Safety Practices
This page will talk about safety practices and healthy habits to keep in mind when cooking.
This will be particularly useful if you're new to cooking, as there are a few rules to keep in mind.
Safe way to cut with a knife
Flour
Flour is often used in recipes, be it in bread, pasta, baking, or as a thickening agent. Whole wheat flour is preferable to the usual white flour, as it has a higher density of nutrients (less processed).
First and foremost, flour should always be cooked. Eating raw flour presents a health risk, because of possible e-coli contaminations.
Fecal contamination from an animal source can make its way into flour. In fact, the amount of animal droppings allowed by the FDA in wheat is 9 mg per kg (which is a very small amount, and unimportant when cooked, but can present an infection risk if uncooked), and flour isn't processed in a way that would kill e-coli.
However, cooking destroys e-coli. E-coli is destroyed with temperatures of 71°C (160°F) and above--which is also the temperature at which Salmonella is instantly killed.
When using flour as a thickening agent, pour the flour slowly over time. Flour takes a few seconds to act as a thickener when stirred in, and it's easy to make something too thick by accident by adding a bit too much flour.
