Food safety – be prepared
Australian Food Safety Week 2021 will be held from 13 to 20 November 2021.
As part of Australian Food Safety Week, which will be held from 13 to20 November 2021, [Name] from [Organisation] today urged local consumers to reduce their risk of food poisoning by being prepared.
‘This year’s theme ‘Food safety – be prepared’ is aimed at building resilience in the community, especially after disasters, by setting up a basic food safety toolkit and encouraging public engagement with food safety courses,’ [Name} said.
‘In addition to COVID-19, we have had increasing numbers of other natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and major power outages. We want our community to be prepared for these with a simple food safety toolbox that you can put together in advance and use in these 4 simple stages:
Buy thermometers. Next time you are at the shops, or shop online, purchase a fridge thermometer and a cooking/meat thermometer which are available from kitchenware, hardware and BBQ/outdoor stores. They can cost as little as $15 for dial thermometers or you can get more accurate digital thermometers.
Check your fridge temperature. Use your fridge thermometer to check your fridge is running at 5°C or below to stop the growth of most food poisoning bacteria and reduce food waste. ‘Use buy’ dates on refrigerated food only apply if your fridge is running at or below this temperature. Place the thermometer on a lower shelf where you can easily read it. When checking temperature do not keep the fridge door open too long as you are measuring air temperature.
Use your cooking/meat thermometer. It won’t do any good if your thermometer never leaves your kitchen drawer! Use it to check that high risk foods such as poultry, mince, sausages, hamburger patties, liver, leftovers and rolled roasts reach at least 75°C in the centre. Egg dishes need to be at least 72 °C in the centre (or until the white is firm and the yolk thickens).
Take a food safety course. We would love to see everyone in the community take a basic food safety course and learn more about food safety. This will help keep you and your family safer and open up job opportunities for you as food handlers in cafes and restaurants or in the child care, aged care and disability sectors. You will also need these food safety skills if you want to develop your newly developed culinary skills into a business, help at the school canteen or even run a community sausage sizzle find out more
Learn more about food safety and test your knowledge and take the food safety quiz on the Food Safety Information Council website www.foodsafety.asn.au ,’ [Name] concluded.
[INSERT paragraph/s involving local issues if appropriate and/what events are occurring locally during Food Safety Week]
Media Contacts:
[ADD LOCAL CONTACT DETAILS]
or Lydia Buchtmann, Food Safety Information Council, 0407 626 688
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