Contributed by Nicholine Akou

Kitchen hygiene is an important part of healthy living which has to be properly handled. This is because you can easily get food poisoning in the course of cooking in a dirty kitchen. A clean kitchen gives you appetite to enjoy your meal being guaranteed that you won’t pick up germs in any way, thus, your health is secured. For sure, you can’t do thorough cleaning daily but at least doing simple cleaning below is essential.

Wash all dirty dishes: washing all the dirty dishes after meals is very important. This is meant to avoid ants and cockroaches or even rats to settle on plates. In the course of doing so, you have protected yourself and family from getting infected with diseases caused by insects. Research has shown that cockroaches contain allergens in their feces, saliva and body parts which trigger asthma and allergies in humans. Therefore if you allow cockroaches to settle on plates, you might be infected with any of these diseases.

 Clean the sink: it is not just enough to wash dishes. Always make sure you scrub the sink thoroughly to remove all old particles of food. This is to ensure that food items such as meat, fish, fruits and vegetable will not pick up bacteria from the sink. Do not just pour water into the sink and assume it is clean. Use soap and a good sponge to scrub all the little corners and after doing so, you have safe the situation of picking up a bacteria that can give you typhoid and cholera.

Check your fridge: go through your fridge and remove food and other stuff that have been there for a long period of time which are no longer useful. Equally remove everything and clean the fridge thoroughly before putting in new stuff. This will also help you to know what exactly is in your fridge enabling you to set time for the things to be used accordingly. Therefore cleaning your refrigerator as well keeps you alert on expired stuffs which can cause food poisoning when consumed.

Spray all the surfaces and mop the floor:  spray all the surfaces and mop the floor of the kitchen immediately after used. When you spray your kitchen often with insecticide, it is difficult to have insects around which can easily get into your cooked food and other stuff such as bread and flour.  

Empty all trash: empty all the trash after doing all the various cleanings mentioned above. Making sure that your trash can is empty is a good sign of having a comfortable and an enjoyable place to cook in. As such, there is a clear indication that you have freed yourself and family from picking up germs easily.

The few points mentioned above are not the only ways to keep your kitchen clean but they are however the simplest and the easiest ways that works for me daily. Thorough cleaning of the kitchen can be done once a month but just putting into practice the few points mentioned above can save you from picking up diseases in your own home.

                                                                                                 Edited by Emiliene Alemkeng