Is your kitchen organised based on the food safety triangle?

A group of scientists in the SafeConsume project were looking at how kitchen layouts affect food safety. They suggest that it’s time to rethink the traditional work triangle on which designers base their kitchen plans and to replace it with the food safety triangle. This new arrangement favours both correct hygiene practices and ergonomics and may decrease the number of foodborne illnesses attributed to food preparation in households.

Annually, more than 23 million people in Europe fall ill from eating contaminated food, resulting in 5,000 deaths. Circa 40% of foodborne illnesses are attributed to failure in applying hygiene practices in households. Anca Nicolau and Octavian Mihalache of the Dunarea de Jos University of Galati in Romania, and Solveig Langsrud of the Norwegian Food Research Institute – Nofima, are working together with colleagues across Europe on the EU’s Horizon food safety project SafeConsume. One strand of their research is looking at how kitchen layouts affect food safety. Their results suggest that it’s time to rethink the traditional work triangle on which kitchen designers base their kitchen plans.