This article provides information on food safety.

Avoid contracting food poisoning by simply following these guidelines:

 

Buying food

  • Do not buy broken packaged food or dented tins.
  • Do not buy more fresh food than you cannot safely store in your fridge.
  • Follow ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates in packaging.

 

Preparing food

  • Maintain good personal hygiene: wash your hands before preparing food.
  • Ensure open wounds are covered before preparing food.
  • Wash utensils and chopping boards in between and after preparing raw and cooked food.
  • Make sure hot food is thoroughly cooked: read cooking instructions on packaging.
  • Avoid reheating food.

 

Storing food

  • Do not overload the fridge, it will stop operating properly.
  • Defrost food in the fridge and ensure you use sealed containers.
  • Refrigerate high risk food (high in protein/moisture and/or food that you will eat without cooking, for example meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, ready to eat food, and sandwiches).
  • Store raw and cooked food separately, cooked food should be stored above raw food.

 

Cleaning your kitchen

  • To avoid pests, please keep the kitchen clean and tidy. Pests are attracted to leftovers so keep food covered. If you do encounter any pests report them immediately to your Hall reception.
  • Wash cutlery, crockery and other equipment after use.
  • Use disposable cleaning cloths: this way bacteria will not build up and spread around the kitchen.

 

Recipes

You can find some video recipes created by students for students at Student Cooking TV.