Food Safety for Children



Start with the Basics

Cooking with your kids is a great way to teach them about nutrition

and show them the value of food safety. For children, time spent in

the kitchen learning how to cook is fun. When cooking with your

kids, be sure to cover the basics of kitchen and food safety.



Lead by Example

When teaching about food safety for children, it is better to show

them safe food practice rather than just tell them.



Wash Your Hands

The first thing on your list should be hand washing. Adults need to

learn this as well. But, when teaching your children about food

safety, "wash your hands" has to be an every time thing.



Clean as You Go

Everybody forgets this one, but if we show our kids how to clean as

they go they will learn this very good habit. Keeping your work area

clean and cleaning up after yourself as soon as you finish a task

has several advantages. It prevents cross contamination, keeps all

your tools in a place where you can find them, and leaves you with a

clean work area for your next task. If you follow this practice

every time you teach your kids how to cook, they will learn this

good habit.



Bacteria

You can't see bacteria and that makes it hard to teach children

about them. But whether you can see them or not, bacteria are there

and looking for a chance to grow. As you cook with your kids,

explain to them that bacteria love food that has been left out at

room temperature for hours. Also explain to your kids how bacteria

like to move from one food to the other, which is called cross

contamination, and how to prevent it. This is a very important point

of food safety for children. If you are making a recipe that

involves meat or poultry, you have an excellent opportunity to

explain to your children how cross contamination can cause illness.



Kitchen Safety as Part of Food Safety

When preparing to teach your children about cooking and food safety,

it would probably be a good idea to think about the recipe you want

to prepare in advance. For older children, recipes that involve

cutting and actual stovetop cooking might be okay, but for younger

children, baking would be the best idea.



Baking gives you the opportunity to show proper food and kitchen

safety procedures while whipping up a yummy pastry treat. I would

suggest cookies as a great starting point for kids. Cookies bring in

the elements of kitchen safety when working with machines (the

mixer), food safety when working with the dough, and oven safety

while baking the cookies. Although even I'm hard pressed to use

cookies as an example of good nutrition, it is a great chance to

explain how cookies are a "sometimes" food no matter how good they

taste.



From cookies, you can move up to Macaroni and cheese, a kiddy

favorite and still a baked food. Just about any macaroni and cheese

recipe will suffice as long as you don't use the box kind. Macaroni

and cheese is so easy to make and tastes so much better when made

from scratch that the box kind should never enter you kitchen.



Food Safety for Children

Cooking with your kids is a great way to spend quality time with

your children and show them how to be safe in the kitchen. Food

safety for children is only one aspect, albeit an important one.

With a little guidance and some coaching, your kids will learn

proper nutrition and how to make good food in a safe manner.

Remember to start off slow and be sure to try the recipe once on

your own so you have a good understanding of the recipe. This will

allow you to focus on the fun when cooking with your kids.