OPH Good Housekeeping – Cooking Safety

Cooking Safety – Hints and tips on how to keep you and your guests safe at your barbecue

OPH Good Housekeeping & Homemaking – Cooking Safety

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Cooking safety around the barbecue is an important part of good housekeeping. When that time of year comes around again, when the weather is warm and the sun is high in the sky, it’s time to have a bit of fun and perhaps bring out the barbecue.

As we all know our barbecue days can evoke happy memories of good times and equally good food. The aim of this page is to make sure these happy memories aren’t tarnished in any way and help you and your guests avoid accidents associated with cooking such as food poisoning or being injured by the burning flames of the barbecue.

This page is split into 3 sections:

General barbecue safety

Gas barbecue safety

Food safety

GENERAL BARBECUE SAFETY

Alcohol consumption

one of the worst things you can do when hosting a barbecue, or even worse if you’re on cooking duties, is to drink too much alcohol. As we know alcohol can affect our judgment and this could lead to accidents.

Another thing to note is that if the barbecue is held on a hot day, then a combination of the heat from the sun along with the heat from the barbecue itself could result in you, as chef becoming dehydrated, this means any alcohol consumed will have a greater affect on your senses than normal. So why not wait until your cooking duties have finished before you indulge yourself.

The final note of caution where alcohol is concerned is with your guests. Ensure they don’t become too drunk as they may stumble or trip into the barbecue; I’ve seen this happen at let me assure you it’s not a pretty site.

Hair and clothing

If you are on cheffing duties make sure the clothing you are wearing are not loose fitting, made from a flammable material or flowing, as there is a very good chance they could catch fire and cause you considerable damage.

The same thing goes for hair. If your hair is long make sure it’s tied back, perhaps in a bun or something, this will stop you setting yourself on fire.

Finding the right plot

When you decide to have a barbecue you need to find the right place to put it, just to be on the safe-side. Below are some keep points to consider.

Put it on a flat and even surface, so it doesn’t fall over

Place it clear from walkways, so people aren’t constantly walking passed it.

Keep it away from where children are likely to play, such as garden swings and the like.

Keep it away from anything flammable.

Make sure it is sheltered, as any gusts of wind could fan the flames and cause damage.

Make sure you follow these good housekeeping measures and keep it safe.

Flammable liquids

Whatever you do, don’t use highly flammable liquids, such as petrol to help give your barbecue lighting a kick start as this could have serious repercussions. A cooking safety tip I recommend is to use fire lighters and other recommended products to start your barbecue. If you do this, you should keep everyone safe.

The cooking safety tip above goes hand in hand with another key point, which is don’t let the barbecue flames get out of control.

To put your mind at ease you should always keep a bucket of water near by, this will help in two ways. Firstly, if the flames do get dangerously out of control then you can extinguish them with the water. Secondly, the water, perhaps will stop you from panicking if the flames get out of control, the worse thing you can do is panic as this severely affects your judgment.

Removing cinders

When you have finished with you’re barbecue follow this good housekeeping measure and ensure that a good few hours have elapsed before discarding the embers, perhaps leave it overnight or even a couple of days before doing so. Hot cinders, if put in a rubbish bin could set your rubbish on fire, make sure they are cool.

GAS BARBECUE SAFETY

Where cooking safety is concerned, if you are cooking using a gas barbecue the following cooking safety points need to be considered in order to maintain your level of good housekeeping.

Blockages

Before you start up the gas barbecue make sure the pipes or tubes are not blocked with any debris, as this will stop the gas from getting through and cause it to build up. In order to ensure that this is the case, or not, use a pipe cleaner this will help remove any blockages.

Damaged tubes

The second thing which should be undertaken before lighting your gas barbecue is to check that the tubes connecting the gas haven’t got any holes in them; these holes will cause gas to escape.

Protect tubes

When you finally light your barbecue ensure that the tubes aren’t exposed to too much heat as this could damage them and create serious hazards.

Gas leaks

An important consideration of cooking safety is when you light your barbecue check for leaks; leaking gas is a serious fire or explosion risk.

Instructions

Generally, before attempting to light your gas barbecue one of the main things you should do as part of any barbecue cooking safety and good housekeeping techniques is to familiarize yourself with the manufacturers manual. This will often provide you with helpful hints and tips, as well as supplying a troubleshooting section for any problems which may arise.

FOOD AND COOKING SAFETY

The main concern in this cooking safety section is regarding food poisoning and its prevention, such as avoiding cross contamination. The way food is cooked, prepared and treated can either cause or prevent us and our guests from coming down with a dose of food poisoning. Below are some cooking safety and general good housekeeping points to take on board in order to prevent any nasty side affects from our barbecues.

Before cooking see to it that the food has thawed naturally in the fridge - and not in the sun – before cooking it. This will lessen the chances of the centre being raw when you have finished cooking it.

Before serving the food, ensure the middle of it is fully cooked too, and is piping hot. A good idea could be to invest in a food thermometer this handy little device will tell you the temperature of the inside of the food you have cooked. Why not check out this food thermometer (opens a new browser window)?

Make certain that the embers are beginning to dull and the flames have died down before cooking any food. This is down to the fact that the flames will severely burn the outside of the food but leave the inside uncooked.

During the process of cooking safety see to it that you turn food frequently, as this will allow it to cook evenly and help make certain that the centre of it is cooked.

One of the worst things you can do which will attract unwanted germs. Is to place uncooked meat or allow the thawing uncooked meat’s droplets to fall on to food, which has either already been cooked or is ready to eat such as salad or dressings. This is because the germs on the uncooked meat will be transported to cooked food.

Sticking with the same theme as above, make sure you don’t use the same utensils which you have used on the uncooked food on the cooked food, because, again this could cause cross contamination.

Once you have cooked the food guarantee that it is kept in a cool place and covered, this will lessen the chances of food poisoning.

Some of the foods which you have cooked such as sweet corn or sausages will be extremely hot inside, and if eaten straight away - especially by children - can potentially cause them a lot of damage, such as burnt lips or mouths. A good idea is to leave them to cool down for a couple of minutes before serving them.

Thanks for checking out our OPH Good Housekeeping BBQ cooking safety page. Why not check out our food nutrition pages? or our recipes pages?

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