Summer Food Safety

Friday, 11 July 2014 at 05:23

Oxford Public Health offer tips on how to keep yourself safe when it comes to preparing/cooking your food this summer.

OXFORD COUNTY -- Summertime brings barbecues, picnics and camping trips for many families and Oxford Public Health want to ensure you and your family are safe when it comes to prepping, cooking and storing your foods.

Public Health Inspector Allison McIntosh says there are four simple tips to follow; clean, separate, chill and cook. "So you want to clean your hands and surfaces often. You want to wash fruits and vegetables using water from a safe water source. You want to separate your foods so avoiding cross contamination, this is in storage of foods so in your coolers and also when you are handling the food, you want to keep meats and things separate from fruits and vegetables."

Chilling your food is important as McInstosh points out, "because it's hotter in the summer so if you're storing food outside you want to make sure that you're storing it in a cooler with lots of ice packs or ice, keeping it out of the sunlight. Also making sure that you can dedicate one cooler for your drinks, one for your food because you know that you're going to be opening the cooler with the drinks far more frequently."

McIntosh also highlights some important tips when firing up the barbecue. "When you bring the food to the barbecue, you want to make sure that once you've cooked the food you're not putting it back on to the same plate that you brought the raw food out on with. Another thing to keep in mind is don't use just colour change as an indicator that the food is done, you want to use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the food to make sure you've heated thoroughly so that you've reached a safe internal temperature for eating it."

According to Oxford Public Health, foodborne illness is the largest class of emerging infectious diseases.

Health Canada estimates that there are 2 million cases of foodborne illnesses in Canada each year and most cases are a result of improper food handling and preparation by the consumer

Click here for more information on food safety at home.