Cooks pick up filthy habits in the kitchen from television chefs

♦ Celebrity chefs are setting bad examples over food hygiene that viewers are imitating, researchers have claimed.

Basic errors being copied include wiping hands on tea towels, not washing chopping boards between preparing different ingredients, using finger tips to sprinkle salt or pepper and not washing their hands after coughing, sneezing, scratching or touching their hair.

Prof Andreas Hensel, who carried out the study for the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BFR), said: “The results show that important hygiene measures are often neglected in cooking shows, with one hygiene error being observed every 50 seconds on average.

“If you always wash your hands thoroughly after touching eggs, raw vegetables or meat, for example, and if you clean chopping boards after every working step, you can protect yourself and others from foodborne diseases.”

The researchers analysed 100 episodes of popular cooking shows.

Prof Hensel said the shows “may have an influence on the hygiene behaviour of viewers” and that they should “sharpen awareness of kitchen hygiene instead of neglecting it”.

Raw meat, including poultry, can contain harmful bacteria that spreads easily to anything it touches, including food, worktops, tables and boards.