How to stay safe in your kitchen

MANILA, Philippines - We’ve come a long way from cooking with wood fires and the attendant inconvenience of smoke and sooty pans that are almost impossible to clean. Burnt food, too, is less likely because one is better able to regulate the strength of the cooking flame. All it takes now for our modern stoves to work is a twist of the knob, so that food preparation is not only easier, it also becomes more pleasurable.

Still, we’ve heard the horror stories: A switch flicked open  and bam!  the kitchen is engulfed in flames. Kitchen fires turn entire homes into piles of cinder with people trapped in the inferno. And while the authorities and well-meaning private groups try to instill the fundamentals fire prevention, there are those who court danger by using substandard tanks of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Thus, the importance of choosing a reliable brand of LPG.

“Solane is clean-burning LPG,” says Enrique Estolas, plant operations executive when we visited the company’s San Fernando, Pampanga facility. “Safety is paramount to us and we make sure to meet quality standards so that our products are reliable and safe.”

Estolas explains that apart from making sure that storage cylinders are free from leaks, an added service is a “seven-point safety check” when the LPG tank  is delivered and installed in your home. The list consists of the following: checking the environment so that cylinders are placed in a well-ventilated area away from sources of ignition; inspecting the rubber O-ring inside the valve to ensure that it is free from scratches and cracks; and making sure that the correct regulator in use is in good condition. (The ideal is that the regulator is replaced every three years.) Additional safety checks include checking the regulator and valve connection (the regulator should be securely connected to the cylinder valve); the correct hose should be used and it should be inspected regularly to make sure it is in good condition. The recommendation is that the hose should be replaced every two years); and the hose should be securely connected to the appliance using metal clamps. Finally, flame quality is important and the burner should produce a blue flame. Solane’s “hatid bahay” delivery system is an efficient and convenient online ordering service. “Solane also has what we call the ‘Timbang Challenge,’ which is a weight check service to assure customers that they are really getting a full tank,”  Estolas adds. “We want you to get your money’s worth.”

But how can you tell if you are getting the genuine Solane product? These are times when almost all products are copied, after all.

“The most basic thing is to get your LPG from a licensed Solane dealer,” advises Ernest Loquinario, product and brand manager. “Inspect the product because Solane cylinders have an AS (auto-shut off) valve that’s designed to shut off the flow of LPG if accidentally disconnected from the regulator.” Since we don’t need the extra heat from tragic fires this summer (or during any time of the year for that matter), it is prudent to stay safe with Solane.