'C' sense in the kitchen with the four Cs of food hygiene

ENVIRONMENTAL Health Officers have asked people to make sure they "C" sense in the kitchen - to avoid becoming a food poisoning statistic.

Food Safety Week, which runs from June 9 to June 13, is concentrating on the four Cs of food hygiene - Cooking, Cleaning, Chilling and avoiding Cross-Contamination.

And Steve Mercer, North East Lincolnshire Council's environmental health manager, said: "The food we eat has never been so safe - but there are still more than 5.5million reported cases of food poisoning each year.

"This campaign encourages people to see the potential dangers in their cooking spaces to avoid becoming a food poisoning statistic."

As a phrase, "food poisoning" includes an endless range of infections, some of which may be only very mild in their effects and some can prove fatal. The vast majority will last several days, cause diarrhoea and vomiting and can be, at least inconvenient and at worst highly debilitating.

There are undoubtedly a wide range of causes of food poisoning, but it is probably true to say that the most dangerous place for food poisoning is under our direct control - our own kitchens!

Mr Mercer added: "Contrast your own kitchen with your favourite restaurant. If you saw cats or dogs in the restaurant, would you eat there? If you saw the proprietor washing his smalls in the kitchen would you leave immediately?

"Would you expect to have efficient refrigerators and freezers and to know their temperatures, or for them to know how long they stored prepared food?

"These are all reasonable presumptions and are legal requirements in a commercial environment, but they are generally not carried out in the home, yet this is where we consume most of our meals."

Mr Mercer offered some appropriate food safety tips to keep your home as a hygienic haven. These include:

• Washing your hands before preparing food, after using the toilet, eating or smoking, handling raw meat, poultry and vegetables and after going to the bin
• Keep the temperatures of refrigerators at 4-5oc. Any colder and you are wasting electricity, any warmer and you will allow bugs to grow and your food to spoil much more quickly.
• Keep frozen food at -18oc, the same principles apply.
• Know what the temperatures really are in your refrigerator, not just what the dial tells you. Invest in a simple refrigerator thermometer and try it on different shelves, you might be surprised at the differences
• Keep all open food covered, ideally in lidded plastic containers. Not only does this prevent contamination, it will also help preserve the food quality
• Try to make a note of the "use-by" dates on opened packs and transfer them to the lidded container, use a purpose-designed marker or sticky labels.
• Keep raw food, meat poultry eggs and vegetables on the bottom shelves. That way any leakage or spillages cannot drip onto and contaminate ready-to-eat items with harmful bugs
• Your refrigerator can only work efficiently if the air inside can circulate, so try not to overfill and leave space between items to allow the cold air to do its work
• Most commercial caterers also know how hot their food is, ensuring they have killed any germs that will have been present in the raw food -- can you say the same thing?

Finally, Mr Mercer had some words of advice about having pets in the kitchen. He said: "We know they are part of the family and you would not want to make the kitchen a complete "no go" area for a kitty or pooch. But under no circumstances should we allow them on the work surface. They are not particular about cleaning their feet - would you put your own shoes on the counter before you prepared food?"

And he also advised people to: keep food and water bowls scrupulously clean for their welfare, but never mix them with your own plates and crockery; after handling your pets is another good time to wash hands if you want to avoid the risk of a nasty bout of gastro-enteritis.

Councillor Steve Beasant, portfolio holder for communities and neighbourhoods, said: "There are plenty of measures we can all take to ensure our homes are hygienically sound. Food Safety Week puts the spotlight on what we can all do to ensure cleanliness in the home and put a serious dent in these alarming food poisoning statistics."

If any of these issues give you cause for thought, then don't hesitate to contact the environmental health department on 01472 324770