Safety in the kitchen – Spot the mistakes

Watch this cook preparing a meal. She makes at least 10 mistakes about hygiene and safety in the kitchen. Can you spot them all?

For each mistake, say what she does wrong and what she should do instead. Use the vocabulary from the video on safety in the kitchen: raw, cutting board, sanitize, wash your hands, contaminate, germs, bacteria…

Your notes

Show the answers
  1. Hair – She doesn't have it pulled back, under a hat or a wrap. It isn't a sin for a home cook, but it's always a good precaution, especially since she has lovely long blonde locks.
  2. Rings – She's wearing two rather large, clunky rings: perfect harbors for bacteria of all sorts. They should be removed before cooking.
  3. Chef's knife in the sink – That's no way to treat a chef's knife. Always clean and dry it immediately after use, or at least put it somewhere you can see it. That's an ER visit with multiple stitches waiting to happen.
  4. Contaminated salt and pepper – Portion out enough salt and pepper for the dish. That way, the whole pot isn't contaminated after the raw meat is seasoned.
  5. Cutting board – She made so many mistakes here!
    • The cutting board is made of wood: not a sin for a home cook, but much harder to keep clean and sanitized. It isn't color-coded either. Use color-coded cutting mats: red for beef and pork, yellow for poultry, green for vegetables and blue for fish, and only use each color for the right ingredient.
    • She placed raw meat and produce on the same cutting board.
    • She placed cooked food on the contaminated cutting board before serving.
    • Part of the salad fell onto the cutting board while she was serving, and she put it back into the bowl.
  6. Hands after raw meat – She didn't wash her hands after handling raw meat, especially poultry.
  7. Coughing – She coughed into her hand and didn't wash it.
  8. Kitchen towel – She wiped her hands on the kitchen towel without washing them, then reused the towel to handle cooked food.
  9. Scratching her head – She scratched her head and didn't wash her hands.
  10. Spilled dressing – She spilled some dressing and didn't clean it up: a slipping hazard.