Although functional, a kitchen is one of the most significant spaces in your home. Known to food enthusiasts as ‘Food Factory,’ a kitchen serves us with a variety of food items to fulfill our appetite.
Since a significant portion of the daily life of a cooker is spent in a kitchen, it should be maintained profoundly and regularly to keep it safe for everyone.
Henceforth, safety in the kitchen is of the top priority of everyone for health safety and physical safety as well. So, you should know how to make a kitchen safe.
General Kitchen Safety Rules
Kitchen safety rules vary extensively. It means kitchen safety will vary from a kid to that of senior citizens. You need to maintain all these so that no mishaps happen in the kitchen.
It is essential since the catering space equips with cutting knives of various sizes and sharpness, then theirs the gas burner and other utensils that can be potentially dangerous for people if not appropriately maintained.
Failing to make the cooking room safe can cause cuts, unwanted burns, or even food poisoning at the worst. But don’t worry. You can get rid of these undesired scenes with proper safety in kitchen.
1. Always Wear Shoes Or Sandals
Have you ever dropped a sharp knife on the kitchen floor? Ouch, the result can be scary. If you don’t want to taste such pain, we recommend you to wear a pair of shoes. It keeps you safe from unwanted cuts or scratches on the finger. Also, it safeguards your feet from spills of boiled water or oil.
2. Use The Knife Safely
Many people don’t prominently know the proper use of a kitchen knife. Then some people use a dull knife for a longer time mainly due to their idleness that prevents them from sharpening the knife edges. In both cases, chances of a knife slipping and cutting fingers increase dangerously.
You can bypass the situation by maintaining the sharpness of the knife quickly. We recommend you to use a knife sharpener for the purpose. It is a simple tool that shortly sharpens the edges without much effort.
3. Wear Safe Clothes
Just imagine, your long sleeve catching profound fire on a kitchen gas stove? It is probably needless to say that the outcome of such fire can be scary.
Therefore, experts discourage the wearing of baggy and long sleeves in the kitchen. But that doesn’t ardently mean you need to turn the gourmet room on a beach ware place.
Jokes apart, wearing tops with short sleeves or no sleeves will work best for you in the kitchen. Furthermore, you should avoid synthetic or flammable clothing. The synthetic fabrics can melt on the skin when overheated even before you can notice it.
You can prefer cotton clothes. Cotton made tops are highly comfortable too.
4. Know Fire Extinguishing Procedure
We have already mentioned that in the USA, nearly 165000 home fires are caused by the kitchen. The statistic clearly showcases that cooking is one of the leading causes of home fire and unwanted accidents. So, you should keep a portable fire extinguisher in the kitchen and also know how to use the device.
The following tips will beneficial to fight against various types of kitchen fires.
- You can use baking soda or pot pan over the grease fires flame to stop it from spreading. Remember that grease flames won’t put out with water.
- If your oven, stove or microwave oven catches fire, turn off the appliance immediately and close the door. Also, remove the plug from the power source. If the fire continues, you should call for the nearby fire department.
- For electrical fires, always use a fire extinguisher almost with immediate effect. Call the fire department immediately.
5. Wash Your Hands
Although you would suppose it is not worth mentioning, we have seen people often forgetting the basics in the kitchen. As such, people forget to wash and sanitize their hands in the kitchen.
But you shouldn’t ignore it, especially during the tough times. It’s another important way of ensuring safety in the kitchen.
So, always use lukewarm soapy water to clean your hands before and after cooking. You should then dry wash your hands with a paper towel. Don’t use a dishtowel. If it comes in a touch of juices or raw meats, things can become worse, leading to food poisoning.
6. Prevention Against Burns
A little carelessness may lead to undesired hand burns that can cause you further discomfort. You can avoid such injuries by placing the pot or panhandle inwards. Thus, it prevents the food from flying that may cause burns.
You also should use oven mitts or potholders jointly when operating with a stove or oven. Some people prefer using wet dish rags or potholders, but these aren’t enough to prevent burns.
7. Avoid Using The Knife To Retrieve Food
Always avoid the use of a knife or fork to retrieve food items from the microwave oven ora regular oven. It can cause you electric shocks that might lead to serious injuries. Instead, we encourage you to have patience.
First, turn off the device and wait for the food to cool down. Then unplug the oven and remove the food pot from it.
8. Use separate cutting boards for various food ingredients
During our long experience in cooking, we have seen a majority of people using the same chopping board to cut meats, vegetables, and fruits. It might seem cost-effective but is highly unhygienic.
The FDA suggests that using the same chopping board for all ingredients boosts the growth of Salmonella bacteria, which is the prime cause of food poisoning of family members. Henceforth, use two chopping boards:
- One for preparing vegetables and cutting fruits.
- Another one to deal with seafood, raw meats, and poultry.
Basic Kitchen Safety for Kids
Kids are angels in everyone’s home. Their smile and innocence bring happiness to the house. However, kids are empathetic and you can’t ignore their presence in the kitchen.
So, you should make the cooking room safe for the kids as well. Thus, we put the most useful and widespread kitchen safety tips for babies in the following sections.
- You should never leave babies alone in the cooking spot. Knives, oven, chopping boards (if weighty), hot water or liquids, and even the electrical appliance, everything is a potential threat for the kids’ safety.
- Always make sure that you have unplugged the oven other kitchen appliances before you leave the spot.
- Be aware of the sharp edges of knives, especially those you use to cut raw meats or seafood. Place them away profoundly from the reach of children. The sharp edges can injure their fingers.
- A wet kitchen floor may cause the slips of kids since they are mostly unaware of the surroundings. So, never leave the kitchen floor wet.
- Kids are naturally curious. So, they will more likely try to taste everything they get in the kitchen from spills of vegetables to wastage of raw meats. These can cause food poisoning, and you may even require to admit kids at the hospital. Therefore, you should store the wastages and food ingredients safely before leaving a kitchen.
- If your kid is grown enough to help you in the kitchen, make sure it happens under proper surveillance. Teach them about the use of kitchen knives, electronic appliances, and other kitchen utensils one after another.
- If your childis keen to help you in the kitchen, emphasize on their cleanliness. Try to teach them to wash hands before and after helping you with the cooking.
Kitchen Safety Tips For High School Students
Higher school students are probably the most vulnerable in the kitchen. Neither they are well adept with the kitchen environment, nor they have someone to teach them everything about kitchen safety with care since parents probably feel they are grown up.
Yet, you can follow the general guideline we provided in the upper-head section. Additionally, you can check the following kitchen safety rules.
- Use cell phones as less as possible while preparing and cooking food. It can distract you.
- Don’t taste uncooked food unless it is pasteurized. Raw flours can sometimes grow pathogenic bacteria, which is unhygienic.
- Never taste boiling or hot food. Let them cool off before eating.
Kitchen Safety Tips for Senior Citizens
The US Fire Administration reports that older citizens above 65 years have a 2.5X mortality rate due to kitchen fire compared to youths. Thus, it is imperative to make the kitchen safe for them too.
- You should always opt for proper fire safety in the kitchen.
- Don’t leave the kitchen promptly while something is cooking on the oven or gas grills.
- You can go for the auto shut down appliances in the kitchen for added safety to aging people.
- Decorate the kitchen with bright lights so older people can find it easy to look at the kitchen.
- Always store the food healthy and safe in refrigerators. Untreated and rotten food ingredients in the kitchen are one of the primary reasons for aged people’s sickness.
Heavy Metals in Your Kitchen Safety Tips
Metals are both useful and harmful for food elements in the kitchen, according to the FDA. Notably, heavy metals such as lead, chromium, mercury, and arsenic can cause serious illness even with the slightest presence in the food ingredients.
So, whenever you purchase any metallic elements such as knives, blender, cooker, or oven, make sure these are made following the heavy-metal guideline of the FDA. This way, you can make your kitchen safe from the adverse effect of heavy metals.
Also, check the water if it is contaminated or not with heavy metals and take prerequisites accordingly.
The Importance of Kitchen Safety
The Washington Post reported quoting Georgetown University Hospital that two reported injuries out of 100 in the emergency section happened due to kitchen mishaps. It implies the sheer importance of making the kitchen safe for everyone.
According to another report, during the 2012-2016 period, USA homes reportedly had 450 fire incidents related to kitchen and coking per day, as reported by the United States Fire Department. It is roughly around 165000 fire cases each year due to kitchen mishaps.
It also showcases the significance of maintaining kitchen safety rules. So, you get the point why is kitchen safety important, right?
Besides, the health of every family member is directly linked with the kitchen cleanliness, which is the part of safety measurements as well. Therefore, all these statistics showcase why it is crucial to maintain the kitchen with proper safety rules.
But how do you keep the kitchen safe for everyone? For this, we urge you to read the following sections.
Conclusion
A kitchen is ardently such an integral part of daily life that from kids to the most seniors in the home, keep visiting the place for various reasons. While preventing them from the kitchen visits might dishearten them, it is not also an excellent way to follow.
Instead, you can opt for the above-mentioned kitchen safety tips and make sure the gourmet place is safe, healthy, and attractive for everyone. Fortunately, none of them are hard to follow. You only require a bit of attentiveness, and that’s all.
Also, you might, by this time, understand the importance of kitchen safety since it is the direct link to health safety. Also, a majority of home fire and injuries are caused by the poor maintenance of the kitchen.
We hope you are not one of those people who like to turn their kitchen into the garbage. Keep it clean and enjoy the delicacy of good, better, and best foods. Ensure safety in the kitchen and cook happily.
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