Food safety

Not true. Floors are more often than not contaminated with harmful bacteria that will immediately attach to food. Food that drops to the floor should not be eaten or mixed in with other foods to be eaten at a later time.

You should not eat mouldy food. Visible mould is usually an indicator that the food is more thoroughly contaminated. Fungi, bacteria and toxins can be present in areas of the food that are not visible, so what looks like a small area of contamination could be much larger.

The peeling process will expose fresh produce to cross contamination by transferring chemicals and harmful bacteria to the edible, internal layers of the food.

Soil particles and dirt contain contaminants and are often found on fresh produce. It is important to thoroughly wash fruit and vegetables before and after peeling.

Food does not need to look, smell or taste bad to be contaminated and cause food poisoning. This can be due to the ability of some bacteria to produce harmful toxins in the food.

This is only partly true. Some bacteria produce spores and toxins that are not destroyed by cooking, increasing their ability to cause foodborne illness. Good food safety handling practices can minimise the risk.

Not true. If too hot, food has the potential to raise the temperature of some or even all the food in the fridge, creating an environment where food poisoning bacteria can grow. After cooking food, let it cool on the bench until it has stopped steaming before placing it into the fridge. But remember not to leave the food on the bench for too long.

Larger quantities of food can remain too hot to refrigerate even once it has stopped steaming. To help large quantities of food rapidly cool you may have to portion the food and place it into multiple shallow trays or containers.

Food poisoning bacteria can multiply to dangerous levels when left at room temperature for too long, plan to have large quantities of food cool enough to put in the fridge within 1 hour of cooking.

You would likely not know. Many food poisoning incidents go under reported or unreported. Each year in Australia, it is estimated there are 5.4 million cases of food borne illness, 18,000 hospital admissions and 120 deaths with a cost to the economy of approximately $1.2 billion. (Source: OZ Food Net, Department of Health and Ageing).

While this may be true on some occasions, there are times when food poisoning can result in longterm conditions such as kidney failure, meningitis, stillbirths, GuillainBarre Syndrome and hemorrhagic colitis.

Diarrhoea, headache, vomiting and dehydration are the more common symptoms generally associated with food poisoning.

Keep potentially hazardous food cold to prevent the growth of food poisoning bacteria. Potentially hazardous food includes dairy, meats, poultry, seafood, cut fruit and vegetables; or dishes containing egg, beans, nuts, cooked rice, cooked pasta or other protein rich foods.

• Plan ahead to ensure that you have enough space within the fridge and freezer to keep larger amounts of potentially hazardous food cold, so it is not left out on the bench.
• Overcrowding your fridge limits cold air circulating around food, reducing your fridge’s ability to keep food cold. Use an esky to store items that don’t need to be in the fridge, including some types of drinks, vegetables and bottled water. 
• Completely thaw frozen foods like meats, seafood and poultry before cooking. Thaw food on a tray on the bottom shelf of the fridge, to prevent juice dripping on cooked or ready to eat foods. A turkey can take up to three days to defrost in the fridge, so you must plan ahead.

Leftovers let you continue enjoying the holiday meal without all the fuss of cooking and food preparation. Follow a few simple rules to make sure your leftovers are safe to eat.

• Leftovers can be refrigerated safely for 3 days, while frozen leftovers can be kept safely for up to 1 month.
• Once frozen leftovers have been defrosted, they should not be frozen again.
• Leftovers should only be reheated once and then thrown out if not eaten. Make sure you portion leftover so they don’t end up back in the fridge.
• Ensure that leftovers are steaming hot all the way through when reheated. You may need to stir or mix food when reheating, to make sure there are no cold spots for food poisoning bacteria to hide.
• Cool food and place it into the refrigerator within 2 hours of cooking, to safely keep food as leftovers.

Cooking kills food poisoning bacteria naturally present in many foods.

• Make sure you cook food thoroughly to kill food poisoning bacteria. The colour change food undergoes during cooking is not a reliable way to judge if food is properly cooked, put a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the food to ensure the core temperature has reached 75 degrees Celsius.

Food poisoning bacteria can easily transfer from raw food to cooked or ready to eat foods (bacterial cross-contamination).

• Use separate cutting boards for raw and cooked or ready to eat foods.
• Wash your hands thoroughly between handling raw and cooked or ready to eat foods. Use soap and water; lather your hands for 20 seconds (sing happy birthday twice) before rinsing and drying.
• Store raw foods like meats, seafood and poultry in a tray on the bottom shelf of the fridge, to prevent juice dripping on cooked or ready to eat food.

Keep your kitchen and equipment clean.

• Wash food-contact surfaces (cutting boards, dishes, utensils, counter tops) after preparing each food item and before going to the next.
• Rinse fruit and vegetables thoroughly under running water and use a produce brush to remove surface dirt.
• Do not rinse raw meat and poultry before cooking. Washing these foods makes it more likely for bacteria to spread to areas around the sink and counter tops.