but it might make you lazy about washing it.  Dishwashers clean at a hot enough temperature to kill bacteria, but if you don’t have one, then very hot tap water and washing up liquid is good.  If your tap water isn't very hot, just pour on some boiling water from the kettle.  A general rule of thumb is to keep raw and cooked ingredients separate.

Dishcloths and sponges can get pretty manky, and why is that other people’s dirt seems much dirtier than your own?  When I want to disinfect mine, I put them in a microwaveable bowl with some water and vinegar, then pop it in the microwave for couple of minutes.  When you open the door, the cloth should be very hot (like the ones they give you at the Chinese restaurant).  Also, the inside walls of the microwave should be covered with steam.  This loosens the dirt, so it’s an excellent time to give it a quick wipe.

Tea towels.  If you can, leave your washing-up to air dry. It’s less work and less risk of transferring bacteria from a dirty tea towel to your clean stuff.  You could also buy a gorgeous and expensive tea towel and then you won’t want to see it dirty and stained!

Fridge – make sure the temperature stays below 5°C.

Usually raw food should be kept on the lower shelves and cooked food kept up above, to avoid drips from the raw stuff contaminating the cooked.  But you probably allocate shelves per flat mate, so just make sure everything is well covered (stops it drying out too).  Try and give it a clean now and then…..

Freezer – the temperature should be -18°C.

Never refreeze foods that have been thawed.

If you defrost raw meat in the microwave, cook it straight away.  Otherwise leave things to defrost in the fridge.

Sell by Dates.  The sell by dates you need to pay attention to are the products you keep in the fridge – dairy, ready meals, etc.  The other dates on tinned food, or dry goods like pasta or flour, are optimal dates, which means it’s a “best by” date.  You can go over these dates with no problem.  In fact, it’s a good way of getting these foods at a discounted rate.  Here’s a lovely rant by Clarissa Dickson Wright about sell by dates.