#MYStayHome: The MCO is a good time to teach children about kitchen hygiene

Washing your hands not only before cooking, but also before and after every step of work, especially if you’re preparing meat and salad at the same time. FNS Midwest/Flickr

Parents are playing more with their children these days, and cooking at home more than usual too. They can make good use of the expanded family time during the coronavirus crisis by acquainting their children with everyday hygiene rules, particularly in the kitchen.

This can be done best while cooking together, says the consumer advice centre in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

To keep germs at bay, it advises washing your hands not only before cooking, but also before and after every step of work, especially if you’re preparing meat and salad at the same time. The rule is to wash your hands immediately after touching meat, fish or raw eggs.

The same goes for kitchen utensils such as knives and cutting boards, and to worktops as well. Immediately after using them, you should clean them with washing-up liquid and hot water.

Raw and cooked foods should be kept apart, and you shouldn’t use the same cutting board for both raw meat and salad.

Many parents, too, could do with a refresher course in kitchen hygiene. Not all of them know, for example, that simply touching raw meat or poultry, or rinsing it under the tap, spreads bacteria in the kitchen – via your hands as well as splashed water. So you should remove it directly from the package with a fork and place it into the pan or cooking pot. – dpa