6. TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

CHAIR: Trish Desmarchelier

6.1.  2017-18 GOALS

GOAL 1. Provide technical support for the Council in collaboration with the Communication Committee in a timely manner through the year.

GOAL 2. Review key food safety messages for Australian consumers promoted by the Council by investigating evidence of key factors contributing to foodborne illness in Australia when consumers prepare food at home or eat out and recommend improvements where warranted.

GOAL 3. Explore how achieving consumer behavioural change is addressed in our activities and how this might be further exploited to enhance the effective uptake of our technical and science-based food safety messages with input from social science disciplines.

6.2.  REPORT

GOAL 1. Technical input provided for media releases, Food Safety Week, and consumer inquiries as requested. The list of media releases and details of Food Safety week have been listed in the Communications Committee Report above and not repeated here. Other requests for information from consumers were wide-ranging from safety of specific foods (e.g. turtle meat and mouldy refrigerated food), to personal hygiene and kitchen hygiene practices and food storage.

GOAL 2. A watching brief was kept on reports of foodborne illness in Australia and internationally to ensure the Council’s key food safety messages for consumers are evidence based and related to local epidemiological information on foodborne illness and addressing factors contributing to foodborne illness in domestic settings versus food service and industry. There is an extensive range of information on the website this was considered to provide adequate coverage.

GOAL 3. This review was not undertaken. News and reports of approaches to information dissemination among consumers from other countries and agencies was shared regularly. Persons with specialist expertise may be required to explore this area.

6.3.  2018-19 GOALS

GOAL 1. Provide technical support for the Council in collaboration with the Communication Committee in a timely manner through the year.

GOAL 2. Ongoing review key food safety messages for Australian consumers promoted by the Council by keeping a watching brief on evidence of key factors contributing to foodborne illness in Australia when consumers prepare food at home or eat out and recommend improvements where warranted.

GOAL 3. Prepare technical information on new or changing food safety issues as they arise.

Table of contents             Previous section                             Next section