Safe Food Handling
Every year millions of people around the
world die of food poisoning. Two thirds of children who die each
year from diarrhoea do so as a result of eating contaminated
food.
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| Five Simple Rules to Avoid Food
Poisoning
Food poisoning is very common. While the number of
deaths attributed to food poisoning is very small, it is
responsible for a great deal of discomfort which can be easily
avoided by following these simple rules:
- Cook Foods Properly. Meats should reach at
least 75o C to kill
E. Coli and most other bacteria. Reheat cooked food to
75o C for the same
reason.
- Keep Cooked and Raw Foods away from each other. This means
don't chop food which isn't going to be cooked on a chopping board
that has already been used to chop raw meat. Once raw meat has been
chopped, you then must thoroughly wash your hands, the chopping
board and the knife.
- Wash Hands Thoroughly. Our skin has a bacterium called
staphylococcus aureus living on it, so hands must be washed
thoroughly before handling food.
- Store Food at the Right Temperature. Prepared food needs to be
kept at the correct temperature i.e. over 60o C or below 5o C. Anything in between will let
food-poisoning bacteria multiply rapidly.
- Follow instructions closely when cooking frozen, pre-pared food
to kill off the bacteria. Increases in salmonella poisoning have
been traced to people undercooking their "heat and serve" frozen
dinners.
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