Hygiene is an essential component of healthy living, In fact, Hygiene is integral to achieving good health and preventing disease and infection. Not just selecting the right food choices but also cooking & consuming them in a hygienic way is equally important in preventing the infectious diseases. Adopting hygienic practices and promoting hygiene in the community, schools and workplace prevents innumerable infectious diseases.

Some of the infectious diseases prevented by practicing proper hygienic practices include diarrhoea, amoebiasis, giardiasis, worm infection, typhoid, jaundice, bacterial pharyngitis, skin infections, tuberculosis, conjunctivitis etc. Many chronic diseases are also linked to infections caused by unhygienic foods. These include gastric ulcers, certain types of cancers and some cardiovascular diseases.

Best Practices for Hygiene

Following are some hygienic practices, which should be inculcated in day-to-day life.

• Wash hands thoroughly with soap after urination, using the toilet or after changing diapers,
• Wash your hands with soap and water after handling pets
• Wash your hands with soap and water before touching/consuming food.
• Keep nails short and clean. Trim your nails regularly.
• Tie your hair neatly or cover it when you cook.
• Preferably, cooking area and the area used for washing utensils should be separate and dedicated for that purpose and not connected to the bathrooms/ toilet etc.
• Kitchen should be well lighted & ventilated (with either chimney/exhaust fan) preferably with meshed windows.
• The cooking and eating area should preferably be elevated.
• Keep the cooking, washing, and utility area and kitchen clothes clean. The kitchen surface and the floor should be regularly cleaned. Additionally, clean the kitchen in the night. Kitchens left dirty in the night attract pests which are carriers of infection.
• Cover all foods, cooked as well as uncooked, at all times.
• If a house fly or any insect has even fleetingly sat on a food item, discard it.
• Protect the kitchen & food items from insects, pests & other animals.