It’s true that the kitchen is often the heart of the house. For people who don’t have dining rooms, it’s the place where the family gathers around to eat. The kitchen really is magical. It contains a fridge full of a variety of food, and many spices adorn the shelves. However, there are many appliances and sharp utensils that need to be stored correctly. Also, not all liquids can be stored in the fridge for a long time. Here are 5 great safety tips for the kitchen:
When you have a collection of knives such as chef, butcher, and sharp serrated knives, it’s important for you to organize and store them in a way in which they are always easily and safely accessible. You won’t believe the stories of people cutting themselves just fishing around in messy, unorganized drawers, looking for the correct knife.
The best solution to this is to put a magnetic knife holder in the kitchen, against the wall or fridge. This way, every knife you own is easily accessible, visually, you always see the correct knife you are looking for, and the magnetic holder really holds on tight to the knives. These holders also come in a range of colors – silver, maple and walnut, so that they fit in with your kitchen décor. The great thing is, no matter what size your home is, these magnetic knife holders also come in a range of different sizes to ergonomically fit correctly.
Most people only use one chopping board, which they rewash over and over again. What they don’t realize, is this is very dangerous. When cutting meat or chicken on a board, often blood (or juice) will run from it. Also, sometimes unclean objects touch the chopping board spreading germs. When the juice or germs touch ready-to-eat food, such as carrots and apples, cross-contamination occurs.
For the best safety tips, use plastic color-coded chopping boards. Keep a red board for red meat, orange board for chicken, yellow board for fish, green board for fruits and vegetables, and blue board for cheese. Then use a wooden chopping board just for bread. Go into any kitchen of a restaurant and you’ll see (hopefully) the same thing. Always remember to wash your boards off with hot water and soap afterwards, and dry with a paper towel.
Maybe you drank a few really tasty glasses of cabernet sauvignon, beer, or even poured a cup of cola into a glass and didn’t finish it. You may even have had some sips of a delicious cup of soup and placed it in the fridge to keep it fresh for the next day.
You really need to be careful of this. Once liquids have been opened and placed in the refrigerator, new bacteria may grow on it without you realizing it. Now, if you let it sit in the fridge for a few days and suddenly take a sip, you could become violently ill with a very sore stomach.
Remember, you can only keep an opened good bottle of wine in the fridge for two or three days, and that’s with a cork stopper. Beer will only last fresh in the fridge for one day, and fresh orange juice lasts only 7 to 10 days.
Most people love to stuff their fridge with a plethora of different meats, cheese, vegetable, fruit, condiments, and last-night’s take-aways etc. However, if you pile everything on top of one another, it prevents the cold air in the fridge from circulating correctly, and this can cause the food from not getting an equal distribution of cold air, and bacteria can slowly creep in. Best to keep items in the fridge spaced apart so they can “breathe.”
This is a big one, because if not done correctly, you can end up with food poisoning and a stomach ache that may last for days, especially when applied to chicken and red meat. In order to defrost, leave food in the fridge on the bottom shelf, so that any juices don’t drip onto other food, and leave it alone for 24 hours. If defrosting in the microwave, you need to cook the food immediately afterwards.
If you had pizza, spaghetti bolognese, or Thai take-away the night before and want to reheat it, you need to do so at 74 degrees Celsius/165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill harmful bacteria. This is really important, as not to end up with unnecessary stomach ache.
These 5 safety tips should be applied every single day, to make sure your kitchen is as safe as can be for the whole family. This way, knives will be found easily and less accidents will occur, and there’ll be less stomach aches caused by food and liquids that should have been treated differently.
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