Food Hygiene in the Home

Here are some simple tips to keep your food safe at home: 

• Keep perishable high risk foods such as meat, fish eggs and milk products under refrigeration.  Use a thermometer to check your fridge is below 8 degrees centigrade.
• Avoid cross contamination of bacteria between raw and cooked foods by storing raw meat, fish, and poultry in a suitable container in the bottom of the fridge.  Cooked and ready-to-eat food should be kept on the top shelves.
• Use different utensils and cutting boards etc for raw and ready to eat foods.  Wash these utensils in hot soapy water in between preparing different foods.
• Don't leave cooked meat, fish or dairy foods at room temperature.  Keep them piping hot or cold.
• Make sure food is cooked thoroughly, all the way through – meat juices should run clear.
• Cool food quickly and never reheat food more than once.  Make sure it is piping hot when reheated.
• Make sure frozen food is completely defrosted before cooking unless the manufacturer’s instructions say otherwise.
• Wash hands thoroughly before preparing food, as you go and after handling raw meat.  Use anti-bacterial soap.
• Keep your kitchen and equipment clean, consider using an anti-bacterial spray.

Further information on hygiene and nutrition (and some games!) can be found on the Food Standards Agency’s eatwell website

Environmental Health

E-mail:

environmental.health
@thanet.gov.uk 

Tel: 01843 577580

Fax: 01843 290906