Hygiene

Keeping your kitchen safe
Raw foods, especially chicken and meat, bring unseen germs into your kitchen. These germs can spread very easily to anything that touches raw chicken or meat.
For example, germs can get onto:
• knives,
• chopping boards,
• hands,
• worktops,
• tongs.
Then the germs can spread from these things to other food.


How It Happens
When you touch raw chicken or meat, germs get onto your hands. If you don't wash your hands thoroughly straight away, then the germs can spread to anything you touch. This could be other food, the fridge door, a tea towel, or something else. This is how germs manage to get around.


Always Wash Your Hands
Thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water after you have touched raw chicken or meat and before you touch anything else.
When you prepare raw chicken or meat, germs get onto the knife and chopping board (as well as your hands). If you cut other food (maybe salad or bread) with the same knife or board, without washing it first, then the germs will spread to that food. So when you eat the food, you'll be swallowing unseen germs too.


Always Wash Chopping Boards & Knives
Always wash chopping boards and knives that have been used with raw chicken or meat before you use them with other foods.

If raw chicken or meat touches food that has been cooked, or other food that is ready to eat, such as salad or desserts, then germs will get onto that food. This can happen very easily – in the fridge, on the worktop, or on the barbecue.

Never let raw chicken or meat touch other food.

Store raw chicken and meat on the bottom shelf of the fridge where it can't touch or drip onto other foods.

Don't put raw chicken or meat next to cooked food on on the grill or barbecue.


Washing Chicken
Lots of people think they should wash raw chicken, but there's no need, because any germs on it will be killed if you cook it thoroughly. If you do wash chicken, you could splash germs onto the sink, worktop, dishes, or anything else nearby.


Remember
Germs love to travel. Stop them – keep raw foods away from cooked foods and wash anything that touches raw chicken or meat.