The kitchen check: are you a sloppy Joe or hygiene machine?

The Kitchen Check tips on the FSA website are useful but I’m not so sure about the Test. I expect that I would lose marks on the questions about pets and oven gloves, because I don’t have either. The significance of putting a chopping board on the work surface completely escapes me.

Thank goodness there is no reference to using antibacterial cleaning products that are potentially harmful and known to damage the natural environment.

I have joined the Sloppy Joe club as well. I don’t have any raw meat in the fridge, never buy pork or have burgers to test. I don’t have any unnecessary items to clear away before I start cooking and I don’t have a pet.

Like Richard, I only ever had food poisoning once, after attending a clients Christmas party buffet. I was foolish enough to try some exotic fish little tarts and was really sick after returning home. I would never eat fish again unless I knew how long it had been out of the fridge.

“When cooking burgers I cut into the middle and check that they are steaming hot and cooked all the way through, with no pink meat or blood”

I wouldn’t eat them if they weren’t pink

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only Sloppy Joe in the vicinity. I do have a cat and, try as I might, it’s practically impossible to keep her off of the work surfaces. I’m very careful with things like raw meat – always washing my hands before and after, keeping chopping boards separate and so on. But I have been unfortunate enough to experience food poisoning and I can assure you, I’d never want to go through that again!

I too was curious as to the issue with using chopping boards on work surfaces – I’m not sure where else one COULD use them! I’d never really thought about oven gloves before either, so it’s definitely given me some food for thought.

I shouldn’t feel too bad, as it is almost impossible to score 100% and it is not a proper test.

I use a temperature probe to ensure my food is cooked properly – in fact, that is the only reliable way to test meat for safety. So I lose points because I do not need to check poultry by cutting into the thickest part of the meat and I don’t eat commercial burgers, but if I did I would rely on the temperature probe, not appearance. Really cheap burgers are grey to begin with – so they wouldn’t be pink even if they were cold. I make my own from home-minced meat, which is much safer, even when underdone.

I don’t use sponges, precicely because they trap food particles and are difficult to disinfect and keep clean.

We all have different attitudes to hygiene. My sister is almost OCD when it comes to cleaning, she has to get all her laundry and ironing done the day after she returns from holiday. She refills all her toiletries containers and puts them back in the hand luggage for the next trip. And yet she allows her two house cats to clamber over the work tops and tables, and sees nothing wrong in that.

The biggest threat to my health from hygiene was when I shared a house with 3-4 others in the late 70’s. The kitchen should have had a toxic warning on the door. Yet we all survived without getting food poisoning, only having hangovers.

I’m a Sloppy Joe too.

I think it’s a really good check list, that everyone could learn from reading and following. However, the way it’s rated isn’t necessarily that useful (I guess the more boxes you tick the better). For instance, I don’t get pets out of the way before cleaning, because we don’t have any pets 😛 And I don’t think not always following the instructions on the food should be a negative either.

However, I’m not blaming those for my failing to achieve a better ranking (though Sloppy Joe is the tastiest sounding one). Definitely some good points in there 🙂

I have coeliac disease, if the test were accurate then I’d probably spend most of my life cramped up. I was marked down for not getting pets out of the way first – that’s a surprise, my guinea pigs generally don’t make much of a mess in the kitchen (though the conservatory is a different story).

Temperature probes? Completely over the top, a reasonably experienced cook will rarely need this and when they do (an especially large turkey, say) they will generally know it. Oh, and I *never* check the inside of burgers to see if they are properly cooked. I never eat burgers.

The only message that people really need to take home is that just because there’s no visible dirt doesn’t mean you’re clean.