Making sure food is hot enough

To test if food has been properly cooked, check that it is 'piping hot' all the way through. This means that it is hot enough for steam to come out.

Cut open the food with a small knife so that you can check that it is piping hot in the middle. Generally, if food is piping hot in the middle, then it will be piping hot all the way through. But if you're cooking a very large dish, you might need to check it in more than one place, because some parts of the dish may be less hot than others.

Some foods change colour when they are cooked. Looking at colour is especially useful for checking meat.

Checking if meat has been properly cooked

It's very important to make sure poultry, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs are properly cooked all the way through.

If you are checking a burger, sausage, or a portion of chicken or pork, cut into the middle and check there is no pink meat left. The meat should also be piping hot in the middle.

If you're checking a whole chicken or other bird, pierce the thickest part of the leg (between drumstick and thigh) with a clean knife or skewer until the juices run out. The juices shouldn't have any pink or red in them.

Kidneys, liver and other types of offal should be cooked thoroughly until they are piping hot all the way through.

Rare meat

It's fine to eat steaks and other whole cuts of beef and lamb rare, as long as they have been properly 'sealed'. Steaks are usually sealed in a frying pan over a high heat.

It's important to seal meat to kill any bacteria that might be on the outside. You can tell that a piece of meat has been properly sealed because all the outside will have changed colour.

It's OK to serve beef and lamb joints rare too, as long as the joint is a single piece of meat, not a rolled joint (made from different pieces of meat rolled together).

But pork joints and rolled joints shouldn't be served rare. To check these types of joint are properly cooked, put a skewer into the centre of the joint. The juices shouldn't have any pink or red in them.

Remember, you shouldn't eat these types of meat rare:

poultry

pork

burgers, sausages, chicken nuggets

rolled joints

kebabs

This is because these types of meat can have bacteria all the way through them. So if they aren't properly cooked then any bacteria in the meat might not be killed.

Leftovers

If you have cooked food that you aren't going to eat straight away, cool it as quickly as possible (ideally within one to two hours) and then store it in the fridge. Don't keep leftovers for longer than two days.

When you reheat food, make sure that it's piping hot all the way through. If the food is only warm it might not be safe to eat. Don't reheat food more than once.

Aluminium pans

It’s best not to use aluminium pans, baking trays and foil, or other cookware made of aluminium, to cook foods that are highly acidic, such as:

tomatoes

rhubarb

cabbage

many soft fruits

This is because aluminium can affect the taste of these sorts of food.

One study found that about 20% of aluminium in the diet comes from people using aluminium cookware and foil. But other studies have shown that using aluminium cookware contributes little to the amount of aluminium we take in through our food.

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