Green Food Safety Coach Blog March 2010
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Last 4 tweets from GreenFoodSafety:
Am off to a seminar to learn about just some of the government grants and incentives that are available to encourage businesses as they go green.
With this encouragement and the money savings why aren’t all businesses going green?
Queensland already requires that all eggs sold must have a mark that clearly identifies the processor of those eggs. This allows health authorities to be able to easily trace where those eggs have come from if there is a problem.
The new Egg Primary Production Standard (Std 4.2.5) will also require the stamping of eggs across the whole country. This standard is expected to become law as of September 2010 and there will be up to a two year introduction period to allow egg processors and producers to put the new requirements into place.
There will be a lot of promotion around then and it will include something about stamped eggs being good eggs and not stamped being bad.
Businesses and consumers should therefore only be buying stamped eggs – even now in Queensland.
Am off to Canberra tomorrow for the next meeting of the Egg Standards Development Committee. The process has taken nearly two years and we are now at the final stages. The committee has members from governments to industry groups and consumers, so it has a broad perspective.
Everyone can have a say with new standards by going to www.foodstandards.gov.au and signing up for the free regular, so you can stay in touch with proposed changes to food laws and the review periods for each of these. We can all make a difference.
If you can see a crumb or bit of food after cleaning, then there is a risk of cross contamination from either food poisoning bacteria or food allergens. To ensure there is no cross contamination risk due to cleaning, the minimum standard is visibly clean. This means there is no visual trace of food of any type or size in both the places you can see and those you can’t (eg; underneath the shelf) after cleaning has been completed.
It is worth remembering that sanitising kills bacteria but has relatively little effect on the food allergens. Heat has a significant impact on bacteria but will not cause a food to be less allergenic. Therefore having a surface visibly clean is a vital allergen control.
These are special people who give their time freely to help others. If they do so in a group or business that provides food, they are considered to be food handlers, just like any paid staff.
The Food Standards Code requires all food handlers to have the required food safety skills and knowledge to do their job. This means that volunteers must also meet this requirement. Training is, therefore, going to be required for them as well.
