Green Food Safety Coach Blog GMP and Hygiene
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Last 4 tweets from GreenFoodSafety:
As it is the Festive Season I have done an article summarising some of the key things that we can do at home and at parties to not give food poisoning as an unintended present this year.
The list is based on the Food Safety Information Council’s main theme of Cook, Chill, Clean and Separate.
The 15 October is Global Handwashing Day.
This is a day set aside to recognise the absolute importance of proper hand washing in preventing food poisoning.
If everyone just washes their hands when required, and do it properly, we would significantly reduce the approximately 5.4 million cases of food poisoning every year in Australia.
The Food Safety Information Council recommends the 20/20 Rule as the best method for washing hands. Go to www.foodsafety.asn.au
Friday’s Green Tip – when washing hands, turn off the water when rubbing the soap over the hands and arms for 20seconds. You will be amazed how much water goes down the drain in those 20 seconds, especially if you multiple that by the number of times each person washing their hands in a day and then by how many staff you have. This is particularly important as the water should be warm to hot, so you also have to include the heating of that water in the overall cost.
This is a simple way to save money and help the environment.
Every little bit helps.
Steggles has just done a study and found that 3/4 of the people surveyed still believe that hormones and steroids are used when producing meat chickens.
Having worked in the poultry industry for five years doing product development, I can confirm that hormones and steroids are absolutely not given to these chickens at all. This has not been done for around 50 years now.
It is another food myth.
To get the chickens to grow to the level required, the producers use a very carefully balanced and controlled diet with just the right amount of protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients.
Over the years, the companies have had time to get the diet balanced to get the maximum growth and best health. They do not need to add hormones or steroids to achieve this, so these are not used at all.
The companies do use antibiotics however, to keep the birds healthy and free of infections. This is important to reduce the number of deaths in the shed and produce the maximum number of birds.
There is evidence that this practice is creating problems, with some bacteria developing immunity to the antibiotics used. The companies are, therefore, very busy working out alternative methods which will not harm the birds, to control bacteria and potential infections.
I have had the flu the last couple of days and being committed to be at a client’s business to running training today, it got me thinking about the perennial question of what to do with staff that are sick. Do you send them home or do you let them stay and put them away from all foods and food contact areas?
All food businesses should have a procedure for this situation and a record to show what happened. It can be a tough call for an employer, especially if the staff member needs the money. Any thoughts are welcome.
