GOLDEN RULES KITCHEN
1. KITCHEN HYGIENE
Hygiene is the base of success in food industry. A lot is at sake when it comes to reputed
chains of restaurants including the customer base and their reputation. The foundation of
food safety lies in maintaining exceptional personal cleanliness and keeping the kitchen
ultra clean. Whether you’re a seasoned chef or a budding culinary enthusiast,
understanding and adhering to the golden rules of kitchen hygiene is non-negotiable.
Beneath are the top 10 basic kitchen hygiene rules to maintain the cleanliness standards
expected from the professional chefs:
Personal Hygiene: The First Line of Defence
It all begins with the basics- keeping your self clean is utmost important to keep the
surroundings clean. Personal hygiene for kitchen staff can be maintained with a few simple
rules. Wearing clean attire, including hats, aprons, and gloves when necessary, is a must.
Wash hands on regular intervals and avoid touching your face, hair, or any surfaces while
handling food to prevent contamination.
Food Separation: Keeping Contamination at Bay
Cross-contamination of food is the worst nightmare of any kitchen manager. To prevent
this, always separate raw meats, seafood, poultry, and their juices from ready-to-eat foods.
Use separate cutting boards, utensils, and storage areas to minimize the risk of harmful
pathogens spreading.
Food Storage: The Cool and Controlled Heaven
You can easily guard against early spoilage and contamination with proper food storage
practices. Frozen food should be kept at 0°F and the food liable to easily rot should be
stored at or below 40°F. Labelling and dating the items for a systematic rotation will help
you ensure that the older products are used before newer ones.
Maintain Right Cooking Temperatures: Cook the Threat Away
Cooking is a complete science. Ensuring that food reaches the correct required internal
temperature is vital for killing harmful bacteria. For meats and other potentially hazardous
foods, using a food thermometer is recommended to ensure food safety.
Clean and Sanitised Kitchen: Make it a Habit, not a Chore
Cleanliness is a virtue, specially when it comes to the kitchen. It is necessary to clean and
sanitize all surfaces that come into contact with food including knives, utensils, cutting
boards, stoves, storage areas and other tools, on daily basis. Setting up same time for
kitchen cleanliness will help in making it a non-negotiable habit. This helps in maintaining a
hygienic workspace and preventing the growth of harmful bacteria.
Proper Waste Disposal: Being Responsible is the Key
Proper waste disposal is not just environment friendly but in fact is a matter of food safety. It
is important to dispose off the kitchen waste is sealed containers to prevent odours and
pests from invading your kitchen. Create and follow waste disposal guidelines which
resonates with your kitchen functioning to ensure proper waste disposal.
Pest Control: Keep the Uninvited Guests Away
Pests are the nasty visitors that can wreak havoc on your kitchen’s hygiene. Disposing off
the waste properly, sealing any gaps in the walls, floors, windows and sinks, and keeping
the kitchen clean can help you ward off the pests. Regular pest control activities can help
you ensure you are not prone to have your kitchen intruded by unwanted pests.
Take Breaks when ill: Ethics and Safety go hand in hand
As a chef, your health can directly impact other’s health and therefore, showing up while
sick can have dire consequences. If you are feeling sick, specially with symptoms of
contamination like cold, nausea, other viral infections, avoid handling food an notify your
supervisor. COVID has taught us well how prioritizing our health and keeping distance
when sick, can help us in keeping our customers and colleagues safe.
Allergen Awareness: A Lifesaving Skill
Food allergies are a serious concern and can bring big issues to your work place when a
customer falls sick after eating your food. Chefs must stay vigilant about allergen cross-
contact and asking your customers about allergies to common allergens can be lifesaving.
Educate yourself about common food allergens and implement measures to prevent cross-
contamination between allergenic and non-allergen foods.
Separate Cooking Sections for Veg and Non-Veg: Respecting The Vegetarian
Customer’s Concerns
Separating vegetarian and non-vegetarian food can be a hygienic practice that can help in
ensuring vegetarian customers that there is no trace of non-vegetarian food in their plate.
Following the Color coed system for cutting boards can be a great practice. You can utilize
the green board exclusively for vegetables, reserve the red board solely for meat, assign
the yellow board for chicken, and dedicate the white board solely to fish. This will help you
achieve high standard for handling food well while keeping the kitchen clean.
Conclusion
In the culinary world, where flavours and aromas play important roles, kitchen hygiene
stands as the unwavering foundation upon which great meals are built. As chefs, it’s our
prime responsibility to ensure that our dishes not only tantalize the taste buds but also
uphold the highest standards of safety and cleanliness. So, whether you’re crafting a
delicate soufflé or searing a succulent steak, remember: these GOLDEN RULES are your
steadfast companion
2. Minimize the Food Safety Risks from Food Preparation
1. Choose foods processed for safety
While many foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are best in their natural state, others
simply are not safe unless they have been processed. For example, always buy
pasteurized as opposed to raw milk and, if you have the choice, select fresh or frozen
poultry treated with ionizing radiation. When shopping, keep in mind that food
processing was invented to improve safety as well as to prolong shelf-life. Certain foods
eaten raw, such as lettuce, need thorough washing.
2. Cook food throughly
Many raw foods, most notable poultry, meats, eggs and unpasteurized milk, may be
contaminated with disease-causing organisms. Thorough cooking will kill the
pathogens, but remember that the temperature of all parts of the food must reach at
least 70 °C. If cooked chicken is still raw near the bone, put it back in the oven until it's
done - all the way through. Frozen meat, fish, and poultry, must be thoroughly thawed
before cooking.
3. Eat cook food immediatelly
When cooked foods cool to room temperature, microbes begin to proliferate. The longer
the wait, the greater the risk. To be on the safe side, eat cooked foods just as soon as
they come off the heat.
4. Store cook food carefully
If you must prepare foods in advance or want to keep leftovers, be sure to store them
under either hot (near or above 60 °C) or cool (near or below 10 °C) conditions. This
rule is of vital importance if you plan to store foods for more than four or five hours.
Foods for infants should preferably not be stored at all. A common error, responsible for
countless cases of foodborne disease, is putting too large a quantity of warm food in the
refrigerator. In an overburdened refrigerator, cooked foods cannot cool to the core as
quickly as they must. When the centre of food remains warm (above 10 °C) for too long,
microbes thrive, quickly proliferating to disease-causing levels.
5. Reheat cook food thoroughly
This is your best protection against microbes that may have developed during storage
(proper storage slows down microbial growth but does not kill the organisms). Once
again, thorough reheating means that all parts of the food must reach at least 70 °C.
6. Avoid contack beetwen raw foods and cooked foods
Safely cooked food can become contaminated through even the slightest contact with
raw food. This cross-contamination can be direct, as when raw poultry meat comes into
contact with cooked foods. It can also be more subtle. For example, don't prepare a raw
chicken and then use the same unwashed cutting board and knife to carve the cooked
bird. Doing so can reintroduce the disease-causing organisms.
7. Whash hand repeatedly
Wash hands thoroughly before you start preparing food and after every interruption -
especially if you have to change the baby or have been to the toilet. After preparing raw
foods such as fish, meat, or poultry, wash again before you start handling other foods.
And if you have an infection on your hand, be sure to bandage or cover it before
preparing food. Remember, too, that household pets - dogs, cats, birds, and especially
turtles - often harbour dangerous pathogens that can pass from your hands into food.
8. Keep all kitchen surfaces meticulously clean
Since foods are so easily contaminated, any surface used for food preparation must be
kept absolutely clean. Think of every food scrap, crumb or spot as a potential reservoir
of germs. Cloths that come into contact with dishes and utensils should be changed
frequently and boiled before re-use. Separate cloths for cleaning the floors also require
frequent washing.
9. Protect food from insects , rodents , and other animal
Animals frequently carry pathogenic microorganisms which cause foodborne disease.
Storing foods in closed containers is your best protection.
10. Use safe water
Safe water is just as important for food preparation as for drinking. If you have any
doubts about the water supply, boil water before adding it to food or making ice
3.COOKING METHODE
Read the Recipe First:
Always read through the entire recipe before starting to understand the steps and
ingredients needed.
Mise en Place:
Prepare and measure all your ingredients before you start cooking. This helps
streamline the cooking process and reduces the chance of forgetting an ingredient.
Use Fresh Ingredients:
Fresh ingredients enhance the flavor and quality of your dishes. Whenever possible,
choose seasonal and locally sourced produce.
Keep Your Workspace Clean:
A clean kitchen not only helps prevent cross-contamination but also makes the cooking
process more enjoyable and efficient.
Taste as You Go:
Regularly taste your food throughout the cooking process to adjust seasoning and
ensure the flavors develop correctly.
Don’t Overcrowd the Pan
When sautéing or frying, give your ingredients enough space to cook evenly and brown
properly. Overcrowding can lead to steaming instead of searing.
Use the Right Tools:
Invest in good quality knives and cookware. The right tools can make a significant
difference in preparation and cooking efficiency.
Control the Temperature:
Understand the importance of temperature in cooking. Adjust heat levels as needed to
achieve the desired results, whether you’re simmering, sautéing, or baking.
Let Meat Rest
After cooking, allow meat to rest for a few minutes before slicing. This helps
redistribute the juices, resulting in a more flavorful and tender dish.
Practice Patience:
Good cooking often requires time and patience. Don’t rush the process; allow flavors to
develop and ingredients to cook properly.
4.PRINCIPLE EVERY ONE SHOULD KNOW FOOD HYGIENE
Hand washing
Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply
soap. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of
your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. Scrub your hands for at least
20 seconds.
Correct food storage
The temperature danger zone refers to a temperature range in which bacteria grow and
thrive. According to the USDA this range is 40–140°F (4–60°C) within this
themperature range , bactteria can dauble in number in jus 20 minuts
Proper food segregation
store raw and ready-to-eat food in separate fridges, freezers and display units. If they
are in the same unit, store raw meat, poultry, fish and eggs below ready-to-eat food.
Unwashed fruit and vegetables should also be kept separate from ready-to-eat food and
above raw meat.
Safe seregation of meals
Colour coded cutting board
Adjust the use cutting board according color and use
Red for raw meat
Blue for raw fish
Yellow for raw poultry
Green for fruit & vegetable
Brown for Cooked food like a ready to eat ,
White for Bakery & dairy
Safe knife handling
Kitchen fire safety
1. Check for combustible materials arround the cooking surface like oven mitts or
kitchen towel
2. Keep a fire extinguisher in or near in the kitchen
3. Never leave food unattended
4. Never put on agrease fire
5. Frequent fire drills to get used to emergencies
