Food safety: clean, separate, cook, chill
Works in the UK and the US. This version uses US words and measures (stove, cups, °F); the UK version uses hob, grams and gas marks. · UK version of this page
Keep food safe: clean hands and surfaces, keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart, cook it properly and keep it cold.
Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill
Food safety stops germs from making people sick. Remember the four steps:
- Clean – wash your hands for 20 seconds, wipe surfaces and wash equipment.
- Separate – keep raw meat away from food that is ready to eat, and use separate cutting boards.
- Cook – cook food to a safe temperature, checked with a food thermometer.
- Chill – keep cold food in the refrigerator at 40 °F or below.
Lesson and quiz
Step by step: a quick safety check, questions graded by Classfern, timers for each cooking step, then an honest look at how it went – a teacher or parent judges the cooking, and learners rate their own work. Photos of the finished dish stay at home.
Use the code your teacher gave you – never your name. Progress is kept on this device.
Put it into practice
- Rainbow fruit cupsA no-cook treat of fruit in rainbow layers with yogurt – perfect for first knife skills.
- Overnight oatsA no-cook breakfast you make the night before: weigh, measure, grate and mix.
- Fresh tomato salsaA bright, no-cook dip that teaches dicing, the bridge hold and the claw grip.
- HummusA smooth chickpea dip – and a real example of an allergen (sesame in tahini).