Holiday Safety Tips To Prevent Kitchen Mishaps during Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is all about food and family and friends coming together for – turkey, stuffing, giblet gravy, cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and family fun time. Many home cooks get busy preparing large holiday meals for family and friends and often fail to abide by a few safety tips. With an increase of cooking fires during Thanksgiving it’s easily prevented by following a few safety tips listed below.

• Don’t drink alcohol or take medicine that can make you drowsy while cooking.
• Never hold a child or pet while cooking.
• Multipurpose dry chemical extinguisher is a must have to keep in one's kitchen.
• Throwing baking soda or salt on a grease fire works but never use water or flour which can explode, if you have a cover use pot holder and try sliding lid over the pan and turn off burner.
• Keep fires controlled if they should happen, never open the oven or microwave door if there’s a fire, opening the door fuels the fire with oxygen and will cause it to burn faster and hotter.   Turn off the oven or microwave.
  
• Usually our kitchens don’t have enough plugs especially in older homes so overloading outlets can blow fuses and cause electrical fires, avoid extension cords.
  
• Appliances with plugs should never be near heat/water source, electrical currents travel to the nearest conductor and our human bodies, technically speaking, are actually a good conductor however our bodies don’t respond well to being in the path of electricity with high voltages and we should always keep hands dry.
  
• Number One: Never leave cooking unattended, this is one of the leading causes of kitchen fires.
  
• Cooks should start by not wearing loose clothing or dangling sleeves while cooking.
  
• Always check the kitchen before going to bed or leaving the home to make sure all stoves, ovens, and small appliances are turned off.

Happy Holidays!