Food Advice For The Home
The following should be followed to ensure food is safe around the home:
Purchasing Food
Ø Purchase food from a reputable supplier
Ø All food purchased should be used within its ‘use by’ date or ‘best before’ date
Transporting
Ø Take food straight home once purchased. Particularly high risk foods such as meat or dairy products should not be sitting in the car for a number of hours especially in warm days to prevent multiplication of food poisoning bacteria.
Refrigeration
Ø High risk food should be stored in the refrigerator (temperature between 1-8ºc)
Ø Frozen food should be stored at temperature at or below -18ºc
Ø Keep food in fridge covered
Ø Store raw meat, poultry and fish in sealed containers on the bottom shelf of your fridge. This will prevent spread of harmful germs.
Ø Thaw frozen meat, poultry or fish in your fridge on the bottom shelf
Ø Ready to eat foods such as dairy products, cooked meats, leftovers and other packaged foods should be kept covered on shelves above raw meat.
Ø Throw out foods passed its ‘use by date’
Ø Regularly clean inside and outside of your fridge
Ø Store leftovers in covered containers in your fridge and eat within two or three days
Ø Don’t put hot food in the fridge, let it cool first
Ø Don’t over load your fridge. Overloading prevents the circulation of cool air which means that food is not kept cold enough
Wash your hands
Washing your hands is one of the simplest ways to prevent spread of germs and to stop the cause of food poisoning. You should wash your hands before eating, after going to the toilet and touching raw meat or animals.
Preparation
Care should be taken during preparation to ensure cross contamination between uncooked (raw) and cooked foods does not occur, where possible, separate chopping boards and knives should be used for each. Where this is not possible it should be ensured that both chopping boards and knives are cleaned thoroughly between handling each type of food.
Cooking
Centre of any high risk foods should be thoroughly cooked through and reach to a temperature of at least 75ºc.
Burgers and other cuts of meat should be cooked until they are no longer pink on the inside and juices run clear.
Serving
Hot food should be served as quickly as possible once cooked to prevent them cooling down and allowing growth of food poisoning bacteria.
Cold service foods should be served as quickly as possible after removing them from the refrigerator to prevent them getting warm and allowing the growth of food poisoning bacteria.
For further information you can download leaflets from the Food Standards Agency website:
