If you love to cook like I do, you find yourself spending a lot of time in your kitchen.
The kitchen can be a great place.
It can also be a horrible place, though, at least as far as contamination goes.
There are a lot of ways to prevent contamination in the kitchen, though, luckily.
Of course when we talk about kitchen contamination the big worry is meat.
So, any time you plan to cook with meat, set up ahead and put things in a logical order.
For example, don't put your meat chopping station across the kitchen from the stove.
That is just inviting trouble.
Remember to have anything you need out ahead of time, such as a bowl full of flour or spices for dredging your meats.
You don't want to touch cabinets or too many surfaces after you've touched the raw meat.
That includes remembering to put a trash basket near by, so that you aren't carrying meat scraps across the kitchen.
Also, in order to keep things flowing cleanly, keep two cutting boards.
One should be an easy to clean material, like plastic, and only used for meats.
The other can be used for vegetables and other items.
Once you're done handling the raw meat, start by putting your cutting board, knife and anything else that has touched that meat in the sink or dishwasher.
If you plan to use the dishwasher, either open the door ahead of time or wash your hands and then open it.
That way, you won't contaminate the handle.
Next, clean and disinfect any surfaces that the raw meat itself or the knife you used to chop it touched.
Then, be sure to wash your hands.
Yes, you should wash them at the end, even if you washed them during the cleaning process.
That way, you'll be sure to cut kitchen contamination.