Whether you are cooking indoors or outdoors, don’t forget that food safety rules always apply! You want your family and friends to have memories of a good time at your last braai and not of ending up in hospital with food poisoning.
When you book four cooking lessons with me, you will receive a manual that covers topics such as Food Safety, Kitchen Safety, Kitchen Hygiene, Food Storing and much more! The manual s very comprehensive and can be used as a reference guide in the kitchen. Please contact me for more details.
Below are a few pointers on how to avoid getting food poisoning as well as food safety in general.
There are four simple steps you can take to prevent food poisoning:
Clean
Always wash your hands before and after handling food. Below is a step-by-step hand-washing routine:
- Soap – wet your hands thoroughly under warm running water and apply soap to them.
- Rub – rub your hands together to make a lather and spread it over all areas of your hands and wrists, making sure it covers palms, backs, wrists, fingernails and fingers, and rubbing between each finger and round your thumbs. It’s this action which helps the soap dislodge and remove dirt and germs.
- Rinse – rinse the soap off completely under a stream of clean running water.
- Dry – dry your hands thoroughly, using a clean hand towel or absorbent kitchen paper.
Cook
Make sure that food is thoroughly cooked in order to destroy any harmful bacteria that might be present. Meat should be cooked until it is piping hot all the way through, with no visible pink meat or bloody juices. This is particularly important when cooking poultry, pork, minced and skewered meats, such as burgers, sausages and kebabs. In the case of red meat like beef and lamb, the outside of the meat needs to be sealed well in order for any harmful bacteria on the outside are killed. Store leftovers in the fridge in airtight containers like Tupperware or ziplock bags within two hours of cooking and eat them within three days. Leftovers should be heated until piping hot and it should only be reheated once. The golden rule for leftovers is – if in doubt, throw it out.
Chill
Chilling food will prevent bad bacteria from growing. It is therefore important to make sure that your fridge is at the correct temperature to keep perishable foods at the right temperature. Your fridge should be 5 ° C and your freezer – 18 ° C.
- Raw meat, poultry or seafood should be marinated in a covered dish in the bottom of the fridge, so that it can’t touch or drip onto other foods.
- Sauce that is used to marinate raw meat, poultry, or seafood should not be used as a sauce to coat cooked meat as it will contain raw meat bacteria! If you want to use marinade as a sauce, be sure to cook it in a saucepan and bring it to a rolling boil before serving it.
- Defrost frozen foods overnight in the fridge (not on the counter!) in a deep dish. When meat defrosts, lots of liquid can come out of it. This liquid will spread harmful germs to any food, plates or surfaces that it touches.
- Always clean plates, utensils, surfaces and hands very well after they have touched raw or defrosting meat to stop harmful germs from spreading.
Separate to prevent cross-contamination
Separate raw and cooked foods during storage and cooking and never let raw food, for example raw meat, come into contact with food that is ready-to-eat food such as fruit, salad, bread, etc. on the same plate, container or chopping board. Cooked or ready-to-eat foods won’t be cooked before you eat them, so any harmful germs that spread onto these foods won’t be killed. Never place cooked food back on the same plate, container or chopping board that previously held raw food – wash the plate, container or chopping board first! Do not use the same utensil to stir, turn or serve cooked food that was used to prepare the raw ingredients.