Food Safety for People & Pets (essential tips)

Madeleine Olivia

The kitchen is the heart of the home, so here are a few simple tips to keep everyone safe around food, whether it’s for you (especially if pregnant), children, older relatives or four-legged friends. From cooking safely to unsafe foods to avoid, to learning about allergies and avoiding kitchen hazards.

General tips for kitchen safety

• Use safety gates for children and pets, keep a first aid kit/extinguisher nearby, and keep emergency numbers to hand.
• Use quality kitchen knives (with secure handles that are easy to sharpen), store in blocks and learn how to chop food safely (store scissors and graters in drawers).
• Turn pot handles inwards when cooking, avoid floating sleeves and tie long hair back. Keep tea towels away from open flames, and children/pets away from kettles and trailing wires (like slow cookers on counters).

Food preparation tips 

Unless you have a food waste bin (this is fine as scraps are made into biogas), just bin tea/coffee grounds (use a sink shield to avoid clogged sinks). And acidic food scraps (onion, leek, garlic, shallot, chives, tomato, citrus and rhubarb), as acids could harm compost creatures.

To avoid wildlife getting trapped, rinse tins before recycling (remove lids and pop inside or pop ring-pulls back over can holes, then pinch both types of cans shut at top).

How to prevent food poisoning

• Wash your hands before and after preparing food.
• Keep chopping boards and surfaces clean with unscented cleaners or diluted dishwash liquid (avoid citrus oils near pets) and rinse/dry thoroughly afterwards.
• Keep food stored in fridge/freezers at recommended temperatures (with dates labelled for up to three months). Thaw frozen foods overnight before cooking, and don’t reheat food more than once.
• Cook only what you need (don’t eat cooked rice after 24 hours).
• Cut cantaloupe melon just before eating with a clean knife, clean underneath rind, and store away from other foods (due to slight risk of salmonella poisoning).
• Avoid eating food or drink past its ‘use-by-date’.
• Food Standards Agency offers online food training courses.

Tips for food allergies and medications

Check for allergies, before serving food. You can order (for your or a child) a simple allergy card to quickly inform others of allergies (includes emergency contact numbers, also let servers know if you carry an EpiPen, and how to use it if needed).

Check medication inserts, as some say not to eat certain foods, due to interactions. For instance, some people on heart medications should not eat grapefruit or too many leafy greens (due to interaction with vitamin K). Others can’t eat some ‘superfoods’ like spirulina.

Foods to avoid when pregnant or nursing 

Pregnant and breastfeeding women are advised to avoid many foods, to keep them and babies safe. Also wash soil off salads and vegetables.

Fruit & Veg Wash helps reduce exposure to listeria, E.coli and salmonella. Code GSENGLANDNATURALLY (15% off order, minimum purchase £20)

Foods to avoid include:

• Alcohol & caffeine
• Some herb teas (check labels)
• Raw meat, liver & cold cuts (salami, prosciutto, pepperoni)
• Game meats (goose, partridge, pheasant)
• All pâté (including vegan pâté, due to listeria risk)
• Raw or partially cooked eggs
• Liquorice & liquorice root
• Too much ginger (contracts uterus for early labour)
• Raw Fish (if you eat fish, no more than 2 weekly portions of oily fish or tuna steaks).

Avoid choking hazards

Choking hazards should be avoided for children and people with swallowing difficulties (and allergies). Also keep small toys off the kitchen floor, where toddlers and pets could find them. Download this e-book on vegetarian textured foods for hospitals and nursing homes.

Learn how to help someone who is choking. Foods to avoid include:

• Nuts, seeds & nut/seed butters
• Dry bread, crackers & croutons
• Crumbly foods (pies & biscuits)
• Peas, grapes, cherry tomatoes, cherries (even sliced)
• Carrot Sticks
• Sausages (slice lengthwise & again, for older children)
• Foods with seeds (raspberries etc)
• Boiled sweets
• Sticky foods (some cheese, marshmallow, mochi)
• Tough foods (steak, bacon, skin/bone/gristle)
• Stringy foods (beans, rhubarb)
• Floppy foods (lettuce, cucumber, spinach)
• Chia seeds (mix with water first, if using)

Foods to avoid near animal friends

Sophie Gamand

Learn more on choosing better pet food.

• Use ceramic (harder to knock over) or stainless steel bowls (wash and rinse daily).
• Rather than raised-bowls (which can increase risk of bloat in big-chested, old and overweight dogs), encourage slower eating.  Don’t let dogs run or take walks for at least one hour after eating (or after car travel).
• Cooked bones can choke, but not all dogs are safe with raw bone. If you feed bones, ask your vet about the safest choices (antler chews are not recommended, as they can break teeth). Pop bones in the freezer for a couple of days before eating, and ensure they are from a reputable source to reduce risk of parasites and salmonella. Always supervise dogs gnawing at bones, remove once it starts to disintegrate or get small, and know that some dogs get territorial around bones.

‘Human foods’ to keep away from pets include:

• Cooked bones (can choke)
• Chocolate (including white chocolate) & caffeine
• Raw eggs & fish (raw salmon has a fatal parasite)
• Alliums (garlic, onion, shallots, leeks, chives)
• All citrus fruits & dried fruits
• Mushrooms & avocado
• Fruit pips & seeds (contain natural cyanide)
• Faux Meats (due to onion, garlic, salt) & jackfruit
• Raw bread dough (can expand in the stomach)
• Corn-on-the-cob (choking hazard)
• Spices (esp. nutmeg & mace)
• Most nuts (esp. macadamia) & seeds
• Xylitol (a sweetener, if used)

Keep dogs away from seaweed fronds at the beach, as they can expand in the stomach as they dry. Read more on how to keep dogs safe at the seaside.

Grow organic food in pet-friendly gardens (away from toxic plants, mulch and other hazards). Avoid facing indoor plants to gardens, to prevent birds flying into windows).

For Dog’s Sake is a lovely illustrated book of tips which includes info on toxic foods and plants to avoid, with a short illustrated first aid guide. It’s plus an illustrated first aid guide. It’s out of print in the UK, but if you order from the author’s US website, you get a free gift with each order, to balance shipping costs.

Don’t cook near domestic birds

• Most non-stick pans are made with PFOA (a chemical that ends up in our oceans). You can buy non-toxic alternatives, but even if companies say the opposite, all cooking fumes are dangerous around birds.
• Most caged birds are likely happier in outdoor aviaries anyway, where they can at least fly and enjoy company of other birds.