Foodflowadvisers's Blog

Many incidents of food poisoning do not actually happen in commercial restaurants, hotels or events in fact they happen at home.

Why you might ask?  Well there are many reasons

• Lack of knowledge by people preparing food
• Lack of interest by people preparing food
• Lack of Knowledge by those eating the food

Many people buy food in their supermarket or even at country markets and then store foods at ambient temperatures for extended periods while they go about their other chores.  They mix foods in shopping baskets and boxes with little regard to possible contamination of the foods.  People with a food allergy sufferer in the family are usually much more careful as they have to be.

When arriving home foods are often not stored properly or may even be kept for periods in excess of their best before or use by dates. 

Whilst poreparing foods people are often careless with their personal hygiene and may not know the dangers of cross contamination.

Diners in our homes especially kids must be taught the importance of handwashing before dining.  This may be after handling a pet in the house , after daily chores, After visiting the WC or after numerous other activities.

Many of these things are easily rectified.  Here are 1o simple rules to food safety.

1. Buy foods last thing before you are going to return home, reduce the amount of time that food is in the car.
2. Keep raw and cooked foods segregated, remember the outside of chicken packaging has been found to contain Camplyobacter
3. Once home place perishable foods in a fridge at or below 5degrees celcius or in the deep freezer at or below-18 degrees celcius.
4. Segregate different types of food to help prevent cross contamination
5. Wash everything but especially your hands
6. Cook pork, poultry, minced meat and preformed meats until the juices run clear( above 75 degrees celcius)
7. Do not leave food hanging around at room temperature for extended periods, a simple rule of thumb is to eat hot food piping hot and to eat cold foods well chilled.
8. If you have food left over after a meal cool it quickly and store it in the fridge
9. Do not keep left overs for more than 2 days
10. Get all diners to wash their hands too!

Enjoy your meal in safety!

Bar-be-que time can be dangerous and result in food poisoning if the correct precautions are not taken.  Follow these few simple steps to stay safe

1. Clean,clean clean, If the bar be que hasn’t been used for a while anything could be on it
2. Wash your hands
3. Handle all foods with seperate utensils.
4. Keep raw and cooked foods segregated.
5. Keep all salads etc cold until use, ideally below 5 degrees C
6. Cook on a medium heat,that way the food will cook all the way through.
7. Cook all poultry and minced meat items well done, until the juices run clear

Enjoy the day

In a world where food poisoning causes illness to literally millions of people worldwide a simple tool like an insertion probe can help people ensure that their meat is cooked enough to kill pathogenic microorganismslike salmonella. see my video instructions of how to use an insertion probe on www.foodflow.ie or click below.  Let e know how you got on. Cheers  and keep safe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdSK0If4WAk

Hello all ,

just wondering if there are any people outhere who have stories to tell about being food poisoned.  Food poisoning is a major worry for all caterers and it is sometimes good for them to hear actual accounts from people who have experienced food poisoning.  Questions often asked was it really food poisoning or something else.  How do you know it was definately food poisoning and How did you get through it.  Don’t mention the premises for fear of libel .