| Although the last few years have seen huge | | | | Remembering to store raw foods separately from |
| advances in standards of food hygiene, there are still | | | | cooked and prepared foods is essential to prevent |
| nearly 100,000 cases of food poisoning reported every | | | | cross contamination that can make food just as |
| year across the UK — that’s nearly 275 | | | | dangerous when cooked as when raw. Although the |
| a day! Although many of these cases are | | | | process of cooking, if done thoroughly and correctly, |
| characterised by typical symptoms like nausea, | | | | kills the bacteria present in raw food, these bacteria |
| vomiting and diarrhoea, the most severe cases include | | | | can easily be transferred back to the cooked food |
| organ failure and death — especially in people | | | | should raw food touch, or drip on, the cooked food. |
| who are already weak or vulnerable. To this extent, it | | | | The same principle applies to kitchen utensils; knives |
| is still highly important that households and businesses | | | | and chopping boards, for example, must be washed or |
| alike continue to work towards improving standards of | | | | changed after being used with raw food, before being |
| food food hygiene, to ensure as few people come | | | | used for ready-to-eat food. In short, nothing used on |
| down with food poisoning as possible. | | | | raw foods should be used on cooked or prepared |
| The most common cause of severe food poisoning is | | | | food, without first being thoroughly washed. |
| bacteria which, due to their tenacity and ability to | | | | It should also go without saying that anybody who |
| multiply exceptionally quickly, always pose a health | | | | comes into contact with any food should remove all |
| threat, no matter how high standards of food hygiene | | | | hand and arm jewellery and wash their hands before |
| may appear. Just a single bacterium, for example, can | | | | handling food and after handling raw food. |
| multiply within a few hours into a colony capable of | | | | Anti-bacterial soap is most effective in maintain |
| causing fatal food poisoning in children, the elderly, | | | | standards of personal hygiene and it is essential that |
| pregnant women or people who are already ill. Not all | | | | you wash under your nails, as this is where the |
| bacterial food poisoning is obvious within a few hours | | | | majority of dirt on hands accumulates. Also remember |
| either; in some cases the bacteria continue to multiply | | | | not to dry your hands on dirty towels or dish-cloths, as |
| inside the victim’s digestive system for days | | | | this will defeat the point of washing them in the first |
| before illness occurs, at which point the food poisoning | | | | place! People who are ill should not come into contact |
| can be exceptionally serious. | | | | with food whatsoever. |
| Maintaining high standards of food hygiene is | | | | When cooking food, care should be taken to ensure |
| imperative if we are to avoid unnecessary deaths and | | | | the food is cooked thoroughly and properly; all meat |
| illness in tens of thousands of people every year. It | | | | juices should run clear and there should be no pink |
| doesn’t take radical changes to make a | | | | meat inside pork or poultry. Food should always be |
| difference; merely ensuring all employees attend a | | | | piping the whole way through before being served and |
| food hygiene training course, for example, is not only a | | | | never re-heated more than once. Vulnerable people |
| legal requirement for food businesses, but will also | | | | should not be given partly-cooked foods; runny eggs, |
| bolster business — as the Safer Food, Better | | | | for example, contain harmful salmonella bacteria that |
| Business campaign is striving to make apparent. Within | | | | can be lethal! |
| the home, some simple changes to the way we store, | | | | By taking simple steps to further improve food |
| prepare and cook food will help keep friends and | | | | hygiene, we can reduce the number of people who fall |
| family safe — especially those who are | | | | ill and die from food poisoning every year. |
| particularly vulnerable. | | | | |