There's a lot of entertaining on the agenda this time of year, so there's never been a better time to brush up on food hygiene rules. It's all too easy to forget about safe food preparation, but food poisoning can be unpleasant and even fatal, so don't take any risks. Stay safe with our quick guide.
Get the basics right
When you're cooking, it's important that you don't introduce germs or foreign bodies into the food yourself, so personal hygiene is crucial, even if you're in a rush.
Wash your hands with warm soapy water, tie long hair up, remove watches and all jewellery and cover cuts or wounds with blue sticking plasters. Cover your clothes with a clean apron, roll up your sleeves before you cook and never lick a spoon then place it back into the food.
It's equally important that your kitchen is clean before you start to cook. Make sure that utensils and pans are clean and dry. Disinfect the sink, floor, cooker and bin, and wipe all work surfaces with an antibacterial spray and a clean cloth.
Allocate chopping boards
Instead of having one chopping board that you rinse and reuse frequently as you cook, you should have four different boards - one for each food group - to avoid cross-contamination.
Traditionally, a red board is used for raw meat, a green board for fruit, vegetables and salad, a blue board for raw fish and a white board for cooked foods and dairy items. Joseph Joseph sells a smart set of colour-coded dishwasher-safe polypropylene chopping boards that come in a holder so you can easily store them on your worktop, $38.99 (Dh143) at www.amazon.com.
Alternatively, if you prefer a more rustic-looking board, choose bamboo because it has antibacterial qualities. Always wash all chopping boards in between uses with hot water and plenty of detergent, and don't store them while they are still slightly damp because this encourages bacteria to breed. Use clean knives for each task.
Organise your fridge
Fresh food should be covered and stored in a clean refrigerator until you need it. Ensure that raw meat is stored on the lowest shelf so that meat juice can't drip down and contaminate the foods on lower shelves.
Store all foods sealed in lidded boxes or with cling film. Keep cooked meat and raw meat entirely separate. Never store an open can of food in the fridge - the metal can contaminate the food. Instead, transfer the food to a lidded ceramic or plastic container. Let hot food cool thoroughly before refrigerating it because it could raise the temperature of the inside of the fridge and cause bacteria to grow.
Mind use-by dates
If a food is labelled with a use-by date, don't ignore it - even if the food looks and smells perfectly fine. The same goes for sell-by dates in shops. Older food might be on the reduced shelf and much cheaper, but it's always safer to go for food with a later sell-by date that will last for a few days longer because it's fresher.
Once any food container is opened, the contents should be consumed within a few days and it should be kept sealed and refrigerated in the meantime.
Wash fruit and vegetables
When you buy fresh fruit, vegetables and salad, it might be labelled "washed", but it's always safer to rinse it under cool running water yourself, too. It has probably been handled by pickers, packers and shop workers, and it could even carry traces of earth or pesticides.
Deter flies and pests
Wherever there is food, there are pests. At this time of year, flies are the most bothersome; they carry bacteria and are attracted to all foods.
Keep foods protected at all times with mesh covers and nets, and tackle the problem with fly papers and repellents. To limit food residues that attract flies, make sure you disinfect your work surfaces thoroughly every time you cook - before and after - with a multi-surface cleaning spray.
Always keep food containers sealed and if you see any evidence of rodents, tackle the problem immediately by calling a professional pest control company.
Freeze and defrost foods carefully
When food is frozen, any bacteria in it won't multiply, but they won't be killed either, so it's vital to defrost food correctly to prevent germs from multiplying during heating and causing food poisoning.
You should only freeze fresh or freshly cooked foods. Make sure that you label foods clearly before you freeze them, so you know how long each item has been in the freezer and what it is.
Always defrost meat and fish thoroughly before cooking, otherwise it might not get hot fast enough to kill bacteria. A lot of water is released as meat thaws, so stand it in a bowl to prevent any bacteria in the juices from spreading to other surfaces or foods. Ideally, you should defrost food slowly in a microwave with a special defrost setting if you intend to cook it straightaway. If you intend to cook it the next day but not immediately, put it in the refrigerator to thaw out slowly so that it doesn't get too warm too quickly. When you cook food that has been frozen, ensure it is piping hot throughout, so that any bacteria are killed.
Take extra care with rice
It's very easy to get food poisoning from eating reheated rice. Uncooked rice grains contain spores of bacteria that can sometimes survive the cooking process. If you leave cooked rice standing at room temperature for too long, the spores will multiply and may produce toxins that can cause food poisoning and nasty symptoms such as vomiting or diarrhoea.
Reheating rice won't get rid of these poisons, so you should always serve rice when it has just been cooked. If that isn't possible, cool it as quickly as possible after cooking - ideally within one hour - and store it in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
