If cooking recipes, heating a ready-meal or making a salad, here are tips to keep people and pets safe in the kitchen.
If growing food, learn how to make gardens safe for pets (includes indoor plants to avoid). Avoid facing indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
To keep safe in the kitchen:
- Keep all surfaces & utensils clean.
- Cook & reheat/chill foods to correct temperatures.
- Turn handles inwards, keep an extinguisher nearby.
- Tie long hair back and avoid floaty sleeves.
- Use a sharp knife (with a guard).
- Keep melon from other foods (may contain salmonella).
- Don’t eat cooked rice after 24 hours (food poisoning).
- Avoid caffeine, chocolate etc for pregnancy/nursing.
- Avoid chia seeds for choking hazards .
- Check medication (grapefruit, green veggies).
food safety for homes with pets
Get proper advice, before choosing a new pet food. Read this book to keep your dog safe for info on safe feeding/water bowls, first aid, toxic foods to avoid and how to prevent bloat. Avoid feeding cooked bones (which can choke), raw eggs and fish (salmon has a potentially fatal parasite).
For companion animals, keep most ‘human foods’ away from them. Unsafe foods near pets include:
- Chocolate, caffeine & alcohol
- Alliums (garlic, onion, shallots, leeks, chives)
- All citrus fruits & dried fruits
- Mushrooms & avocado
- Fruit pips & seeds (natural cyanide)
- Faux meats (inc. jackfruit)
- Raw bread dough (expands in the stomach)
- Corn-on-the-cob (choking hazard)
- Spices (esp. nutmeg & mace)
- Most nuts (esp. macadamia) & seeds
- Xylitol (a sweetener, if used)
