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Food Handling and the Summer Risks

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Food Handling and the Summer Risks

Over the summer months the risk of suffering the effects of food poisoning increase; this is generally the result of careless food handling.

This may be due to cross contamination from one food type to another, bacteria contamination as a result of poor personal hygiene of those handling our food and or animal contact with our food. The results of this may be serious or just a minor tummy upset.

Some things to bear in mind over the warm summer months are:

  • Keep work surfaces clean.
  • It is a good idea to give the BBQ surfaces a good clean up and heat the burners and grates well before the first BBQ of the season.
  • BBQ tools are another risk as we very often handle cooked, partially cooked and raw meat as we BBQ. If the tips of the tools are exposed to the flame and heated well between the handling operations this will reduce much of the risk.
  • It’s a good idea to minimise the time food is out of the fridge as bacteria grow rapidly in summer temperatures.
  • A little something to jog the memory and keep us aware of the risks; clean, cook, cover and chill.
  • When eating out at friends or restaurants it is a good idea to keep an eye on food handling and general hygiene, if you are not happy with a dish send it back or don’t eat it; so many times our early warning system tells us there is a risk which we ignore and suffer the consequences.

This happened to us on a trip to the tropics at a restaurant, probably as a result of reheated food.

We at Silberhorn have a very formal food safety programme to MPI standards so there is no risk from our products; a risk may develop once the bottle has been opened. Avoid skin contact with capsules until they are to be consumed; a useful practice is to pour the capsules required each time from the bottle into the lid before taking them.

Many of our pack sizes will last a month or more so it is important to be careful not to contaminate the capsules. Store them in a cool dry place below 30° away from direct sunlight exposure, especially important when storing emu oil as it contains no preservatives.