Do you know that the cause of your child’s recurring illness may be coming from your kitchen?

Each school resumption seasons every parent worry about their child coming home with a cough, runny nose, and other infection symptoms. We are quick to judge other kids for transferring the flu to our kids, but who is the actual culprit? GERMS which may be living in your kitchen.

The kitchen is the heart of the household, it is a place where you pour out your love for the family by preparing delicious healthy meals, therefore, maintaining proper kitchen hygiene is essential.

Good kitchen hygiene helps protect food items from germs that can spoil food. Unhygienic kitchen space is a home for bacteria, insects, and roaches that could cause sickness for the family meanwhile, children are prone to infections and some other diseases. Whether you are hosting a family gartering, home cooking, or teaching your children how to cook you need to always put kitchen hygiene first.

Make sure you carry your family along in the hygiene practice. In this blog post, I am going to share tips on how to maintain kitchen hygiene.

HANDS HYGIENE

• You need to get used to washing your hands occasionally when prepping, cooking, and serving. Dry the hands with a kitchen towel or tissue because it is easy to transfer bacteria from your hand to foods. The most essential kitchen hygiene habit is washing hands, make sure you teach your kids this habit when teaching them how to cook.
• Wearing a ring in the kitchen may hinder you to wash the area where the ring is and bacteria will hide under the ring which can easily transfer into food. If you must wear a ring try to always wash under the ring thoroughly.
• Keep your nails short it is a safe place for bacteria to hide and migrate into food or mouth. If you must keep a long nail wear hand gloves when handling food.
• Cover your wound with plaster and bandage before you handle food.

CLEAN SINK REGULARLY

The sink is used regularly hence, bacteria grow on it.

• Wipe the sink anytime you finish washing plates.
• Wash with a scrub and soap once a day preferably at the end of kitchen work. I like to pour hot water at the end of the day to clear the drainage.
• Clean the water or spillage around the sink with a kitchen towel.
• The sink needs a deep clean after cleaning animal products. After cleaning the animal product wash the sink with a sponge, soap, and rinse with water (not the sponge you use for dishes, keep a separate sponge for this purpose). Spray the sink with any antibacterial spray leave for 5 minutes before wiping with a towel or use according to the product instruction.

COUNTERTOP

 A countertop is a place we use regularly hence, it needs cleaning every day. Do not place lots of items or gadgets on the counter so that you can touch all the corners when cleaning.

• Clean the counter regularly by spraying kitchen spray liquid and wiping it with a kitchen towel or tissue. Read the instruction on how to use it if you are using kitchen spray. Keep a roll of extra absorbent kitchen paper on hand to quickly mop up spills.
• Homemade kitchen spray: 1 cup of water, ½ cup of vinegar, 1 teaspoon dishwasher, 5 drops of essential oil (optional). Mix all together in spray bottles (do not use this spray as a disinfectant).

KITCHEN CABINETS/PANTRY

We often ignore this part of the kitchen when cleaning; bacteria grows on biscuit crumbs and others. You need to clean cabinets/pantry at least every month, it we help you detect foods that are hidden at the back.

FRIDGE

Leaving spills and decaying food can spread germs on everything in the fridge, so is appropriate to wipe it with an all-purpose spray every week (you can use the spray recipe above) and deep clean monthly. Cooked food should be in the fridge for 3 days and do not store raw animal products in the fridge it can cause cross-contamination.

Defrost frozen food in the fridge, not on the countertop. This will help prevent bacteria growth due to temperature changes.

KNOBS/HANDLES

These are high touch-point areas, germs from the hand can cross over to the handles or knobs and vice-versa. Wipe down knobs, handles, and others regularly to avoid transferring germs

TRASH BIN

Make it a habit to discard the bin regularly. Old food in a bin will decompose and bacteria will start to grow, so take your trash out daily to avoid any unpleasant smells, insects, and roaches.

AVOID CROSS-CONTAMINATION

Many children suffer from food poisoning parents are quick to blame the food they eat from a friend’s house or school eating environment. Dear moms, your child’s food poising may be from your kitchen. Avoiding cross-contamination is top of the list of basic kitchen hygiene rules. Harmful microorganisms move from raw food to cooked food and make your child ill. To avoid cross-contamination follow these rules.

• Use different chopping boards for cutting animal products, bread, vegetable, and fruit. use different color boards for easy identification.
• Do not use the same utensils for raw and cooked food.
• Do not place edible food next to raw animal products.
• Freeze raw animal products separately from cooked food.
• The tiny bit of food left on a chopping board will breed bacteria. Clean chopping board

immediately after use, and disinfect once in a while. You can pour hot water on it to disinfect it.

OTHERS

• Pay attention to kitchen floors especially when there is food spillage.
• Clean kitchen Towels, Sponges, and Replace them Regularly. Towels that get wet when used on a damp surface can harbor microorganisms, wash properly, spread, and replace. Every night pour hot water on the sponge for 5-7 minutes and change the sponge monthly.
• Wipe stove or gas top properly and regularly because greasy areas help bacteria hide and it cannot be eliminated without removing the grease.

Keeping our family healthy and safe starts with kitchen hygiene. I hope you found this post useful.