Baking and hygiene

Keep clean and stay safe

Last Monday, I spent the day at a Training school getting to grips with Food Safety. We had a lovely tutor and, although this is a really serious topic, we covered the topics in a really entertaining way. We did food safety law, hazards, temperatures, handling food, storage and hygiene, and then the heat was on when we took the test to achieve  the CIEH Level 2 Food Safety in Catering at the end of the day.

Grandma Abson did her cooking for the first 65 years of her life without the benefit of being able to refrigerate food but it didn’t stop her from taking food hygiene seriously and keeping utensils and preparation areas scrupulously clean when preparing food. Chilling was about finding a cool place in the larder to keep food safe. Covering cakes and buns with beaded muslin cloths kept insects away.

So, here are my top tips to you for baking at home to make sure nothing unsavoury happens:

1. Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing food.

2. Remove jewellery (rings etc.), when preparing food.

3. Always use clean cloths to wipe surfaces or utensils.

4. Keep fresh food separate from cooked food to avoid cross contamination.

5. Use different knives to chop raw meat or fish and ready-to-eat foods such as salads or cheese.

6. In a fridge, store cooked food on a higher shelf than raw food.

7. Check the length of time for storage of food and observe use-by dates.

8. Don’t leave food out for a long time.

9. Be aware of storage temperatures for fridges (1-5C) and freezers (-18C).

10. Only reheat food once. 

Safe baking to all!