Campylobacter is the number one cause of food poisoning in the UK — and there’s a reason for that. This is the bacterium that is found on around half of supermarket chickens, which makes it the main cause of cross contamination in domestic kitchens.
When the bacteria from raw chicken are transferred to surfaces and other foods, the risk of food poisoning is huge. This, and other food poisoning bacteria such as salmonella and norovirus can cause severe symptoms — particularly in those with pre-existing conditions.
But in the vast majority of cases, food poisoning is preventable. Good hygiene practices in the kitchen can stop cross contamination, but you need to be very strict about how you handle and prepare food.
1. Wash your hands regularly
This is the number one rule of food handling. Before you handle any type of food, wash your hands thoroughly. Equally as important is the need for thorough handwashing AFTER handling foods. While most people are aware of the dangers posed by raw meat and eggs, they don’t realise that bacteria such as salmonella often lives on fresh vegetables. You should also wash your hands every time your hands come into contact with your face.
2. Sanitise work surfaces
Every time you prepare a certain type of food, clear the work surface and sanitise it. Make sure you give the sanitiser at least 20 seconds of contact time. This is particularly important after preparing raw meat and vegetables.
3. Wash dishcloths after four hours
Play it safe by washing your dishcloths every four hours. Ideally, you should replace them after each meal. Make sure you wash them at a high temperature, and that they’re air-dried.
4. Follow strict chopping board guidelines
Walk into a professional kitchen, and you will see colour-coded chopping boards. For example, green is for raw vegetables, red is for raw meat, blue is for fish etc. At home, you should be following the same principle. Ideally, allocate a chopping board for all your raw meat preparation, and never use it for anything else.
5. Store raw meat separately from everything else
If your fridge allows, dedicate a compartment or shelf just for raw meat. This should be right at the bottom of the fridge, just in case infected meat juices drip onto other foods. Any uncooked foods that come into contact with raw meat are potentially very dangerous, as they won’t be subjected to the high temperatures needed to kill food poisoning bacteria.
6. Never wash meat
There is absolutely no need to wash meat — the heat of your pan or oven will kill almost all bacteria. Unfortunately, people still rinse their chickens under the tap. All this does is disperse the bacteria living on the surface of the bird around the kitchen. Then, when other foods, plates or utensils come into contact with the contaminated water, they too become contaminated.
7. Cook meat to a minimum core temperature
Although you might like your meats rare, it’s usually a good idea to ensure the core temperatures reaches at least 63C. However, the majority of bacteria live on the surface of red meat, so as long as that’s cooked thoroughly you should be OK. Poultry and pork should always be cooked throughout.
Tip: Invest in a small probe thermometer to check the core temperature of danger foods such as reheated meat dishes and chicken.
8. Monitor fridge and freezer temperatures
Your freezer needs to operate at a minimum of -18C, and your fridge should never drop below 8C. However, most commercial kitchens set an upper limit of 5C, so you should do the same. The higher the temperature in your fridge is, the quicker bacteria can multiply. Keep your fridge door closed at all times, and never place hot foods in it — as this will raise the overall temperature inside.
9. Clean regularly
Despite your best efforts, a certain amount of bacteria in any kitchen is inevitable. This is rarely a problem if you are adopting good hygiene practices. But to err on the side of caution, schedule regular deep cleans. Just how regular depends on how often you cook from scratch in your kitchen.
It is important to sanitise the areas that don’t often get sanitised during the course of the average week. These areas include handles, fridge seals, oven seals, cupboards, taps and appliances such as kettles and blenders. For non-electrical surfaces, a steam cleaner is perfect for sanitising a kitchen. It doesn’t require the use of chemicals, yet it kills 99.9 percent of food poisoning bacteria.
When it comes to hygiene in your kitchen, clean often, manage temperatures and avoid cross contamination. If you can achieve these three goals, you’ll drastically reduce the risk of food poisoning in your home.
