Food Storage Tips

Handling Food & Foodborne Diseases

by Dr. Deryck Pattron

Handling food is positively correlated with the risk of food borne diseases. This means that foods handled under unsanitary conditions and under inappropriate conditions of temperature and time tend to spoil faster and pose an ever increasing health risk to consumers and the general public. It therefore important that safe food handling practices be adopted and implemented so as to prevent, reduce and eliminate pain and unwarranted suffering and the economic burden of food bone diseases. Food handling safety practices must adopt a “farm to fork” approach to ensure safety of the entire food chain thereby ensuring public health safety. The following tips are provided for handling food safely in order to prevent or reduce the incidence of food borne diseases.
Taking food home safely • Do not keep chilled or frozen food for more than 45 minutes in a hot car. Use a cooler or ice pack for these foods. • Raw meat should be packed in a separate bag from other foods to prevent leakage and contamination of other foods.

Storing food safely • Keep foods in airtight containers. • Keep foods covered. • Keep shelves clean and sanitary. • Temperature in fridge should be between 2 and 4 °C. • Leftover hot food should be placed in the fridge as soon it has stopped steaming and used within 2 days. Beyond 2 days, throw it out. • Only freeze fresh good quality foods. • Only freeze small amounts of food at a time to avoid uneven freezing in the middle. • Freezing temperatures should be between -15 °C to -18 °C.

Hand hygiene key to preventing cross contamination of food • Wash hand thoroughly with plenty of soap and water for 20 seconds or more and dry with clean paper towel for 20 seconds. • Wash and dry hands: before and after preparation of food, after handling raw meat, after going to the toilet, after touching parts of the body, after touching animals or pets, after gardening, after handling rubbish and whenever the need arises. • Pathogens often transmitted by food contaminated by infected persons include: Calicivirus, Hepatitis A virus, Salmonella Typhi, Shigella species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus pyogenes. • Pathogens occasionally transmitted by food contaminated by infected persons include: Campylobacter jejuni, Cryptosporidium parvum, Entamoebia Histolytica, Escherichia Coli, Giardia lambia, Salmonella, Taenia Solium, Vibrio cholerae and Yersina entercolitica.

Food safety in the kitchen • Always use clean utensils when preparing food. • Use separate chopping boards for raw and foods to be cooked. • Avoid coughing or sneezing over food. • Do not allow pets near food. • Cover food to protect from flies and insects. • Infected persons should not prepare food.

Cooking food safely • Never thaw frozen food at room temperature. Frozen foods should be thawed in the fridge overnight. • Preheat oven so food cooks as quickly as possible. • Make sure that food is cooked and steaming hot right through to the middle. • Eggs should be well done. • Vegetables should be washed thoroughly before cooking. • Eat cook food immediately while it is still hot, do not leave it to stand at room temperature.




Dr. Deryck Pattron may be contacted at N/A ddpattron@tstt.net.tt. Click here to view more of their articles.
Dr Deryck D. Pattron is a Public Health scientist and specialist in Management in the Ministry of Health, Trinidad.

posted by Donna Loudon @ 12:13 PM