Food
Food must be safe to eat and prepared in a clean and hygienic
manner.
The Council carries out a number of activities to ensure that
food manufactured, prepared, processed, displayed and sold within
Broxbourne is safe to eat:
National Food Safety Week
This year Food Safety Week was 11 -17th June
2012
Test your knowledge and put paid to those old food myths
with our quiz
There are over a million cases of food poisoning each year,
20,000 hospitalisations and 500 deaths. This costs the economy £1.5
billion each year!
Do you understand the "use by" and best before"
dates?
Broxbourne Council environmental health officers will be
supporting the National Food Standards Agency theme which reminds
people what these dates mean as fingures show 81% of people thought
that prices had increased over the last 12 months and that 17%
reported eating fewer takeaways with 21% reported eating out
less.
- Use by dates appear on foods that go off quickly. It can be
dangerous to eat food past this date, though it might look and
smell fine.
- Check the use by dates on the food in your fridge on a regular
basis and be sure to use (eat, cook or freeze) food before its use
by to help you avoid throwing food away unnecessaryily
- You can freeze food anytime up until the use by date. Check the
packaging to make sure it's suitable for freezing
- Once food with a use by date has been opened, follow any
storage instructions such as eat within 3 days of opening, but not
if the use by date is tomorrow.
- Best before dates appear on food with a longer shelf life. They
show how long the food will be at it's best quality.Using food
after the best before doesn't mean it will be unsafe. The exception
to this is eggs, providing they are cooked thoroughly, they can be
eaten a day or two after their "best before" date.
- Using left overs safelt - eating leftovers can be a good way of
making food go further. If you are going to store leftovers in the
fridge, cool them as quickly as possible (Ideally within 90
minutes) cover them and eat them up within two days.
For further information please look on the Food Standards
Agency's pages or www.facebook.com/foodsafetyweek
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Food businesses advised to use properly cooked eggs
Following an outbreak of salmonella poisoning connected to
Spanish eggs, the Borough of Broxbourne is repeating its
advice to caterers that only properly cooked or pasteurised egg
should be used.
The initial findings of an investigation by environmental health
officers have linked the outbreak to a cafe in west London, where
at least five people had eaten before being taken ill.
Spanish eggs from the premises were found to be contaminated
with two strains of Salmonella Enteritidis, both of which were
found in people taken ill.
The Council would like to emphasise the need for good
hygiene practice in the handling and use of eggs on catering
premises. It has long been known that some eggs may be contaminated
with the salmonella food poisoning bug.
Proper cooking of the egg will kill the bug.
If at all possible food businesses should use pasteurised egg,
rather than ordinary egg, in products that will not be cooked or
only lightly cooked before eating, as pasteurisation kills harmful
bacteria such as salmonella. In kitchens and food preparation areas
where ordinary eggs are being used, good food hygiene practices are
important to avoid the risk of cross-contamination.
More information on the safe use of eggs in catering
establishments can be seen by visiting the Food Standards Agency's
website.
Please contact the environmental health section on 01992
785511 for further information or email the Council on
envhealth@broxbourne.gov.uk