Warning to wash away food bugs

OLDHAMERS are being urged to follow simple food hygiene steps after figures revealed the borough had the second highest number of food poisoning cases across Greater Manchester last year.

Laboratory-confirmed cases in Oldham topped 332 in 2009, beaten only by Manchester, which had 476 cases.

In the North-West, 8,335 cases were confirmed, with most caused by the salmonella and campylobacter bacteria, with increased numbers in the summer months (June to September).

It has been estimated that infectious diseases cost the NHS £6 billion per year and account for 35 per cent of visits to GP surgeries.

Up to one million cases of food-borne illness are reported each year in the UK, approximately 20,000 people are hospitalised and 500 die from these diseases.

However, food-borne infections can be avoided if people follow simple rules for the safe storage, preparation and cooking of food.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is supporting the Food Standards Agency’s Food Safety Week (June 7-13).

Professor Eric Bolton, chairman of the HPA’s Gastro-Intestinal Diseases Programme Board, said: “Good food is one of life’s great pleasures, but a bout of food poisoning can be a nightmare.

“If everyone, food workers and consumers, washed their hands thoroughly after going to the toilet, before and after handling food and before eating we would see massive reductions in campylobacter, salmonella, norovirus infection and a range of other unpleasant food-borne infections.”

Dr Ken Lamden, HPA North-West’s regional lead for gastro-intestinal diseases, said: “Our goal for Food Safety Week is to give people the information they need to safely store, prepare, cook and enjoy food, whether in the home or outside at a barbecue or picnic.”

For more information on Food Safety Week, log on to www.food.gov.uk/fsw2010 .


::Do not keep food in the fridge for too long and heed the use-by guidance.

::Check fridges regularly and maintain them at temperatures lower than 5C. Home freezers should be no warmer than -18C .

::Store cooked and raw meat products separately in the fridge with cooked meats on a higher shelf than uncooked meats.

::Ensure that meat and poultry are thoroughly defrosted before cooking.

::Consume food within four hours of its removal from chilled storage.

::Use separate knives and chopping boards for preparing raw and cooked products.