Hart promotes home food hygiene

Date: 4 December 2006

In an attempt to combat food poisoning at Christmas, officers from Hart Council’s Environmental Health Department are holding a food safety competition.

To be staged in Hart Shopping centre on December 20, over £450-worth of prizes, including wine and a cut and blow dry, will be on offer to shoppers stopping taking part in the team’s food safety quiz.

The decision to promote food hygiene for the Festive period, follows the publication of figures by the Food Standards Agency showing that almost all poultry-related food poisoning is reported in December.

Preparing the campaign, Hart’s Food Safety Officer, Louise Sayce, said: "Through this campaign we’re providing people with information which we hope will promote home food hygiene. We thought it would be rather fun to promote food safety with a festive competition.”

Focusing on a Yule Tide theme, Louise said that when cooking at Christmas people should remember the Food and Drink Federation’s 12 Tips for Christmas, which include:

1. Giving your fridge and freezer a good clean.
2. Not over-stocking your fridge or freezer.
3. Washing your hands frequently when handling food.
4. Ensuring that frozen poultry is always properly thawed before cooking.
5. There is no need to wash your turkey.
6. Wash or use of separate chopping boards and utensils to avoid cross-contamination between raw meats
7. Ideally cook your stuffing separately.
8. Poultry, sausages and chopped and minced meat must always be thoroughly cooked.
9. Don’t use raw eggs in food that will not be cooked.
10. Always serve hot food piping hot.
11. Don’t leave leftovers lying around.
12. Avoid re-heating food more than once.

Editor’s notes

Stores that have donated prizes include Cargo, Waitrose, The Fragrance Shop, Toni & Guy, Regis, Argos, Boots, Secret Garden.