Cooking safely at home

Home cooking often happens in a hurry, at the end of a long day. A few kitchen habits keep a meal safe to eat.

Keep hands and boards clean

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) advises washing your hands with soap and warm water before you prepare, cook or eat food. Wash them again after you handle raw meat or fish.

Where you can, keep one chopping board for raw meat, fish and poultry and another for food that is ready to eat. With only one board, prepare the vegetables first and the raw meat last, then wash the board with soap.

The FSA advises against washing raw meat, fish or poultry. Rinsing it under the tap can splash bacteria onto your hands, your clothes and the worktop.

Chill and freeze

The FSA advises setting your fridge between 0 and 5°C and keeping your freezer at around -18°C. It suggests using a fridge thermometer and checking it once a week.

Store raw meat, poultry and fish on the bottom shelf, in their packaging or a sealed container, so they cannot drip onto other food. Cool cooked food at room temperature and put it in the fridge within one to two hours. Splitting it into smaller portions helps it cool faster.

Defrost frozen food in the fridge. Once it has fully defrosted, use it within 24 hours.

Cook it all the way through

The FSA says the middle of the food should reach 70°C for 2 minutes. Without a thermometer, cut into the thickest part and check that it is steaming hot all the way through.

When you cut into chicken, other poultry or pork, look for clear juices and no pink meat. Cook burgers, sausages and anything minced all the way through as well.

Leftovers and rice

Eat leftovers within 48 hours, or freeze them if you will not get to them in time. When you reheat food, heat it until it is steaming hot throughout. Reheat it only once. Stir food as it heats in a microwave, because a microwave can leave cold pockets in the middle.

Cooked rice needs extra care. The FSA advises chilling leftover rice quickly, ideally within an hour, and eating it within 24 hours.

Reading the dates

Manufacturers put a use-by date on food that goes off quickly, such as meat products and ready-to-eat salads. Eating food after its use-by date could make you ill. You can still freeze food right up to midnight on the use-by date.

Manufacturers use a best before date for quality. Food past its best before date is usually safe to eat, though it may not taste as good.

A balanced plate

The NHS sets out a healthy, balanced diet in the Eatwell Guide. It advises eating at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day. Fresh, frozen, tinned, dried and juiced all count.

The NHS also advises basing meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy foods. It suggests getting the balance right over a day or even a week.

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