Food Hygiene & Safety Tips for Cooking

A lot of people just focus on cooking and eating healthy. But what about cooking safely and maintaining food hygiene, and keeping your kitchen clean? Whether you’re preparing food, washing dishes, or just hanging out in the kitchen with your friends and family, your kitchen should be a safe and clean space, and the bacteria there should be kept at bay.

According to the Food Standards Agency, 2.4 million cases of food poisoning in just the UK emerge every year. Here are some tips for maintaining food hygiene along with safe cooking.

Avoid Cross-Contamination of Food

Cross-contamination occurs when you accidentally pass germs into your food. This can happen when you haven’t properly washed your hands, utensils, or other things you’ve added to your food. This can easily be avoided by maintaining basic hygiene in your kitchen. Always properly wash your hands and everything else you use while cooking, including chopping boards or countertops, raw food, or vegetables/eggs/fruits.

The Right Amount of Heat

Food, especially raw meat, should be cooked at a temperature high enough to kill any germs that can cause illnesses. Always have a thermometer at hand and keep checking your food. Keep your food out of the dangerous temperature zone, which is between 4°C –40°C.

Keep It Cool or Throw It Out?

For chilling your food, the dangerous temperature zone is 4°C and 40°C, as between these temperatures, bacteria can grow and makes you fall sick. Your food should either be below 4°C or above 40°C. Refrigerate any food you’ve cooked within 2 hours or eat it immediately. If it’s been out for too long, throw it away. If it doesn’t look or smell right, throw it away. Always defrost your food under cold running water or microwave, and never at room temperature.

Love Home Food offers authentic Indian curries that meet all safety and hygiene standards, and food is delicious. To deliver our frozen meals, we use WoolCool an award-winning solution that is sustainable, compostable and has been proven to keep your box deals, curry box, and weekly specials cool for at least 48 hours-even if your delivery is running late.

So why not enjoy a curry at home? It's easy! Just order online. We have free delivery offers going on at the moment, so please take advantage.