family andfriends can be delightful as long asyou're careful. Here are 20 hints from health andsafety experts that can help: 1. Neverleave children alone in the kitchen. 2. Wash your hands in hot, soapy water before andafter handling food, particularly raw meats. Use papertowels to dry off. 3. Always keep any foods that can spoil, such as dairy products and meat, in therefrigerator until you need them and put them back right after using them. Don’tlet perishable foodssit out on the counter. 4, Don'tlet kidslick their fingers or put their hands in their mouths when A home-cooked mealwon't bea recipe fordisasterif you bake in certain tant with raw foods such as cookie dough or meat. 5. Make sure you have, and test monthly, groundfaultcircuit interrupter percent of homefires, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Keep anything that cancatchfire away from your stove top, including oven preventshock andelectrocution. 6. Don't put cooked food on an unwashedplate or a cutting board that towels andcurtains. 14. Keep your oven and stove top handling food.Thisis especially impor- (GFCI) receptacles in your kitchen to has had raw food on it. Always put cookedfoodon a cleanplate. 7. Ifyou cough or sneeze, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue and turn safety precautions. 13. Ranges or cooktops cause 62 mitts, woodenutensils, food packaging, clean ofgrease and dust. 15. Never cook while sleepy, drink- ing alcohol, or taking medication that makes you drowsy. 16. Never disable a smoke alarm while cooking. 17. Turn pot handles in, away from rightafter. 8.Keep all electrical appliances reaching little hands. away from the food. Wash your hands away from water. Stay away from elec- 18. Never leave the kitchen when trical sockets, especially if your hands something's cooking. Theleading cause their fingers or hands anywhere near cooking. are wet, andinstructchildren notto put sockets, 9. Use a frying screen over pans to prevent grease splattering. If grease of fires in the kitchen is unattended 19. If a dish towel touches the raw meatsor the juices from the raw meats, quickly removeit from the kitchen for catchesfire, cover the pan with a lid. laundering. Clean the sink, counter- in your arms. In fact, keep all children juices may have touched. 20. Double-check that everything is offwhen youfinish cooking, 10. Never cook while there's a child atleast three feet away from all cooking appliances. 11. Never add waterto a pan that has hotoil init. It could make theoilspatter. 12. Before making anyrecipe, check all the ingredients and be sure no one whowill be at the table is allergic to any ofthem.Check foodlabels on prepared foods. topsor anyareas that raw meats ortheir Learn More Forfurther facts and tips on safety from the Electrical Safety Foundation International, the premier nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to promotingelectrical safety at home and in the workplace,visit www.esfi.org.
