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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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