If you’re like us, and like to use the new year as a reason to give your home a proper clean, you might want to move cleaning your oven to the top of your to-do list.
Turns out cleaning your oven isn’t just for overzealous mums and Kim and Aggie – left dirty, your oven could pose some serious health risks.
If your oven is coated with grease and grime, it can interfere with the natural travel of hot air around the interior, meaning that food may not be cooked as it should be.
Think about it: A filthy oven is not a healthy oven, and it’s tough for your oven to do its job as normal if it’s coated in grease and dirt.
If your oven isn’t working properly, you may not be properly cooking your food, even if you’re sticking to temperature guidelines and cooking times.
And, as you well know, eating undercooked food can put you at risk of food poisoning and infections such as e. coli.
Ralitsa Prodanova, of UK household sanitation firm Fantastic Services, says: ‘Grease and grime will alter the efficiency of an oven.
‘And when there’s too much grime, your food will not cook properly in the allotted time.
‘That puts you and your loved ones at risk of potentially-deadly bacteria, like salmonella and E.coli, particularly if you’re reheating festive leftovers.
‘It can turn a family dinner into a nightmare.’
Ralitsa adds that small amounts of grease can lead to smoke in your oven, which can affect the taste of your food.
‘If your oven’s slightly smokey when you turn it on, that’s a sign it’s dirty,’ she notes.
‘The smoke itself can be bad for you if breathed in – and clearly extremely dirty ovens are also a fire hazard because old food spillages can set it alight.
‘Continuous burning of oven dirt and grime also creates carbon-based fumes which alter the flavour of baked food.
‘Any food or grease that has been burnt on the inside of the oven continuers to burn whenever it’s switched on.’
Dirty cookers could also release pollutants into the home, throwing carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulphur dioxide into the air you breathe. That’s not good.
The British Lung Foundation warns that dirty cookers can release two kinds of pollutants in the home; microscopic particles of dust and dirt, and gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.
That all sounds pretty scary. So what can you do, beyond adopting a raw diet?
It’s simple: Give your oven a proper clean. You don’t need to pay for a cleaner or buy anything fancy, just standard kitchen cleaning products will do the trick.
‘All you need is some baking soda, vinegar, water, rubber gloves, spray bottle and cloths,’ advises Ralitsa.
‘To get started remove oven racks. These racks can be washed in the sink using regular soap and water. They come up cleaner if left to soak for some time.
‘Make a paste with soda and water, mix it together until it becomes spreadable. You’re going to coat the whole oven with this so ensure you make plenty.
‘Spread the paste all throughout the interior of the oven but steer clear of the heating elements. Give the greasy spots a good going over.
‘You will see it start to turn brown as it comes into contact with the grease, this means the paste is lifting the dirt.
‘The next step is a waiting game. Let the paste stay on overnight, giving it 12 hours at least to work its magic.
‘The following day wipe off the paste using a damp cloth. For any stubborn areas you can use a spatula to loosen the grime. Don’t use a solid utensil like a knife, this will scratch your oven.
‘Next put some white vinegar in a spray bottle and spray the oven interior. The vinegar will cause any lingering baking soda to loosen and foam up. Use a clean wipe to give the oven a once over. Put the racks back in and let the oven dry.
‘You can speed up oven drying time by turning it on to a low setting for a few minutes.’
If you can’t be bothered with mixing your own products and giving your oven a proper scrub, you’ll find plenty of cleaning products specifically designed for cleaning caked on grime in your local supermarket. Easy.
Once you’ve done one big clean, you can keep your oven in good condition by giving it a wipe down after each use, thus swiping away any grime and preventing it from building up.
It’s an extra step in the existing faff of cooking and cleaning, but if you’re bothered about your health or the time you need to keep cookies in the oven, it’s worth doing.
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