There are already plenty of food safety guidelines here at CulinaryLore as well as a guide to preventing and dealing with grease fires while cooking. In this article, I want to focus on specific actions you can take to avoid accidents while cooking. These basic safety precautions can make the difference between a pleasant meal and a trip to the emergency room. Remember, cooking involves many dangerous elements. Sharp things that can cut you and hot things that can burn you. So, read up!
Before I get to the cooking tips, let’s talk about knife storage. If you have children, you need to be especially careful of where you store your knives. Never store them in a drawer where a child can get to them. And, storing your knives loose in a drawer can also result in you being cut!
If you are digging around in a drawer for something else, you do not want sharp blades in that drawer as you could easily cut your hand on them. This could also damage the edges of your good kitchen knives. Here are some of the best options for storing knives in the kitchen. Now let’s get to cooking safely.
Cooking Safety Tip 1: Clothing
While you may want to wear an apron to protect your clothing while cooking, the type of clothing you wear is also important. Never wear loose-fitting clothing when cooking. You should especially avoid clothing with long, loose sleeves. If you have on a long-sleeve shirt, roll up your sleeves.
However, loose, hanging clothes of any kind are also very dangerous. A loose shirt-tail can easily catch the handle of a pot and bring it and its contents down on you, resulting in a severe burn.
Also, loose-fitting clothing could make contact with flames or a hot electric element and catch fire.
Cooking Safety Tip 2: Hair
You should of course keep long hair tied back to avoid getting hair on your food. Better, yet, wear some type of head covering. But, long hair can also be a safety hazard. If your hair is long enough, it too could catch or get tangled in something you are working with. As well, long hair could make contact with a hot cooking element or flame.
Cooking Safety Tip 3: Jewelry
Any type of hanging jewelry is a no-no when cooking. For that matter, rings can also be dangerous, especially large rings. A loose hanging bracelet or necklace, just like clothing, can snag a pot handle and cause a spill or a burn. And, a chunky ring can do the same thing!
No matter what you’ve seen celebrity chefs wear on television, be wary of anything that can snag a hot pot.
Cooking Safety Tip 4: Pot Holders
I know that using a towel to grab pots or baking pans, like a fancy-pants TV chef, makes you feel like you are cooking in a real restaurant kitchen.
I used to be a short-order cook. I would flip bacon with my bare fingers. That is because I had what we call ‘asbestos fingers.’ Chefs have the same thing. They don’t always worry about getting burned. We’ve already seen how safe Gordon Ramsey is around kitchen fires.
While you can use a folded towel as a pot holder, I’m going to encourage you, nay, implore you, to keep insulated pot holders handy. Sometimes when cooking, we have to move pans in a hurry or retrieve baking pans out of the oven quickly. When using a towel, it’s easy to forget to fold it carefully, resulting in a lack of barrier between you and the hot cooking vessel.
- MAXIMUM HEAT PROTECTION. All-Clad Pot holders with silicone grip offer heat resistance up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (260 degrees Celsius). Having a reinforced thumb area made of fire resistant fibers means your hands will be protected when grabbing hot items from the oven or grill.
- HEAVYWEIGHT TWILL AND SILICONE. 100% cotton heavyweight twill treated with silicone on both the front and back, for both right or left handed use. Silicone gives a sturdier grip while heavyweight twill give flexibility added bulk.
- EASY TO HANDLE. Durable 100% cotton-twill construction allows each silicone hot pot holder with silicone to conform easily to different shapes while users enjoy a non-slip, heat resistant grip offered by a dual-sided silicone treatment.
- ALWAYS CLOSE AT HAND. A convenient hanging loop makes this large silicone pot holder easy to access and store.
- VERSATILE. Use like pocket oven mitts when holding hot-dishes, then rest your dishes on them like hot pads to protect kitchen surfaces.
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Pot holders are insulated and don’t need folding. Modern ones even have silicone insulation inside them, making them more effective than ever. As for what kind of pot holders you should buy, I’d suggest regular square pot holders. I hate oven mitts and I believe they are more likely to cause you to drop a hot baking dish. You don’t need to turn your hands into giant padded flippers.
A basic potholder will allow you to properly index and hold onto pot handles or pan edges without giving you a false sense of security that may come from giant oven mitts. By the way, those knitted ‘pot holders’ your aunt made are fine to use as trivets but they should not be used as pot holders as they have zero insulative value.
Cooking Safety Tip 5: Turn Handles Away
I have a reflex in the kitchen, even when someone else is cooking. If I see a pot handle sticking out, I will turn it in. I’ve almost knocked down way too many pots because of handles sticking out and extending beyond the front of the stove.
So, always, always turn pot handles away from the front of the stove so that you or another adult can’t bump into them. And if you have children, this is imperative! A small child WILL grab that handle and this has resulted in severe full-body burns in children. See more about Kitchen Safety for Small Children.
Cooking Safety Tip 6: Put Warm Foods Away
Put cooked leftovers away within two hours or so after cooking. Do not let fish, dairy, meat, chicken, etc. sit out at room-temperature, especially during warmer days.
Pay no attention to the notion that you should let foods cool down before putting them into the fridge to avoid warming up your refrigerator.
Learn about safe temperatures for foods.
Cooking Safety Tip 7: Own A Fire Extinguisher
Be ready for kitchen fires. Own a fire extinguisher and keep it close to hand so that you can grab it at a moment’s notice.
Owning a fire extinguisher will do you no good if you don’t know how to use it properly so learn how to use a fire extinguisher properly. A fire blanket is also a very good idea and will take care of most small kitchen fires easily and safely.
- Amerex’s 5 lb abc fire extinguisher is UL rated 2A: 10B:C; it features a commercial grade aluminum valve with a light-to medium-duty anodized aluminum valve body, handle, and lever
- This multipurpose fire extinguisher fights Class A (ordinary combustibles), B (Flammable liquid), and C (Fires involving live electrical equipment).
- The easy to pull metal safety pin with a safety seal to help prevent accidental discharge and tampering makes it easy to use; comes with a label with easy instructions
- UL approved for marine use
- Easy to read gauge tells you when the fire extinguisher is charged and ready to use
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Cooking Saftey Tip 8: Respect Steam
We all know the danger of being scalded by boiling water or burned by hot oil, but steam can produce burn injuries just as severe. Be careful how you move around steaming hot pots. Do not place your face near or over a steaming pot.
One of the main ways to get burned by steam in the kitchen is when pouring hot water out of a large pot, as when transferring pasta to a colander. As you pour the water out, your hands may be positioned over the rising steam, resulting in a burn. Pour out hot water carefully and slowly. Do not dump it quickly.
Another way to get a steam burn is when uncovering a tightly sealed pan full of steam. The steam will rush out of the first opening you make and if your hand is in front of the steam, you can, and likely will, suffer a nasty burn. When uncovering pots that may be full of unescaped steam, uncover the opposite side first, pointing away from you, and keep your hands free of the opening.
Cooking Safety Tip 9: Avoid Hot Oil Combustion
Do not leave hot cooking oil unattended and be careful of how long you heat oil in a pan. Cooking oil can become so hot that it will self-combust. Self-combustion of cooking oil is a common cause of grease fires in the kitchen and most home cooking fires involve ranges or stovetops, resulting in the most deaths or serious injuries. Read more about the danger of cooking oil combustion and fires caused by ranges or cooktops.
Ovens are the second most common cause of kitchen fires, but they do not result in as many injuries or death.
Cooking Safety Tip 10: Keep A Smoke Alarm Near the Kitchen
You should have at least two or three smoke alarms in your home, and one should be located near the kitchen. Make sure to check your smoke alarms often as this may be the first warning of a fire in the kitchen. In addition to smoke alarms, a carbon monoxide detector is a must.
Cooking Safety Tip 11: Kids-Free Zone
I’ve already provided a resource to help you keep your children safe from burns, scalds, and other dangers in the kitchen. Here is one rule that can make all the difference to the safety of your little one: Establish a ‘Kid-Free Zone’ of at least THREE FEET in Front of the stove.
Until your child is tall enough to reach the stove and handle hot pots appropriately, simply keep them away from any cooking food and make the stove in general a kid-free area until your toddler is old enough to be taught properly. Also, keep pets away from the stove while cooking.
Never let a small child play under or near your feet when you are cooking and don’t allow them to think that the stove is okay to touch, or climb on. Toddlers are especially prone to playing with stove-top knobs, so consider buying a guard to keep their little paws away from them.
Cooking Safety Tip 12: Avoid Cross Contamination
Most food poisoning is caused by cross-contamination due to improper handling of foods. Store meats and poultry away from vegetables, and keep meats on a lower shelf or compartment of the refrigerator.
Never use the same cutting board to cut meat, poultry, and vegetables. And never place cooked food on a cutting board you used to cut up meat or poultry.
