Territorians are being urged to make home food safety a top priority all year round. This is the message of Australian Food Safety Week, 9-15 November.
With an estimated one in every five cases of food poisoning in the NT due to poor hygiene and below-standard food handling and storage in the home, it is vital to apply the rules of food safety to avoid getting sick from spoiled food.
"Australian Food Safety Week is a good opportunity to focus on basic food safety while food shopping, cooking at home, packing lunches or enjoying the outdoors with barbeques or picnics," said Ms Tracy Ward from the Environmental Health Branch of the NT Department of Health and Families.
"We need to be vigilant about food safety every day. There are 14, 800 cases of food poisoning in Australia each day, and about 120 people actually die from food poisoning each year. Those numbers illustrate the scope and severity of the problem, particularly since many cases are neither diagnosed nor reported.
"It's easy to avoid food poisoning. Ensure your hands, knives, chopping board and kitchen are clean. Make sure that raw juices from meat and chicken don't come in contact with food that won't be cooked again. And keep food refrigerated at or below 5 degrees Celsius until you are ready to consume it," advised Ms Ward.
Further information on food poisoning:
·food poisoning can still come from foods which look, smell and taste okay
·young children are at greater risk of getting seriously ill from food poisoning than older children or adults
·a dishcloth generally contains the most bacteria in the kitchen
·food poisoning does not always come from the last meal you have eaten before you got sick. One common type of food poisoning takes between 2-5 days to produce symptoms
·common symptoms of food poisoning include-but are not limited to-nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
For more information call the Food Safety Hotline on 1800 095 646 or go to www.health.nt.gov.au/Environmental_Health/Food_Safety or www.foodsafety.asn.au
Release date: 11 November 2009
