# Kitchen hygiene

> Wash your hands with hot water and soap before you cook, and every time you have touched raw meat, fish or eggs.

## The essentials

Kitchen hygiene is not a list of complicated rules. It is five habits that avoid almost every problem: your hands, keeping raw and cooked apart, cold, heat, and clean tools touching the food.

## The one thing to know

Wash your hands with hot water and soap before you cook, and every time you have touched raw meat, fish or eggs.

## The landmarks

- Raw and cooked do not touch. The board and knife used for raw meat get washed before cutting anything else, and vegetables eaten raw get washed in water.
- Do not rinse raw poultry under the tap: the splashes spread germs into the sink and around it. Cooking is enough.
- The fridge is set to 4 °C (40 °F) at most, and what belongs in it does not wait on the table.
- Cooked food goes in the fridge within two hours, once lukewarm, in a closed container, and gets eaten within two to three days.
- The sponge and the tea towel change often: they are usually the dirtiest objects in the kitchen. One towel for hands, another for dishes.
- Dates: "use by" is to be respected; "best before" is about quality, not danger.

## How long it takes

Nothing more than what you already do, in the right order.

## If it goes wrong

You cut tomatoes on the raw chicken board and realise afterwards: throw the raw tomatoes away, or cook them. A dish forgotten on the table all night gets thrown away, even if it smells fine.

## Make it tonight

The build-your-own marinated chicken: you handle raw chicken, you make a marinade, and you apply all of this without thinking about it.

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Source : disheazy, https://disheazy.com/bases/kitchen-hygiene
