Kitchen safety and food hygiene

Most food poisoning at home comes from a few avoidable habits, and most kitchen fires start with a pan left alone. Learn the rules once and they will protect you every time you cook.

The 4 Cs of food hygiene

• The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) built its home food-safety advice around the '4 Cs': cleaning, cooking, chilling and avoiding cross-contamination.
• Cleaning: wash your hands with soap and water before, during and after preparing food, and always straight after handling raw meat, poultry or eggs.
• Scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails for at least 20 seconds. Plain soap is enough; you do not need antibacterial soap.
• Wash chopping boards, knives, dishes and worktops in hot, soapy water, especially after they have touched raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs.

Chilling: keep cold food cold

• Set your fridge between 0 and 5C. Cold slows the growth of bacteria, which multiply quickly at room temperature.
• The US guidance is similar: fridge at 4C (40F) or below, freezer at minus 18C (0F) or below.
• Store raw meat, poultry and fish in sealed containers or their packaging on the bottom shelf, so juices cannot drip onto ready-to-eat food.
• Do not leave perishable food out of the fridge for more than 2 hours. In heat above 32C (90F), such as a hot car or an outdoor picnic in a UAE summer, the limit drops to 1 hour.
• Defrost meat and fish in the fridge, not on the worktop.

Cooking: hot enough, for long enough

• The FSA says the centre of the food should reach 70C for 2 minutes, or an equivalent such as 75C for 30 seconds. A clean food thermometer is the only way to measure this exactly.
• Without a thermometer, cut into the thickest part of chicken: there should be no pink meat and the juices should run clear. For a whole bird, check between the drumstick and the breast.
• Mince, burgers, kebabs and sausages must be cooked all the way through because bacteria get mixed into the middle. Whole steaks and lamb chops only carry bacteria on the surface, so they can be served pink inside once the outside is seared.
• Steaming hot means steam rising from the middle when you cut into the food, not just a warm surface.

Avoiding cross-contamination

• Use one chopping board for raw meat, poultry and fish, and a separate one for vegetables, fruit and ready-to-eat foods.
• Do not wash raw chicken. Splashing water can spread Campylobacter, the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK, all over your sink and worktops. Thorough cooking is what kills it.
• Campylobacter cannot be seen, smelt or tasted, so treat all raw poultry as if it carries it.
• Bacteria also travel on knives and dishes. Wash the knife and board in hot, soapy water before using them on salad or bread.

Fire, hot oil and knives

• Never leave cooking unattended on the hob or under the grill. If you have to step away, turn the heat off first.
• If a pan catches fire: never throw water on it (it can create a fireball), and turn off the heat, but only if it is safe to do so.
• Do not try to move the pan. Some fire services say that if you have a fire blanket and it is safe, you can place it over the pan to smother the flames; London Fire Brigade advises not tackling the fire yourself. If in any doubt, get out. Never use a fire extinguisher on burning oil, as it can spread the oil.
• If the fire is not out immediately, leave the room, close the door, warn others and call for help. In the UAE, call 997 for Civil Defence (fire), 998 for an ambulance or 999 for police.
• When frying, never fill a pan more than one third full of oil, and make sure food is dry before it goes in, since water turns to steam and can make oil overflow.