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Last Updated on 2 years by Parul Jaiswal
A kitchen is an important part of your home and hence maintaining proper hygiene in kitchen is of utmost importance. We all have heard the word ‘hygiene’ from our childhood days and lack of hygiene in kitchen can lead to various diseases that can be minor or major sometimes too. It is not only important during this pandemic situation of COVID-19 across the globe but you need to keep this in mind always. It’s because our life can never be fully free from pollution, viruses, or bacteria. So, we felt the need to prepare a guide on the various kitchen hygiene tips that you must follow.
You need to be extremely careful about hygiene while cleaning the kitchen or preparing food since a bit of carelessness can cause cross-contamination and the spread of viruses. That is the reason we have listed down some kitchen hygiene rules that you should note to maintain proper hygiene in kitchen. However, first, let us take a look at the importance of kitchen hygiene.
Importance of Kitchen Hygiene | Why it is important to keep your Kitchen Clean –
Coming back to the same thing, a kitchen is the heart of any household. This is where your favorite dishes are cooked and also the quality of the food depends on your kitchen hygiene and cleanliness. Therefore, maintaining proper kitchen hygiene will help to prevent rats, roaches, or other miscreants.
Maintaining your kitchen properly or keeping it clean will also help to protect the various edible items from germs that can cause your food to spoil, thus making you ill. So, a dirty kitchen can be the source of various harmful viruses or bacteria causing food poisoning or other serious illness.
Not only kitchen cleanliness, but also you need to maintain personal hygiene as well. You must ensure to wash hands before cooking or serving food because hands are the major medium that transfers bacteria to the food. Now, let’s go through the 10 kitchen hygiene rules you must follow.
Kitchen Hygiene Tips | 10 kitchen hygiene rules you must follow –
Here, we will present some of the kitchen hygiene rules that you should follow that ensures to maintain proper hygiene in kitchen.
1. Personal Hygiene:
As mentioned earlier in this article, you must take proper care of your hygiene because most of the microorganisms transfer to the foods through your hands. So, you must clean your hands with hot water and liquid soap before touching the food items. Then dry your hands with a clean towel. One of the other mediums is your hair so ensure to tie it back and if possible, use a hairnet. Besides, your clothes can also carry germs in the kitchen; thereby make sure to change your clothes before entering the kitchen.
2. Cleaning the Surfaces:
You must frequently clean the surfaces or countertops with soap and water. Besides, it is also better if you can rub them with a scouring pad and leave it for a few minutes following which you can dry them with a dry cloth.
3. Food Storage:
It is also important to store the foods correctly so that the contact between air and food can be prevented. To ensure this, you must store them in lidded containers covered with plastic wrap when they are hot.
4. Cleaning of the Kitchen Appliances:
Proper cleaning of the appliances in the kitchen is also important especially those that you need to open with handles like fridges, microwave ovens, etc. Moreover, you must also properly clean the doors, gas stove knobs, switches, and other things present in the kitchen.
5. Cooking Foods:
You should serve foods at a temperature of at least 70-degree Celsius to avoid the multiplication of microorganisms. It has been found out that the bacteria rapidly multiply mainly in the range from 15 to 55-degree Celsius.
6. Refrigerated or Keep it Warm:
Most of the kitchen hygiene depends on how you store the leftover foods. It must be perfectly refrigerated and make sure to make it warm before consuming later. Also, make sure not to over-fill the fridge as that will eat up space which is required for air circulation.
7. Proper Ventilation:
Once you have finished cooking, it’s worthy to perform some general cleaning and ventilate the space adequately. This will help to prevent most of the microorganisms to multiply in your kitchen space.
8. Regular Cleaning of Oven and Sink:
These two are the most important things that you must regularly clean to avoid contamination in the food. Are you thinking about why they are essential? It’s because you cook food in the oven and wash the dishes in the sink. These can cause the oven and the sink to get covered with bacteria if not cleaned properly. So, clean the oven and sink with anti-bacterial cleaning soaps after every use to maintain perfect hygiene in kitchen.
9. Dustbins:
Emptying your kitchen dustbin daily is not only enough but you need to clean it as well. It’s so because even after emptying your dustbin, parts of food particles can get stuck to it making it a breeding ground for various viruses and bacteria. Thus, clean the dustbins regularly and also ensure to buy such a dustbin that features a closing lid.
10. Washing Vegetables and Fruits:
Before putting the fruits or vegetables inside the refrigerator, ensure to clean them thoroughly. There are various vegetable purifiers or ozonizers available in the market that you can keep handy to make the fruits and vegetables germ-free and also free from harmful chemicals.
Also, Read – Top 5 Best Kitchen Sinks in India 2022 – Review
The Final Thoughts…
Above are some of the kitchen hygiene rules you must follow to prevent food poisoning or other illness. Keep a note of all these kitchen hygiene tips and strictly follow them. We can assure you that these rules will prevent most of the diseases that you or your family suffer from.
Hope you have found this article helpful and useful too. Thank you, stay safe and healthy!