Health & Comfort Kitchen safety information

Health & Comfort > Keeping safe > Kitchen safety

One way or another, most of us spend quite a lot of time in the kitchen - preparing food and drinks, clearing up, doing laundry, eating - and like the bathroom, there is plenty of scope for accidents. Fortunately, there are also a number of commonsense ways to avoid adding to the statistics. Remember, if you don't find the answer to your kitchen safety question here - please send an email, and we will be pleased to help.

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General kitchen safety
Food preparation
Cooking
Food hygiene
Housework

General kitchen safety

• Fire - more domestic fires start in the kitchen than anywhere else, which is probably not surprising when you think about it. Chip pan fires are the classic example. The golden rule is never to leave things on the stove or under the grill unattended. If the door bell or telephone rings, turn off the heat before you answer. If you are apt to be absent-minded, use the timer on your oven or buy a cheap clockwork timer with a loud ring to remind you. Be prepared for the worst - ideally, have a fire extinguisher and fire blanket to hand in the kitchen, but failing these, a damp tea-towel or a bucket of sand can be used to smother a small fire by cutting off the oxygen. Never throw water onto burning fat or oil, or on fires started by an electrical appliance.

• Make sure that you know where to turn off the electricity, gas and water supplies in emergency. Keep the path to reach them clear of obstacles. If you cook with gas, make sure that your hob top has a flame failure device which cuts off the supply of gas if the flame goes out.

• Don't have electrical flexes trailing across the floor or worktop - both can be hazardous. Try to organise things so that electrical applances are situated close to a socket, and if possible, replace long flexes with the curly type. Don't overload your electric sockets - have double ones fitted if you don't have enough.

• Arrange your storage so that you can reach items you use regularly without straining. It is safer to store heavy items lower down; lightweight glasses and plates at higher level. Don't be tempted to improvise by hopping onto a stool or box if you need something that's out of reach. A proper step-ladder with wide non-slip treads is the answer - or wait until someone can help you.

• Flooring should be non-slip and easy to keep clean. Carpet is not a good idea in the kitchen and ceramic tiles may look lovely, but they can be tiring to stand on, and are definitely not forgiving if you drop anything breakable on them.

• Good lighting is important in the kitchen, and if your eyesight is poor, strong colour contrasts on edges and any steps can also help prevent accidents.

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Food Preparation

• It's less tiring to work sitting down. A perching stool will enable you to rest comfortably at a suitable height for a kitchen work surface.

• Replace hard to manage tap handles with easier lever styles or even hands-free, infra-red controls. For tight budgets, there are lever adapters which fit most standard taps.

• There is a good range of utensils with easy to grip handles, which are easier and safer to use if you have arthritis or limited dexterity. Chopping boards with a raised border to hold the item you are slicing or chopping are also helpful.

• Avoid having to lift heavy kettles and tea pots by using a kettle tipper.

• Implements are available to help with opening tins, jars, plastic bags, even the ring-pull tabs that are becoming more prevalent.

• Non-slip mats make many tasks easier and safer - you can hold mixing bowls in place, for example, or make the surface of a tray more secure. You can buy non-slip mats in various shapes and sizes, or in a piece that you can cut to size.

• Carrying dishes of food or cups of tea around can be hazardous if you are not too steady on your feet. A tray with a carrying handle for one-handed use leaves the other hand free to carry a stick, or a wheeled walking frame with built-in tray gives even more support.

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Cooking

We've already covered fire risks (see above), so this section is more about simplifying some cooking routines.

• Turning controls on the cooker may be difficult: a contour turner fits most controls and gives a chunky handle to turn. Alternatively, you may be able to have permanent replacement controls fitted.

• Draining heavy saucepans of boiling water through a colander is hazardous at the best of times. If you cook vegetables in a wire basket that fits inside the saucepan, you have only to lift this out when they finish cooking. Alternatively, a steamer basket that sits on top of a pan of boiling water, cooks the vegetables without contact with the water, helping to preserve the nutrients and the flavour.

• Saucepans with glass lids enable you to see what's happening inside without raising the lid and risking a scald.

• Ensure that there is a clear, heat-resistant surface next to the oven and hob top, where you can put down hot, heavy dishes as soon as you take them off the heat.

• Microwave ovens have changed many cooking activities, and can make them much easier, particularly if you live alone, as they are better at dealing with small portions. No need to boil milk or scramble eggs in a saucepan anymore, which eliminates some rather tedious washing up. Anything that cooks quickly - such as vegetables and fish - can be prepared more easily in a microwave.

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Food Hygiene

The number of notified cases of food poisoning in Britain may have gone down from the highs of the late nineties, but there are still some very unpleasant - and sometimes fatal - outbreaks, and it is estimated that 5.5 million people (heading for 10% of the population) will have an illness caused by food in the course of a year. Make sure you're not one of the culprits - check out your kitchen hygiene!

• Insufficient cooling and/or cooking are major contributors to food poisoning, presenting bacteria with food at the ideal temperature for them to multiply. Your fridge should be cooler than 5°C, the freeze below -18°C. If you have any doubt, a fridge thermometer is a good way to check. In the fridge, make sure that you keep cooked and uncooked food completely separate, to prevent cross-contamination. Raw meat particularly should be kept at the bottom of the fridge so that it can't drip onto anything else.

• Store any prepared foods that are eaten cold in the fridge until you are ready for them. Leftovers should also be kept in the fridge and used up in a couple of days. Check the expiry dates, particularly of very perishable foods, use them up in rotation, and don't risk them once they have expired - you can't tell from the look or smell of food that it has been contaminated with harmful bacteria. It is not a good idea to re-freeze food that has been defrosted, unless it is raw food which you then cook before freezing again.

• Make sure that food is properly defrosted before cooking. This is most important with meat, which needs to be heated right through - 71°C is the key temperature for killing bacteria - use a meat thermometer to check if you're unsure. You can defrost at room temperature or in the fridge.

• Hot food should be piping hot for safety: 65°C. Warm is what bacteria like best, so don't cook food too far in advance - either eat it straight away or keep it covered and hot until it is eaten. Cooled food may be reheated - but only once.

• Eggs have been the subject of food poisoning scares in the past. It is true that they may well be contaminated with salmonella (free-range as well as intensively produced eggs). It is therefore recommended that elderly people, pregnant women, young children and anyone whose immune system is compromised avoid raw egg completely. Remember that egg shells are porous, so don't store them near anything that smells strongly. Uncooked eggs in their shells can be kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks (keep an eye on the 'use by' date). Hard boiled eggs should be eaten in a couple of days.

• Chopping boards - are a risk area for cross contamination. Ideally, you should keep separate boards for different jobs - cooked meat, raw, vegetables, dairy, etc. If this is a counsel of perfection, however, look for a board with a self-healing surface, which doesn't leave crevices where bacteria can lurk. Keep chopping boards scrupulously clean - a scrub with detergent to remove grease, followed by an anti-bacterial cleaner.

• Washing up is likely to be more hygienic in a dishwasher than by hand, as the temperatures are higher and steam drying is better than wiping dishes with a tea-towel, which can often be a safe haven for bacteria. If you don't have a dishwasher, make sure that you wash up carefully, using sponges or brushes that are replaced regularly and washed well every week. Launder tea towels very frequently.

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Housework

Housework is a necessary evil for most of us - there are jobs around the house that need to be done, and here are a few ideas to make them as hazard-free as possible!

• Ironing features regularly at the top of 'most hated job' lists. Keep it to a minimum - many items don't need ironing at all if you smooth them out when you hang them up to dry, and there are new fabric mixes that launder with barely a wrinkle. For the things that do need ironing, it's much less tiring if you tackle the job sitting down. If you find a traditional ironing board hard to put up and down, look for one that folds up against the wall when not in use, or slides out of a cupboard when needed. A lightweight iron with a smooth non-stick sole plate takes some of the strain out of the work, particularly if your wrists are weak.

• Avoid stooping and stretching as much as possible - use a long handled dustpan, brushes and window cleaners. A reaching aid is useful for picking up items on the floor, or up high out of reach.

• If your electric sockets are mainly at floor level, have extensions fitted to bring them to a higher level, so that you can plug in appliances like the hoover without bending down. If reduced dexterity makes it difficult to put the plug in the socket, fit plugs with a moulded handle that you can grip properly.

• It's probably easier to have small rubbish bins in the house that you empty regularly, rather than something enormous which you then have to fight with to get the contents safely out to the dustbin.

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