Hygienic rules

AS insignificant our actions and inactions are to maintaining hygienic rules may appear, the outbreak of Ebola disease that has claimed many lives in Africa might be a warning signal to those who care about their well-being, and continued existence on this side of the divide.
The need for women or better put homemakers to get used to kitchen hygiene rules is so crucial and must be a cathechism that guides women in the kitchen, which I believe will rub on our children regardless of their gender once they get into the heart of the house where healthy dishes are dished out to all the members of the family.
From this hour, if you have never thought of having some guiding rules as to your conduct in the power house, your getting this pasted conscpicously on your kitchen wall will save us all from avoidable food induced contamination.
The number one rule emhasises the need to always wash our hands
To women with long hair, tieing it up and pulling it back is a must if you are unable to get a chef cap.
We must also imbibe the use of an apron which prevents your dresss from being soiled or ruined.
Don’t eat any of the food mixture until you are done; if you do, wash your hands again.
Any smell can trigger off sneezing, and when this happens, ensure you sneeze and cough away from the food.
LIke kindergaten children are told to wash anything that will go into their mouths, virtually all food items must always be washed before cooking, unless otherwise stated.
The freshness of what to be bought must be checked before buying it.
Basically, the rules of food hygiene are common sense rules to stop contamination of food while preparing or serving it. Remember, cooking food kills most germs. If you aren’t going to cook it yourself before eating it, then you have to store it carefully and make sure the way you prepare it is clean.
If food is not going to be cooked before you serve it - like cooked meats, cheese, cakes etc, then you should store them on the top shelves of your fridge, so no contaminants can drop onto them.
You shouldn’t cut these food stuffs with any knife that has been used on raw meat (unless it’s been washed properly - rinsing under the tap won’t do unless your tap spews boiling water).
Ideally you should use different knives and chopping boards for raw meat and everything else.
On a final note,always wash your hands after putting something in the bin/trash. It’s easy to forget, especially when trimming and peeling vegetables.
Our waste bins are hot beds of microbe reproduction activity.
You don’t need to waste money on antibacterial soap; normal soap does the job just as well.
Enjoy working in your power house.

Culled from http://tribune.com.ng