Food Safety Week 2017

Safe summer eating - Food Safety Week 

Don’t let a warm fridge or undercooked burger give you a dose of summer food poisoning.

Staff from the council’s food safety team will be at Brighton’s Jubilee Library in Jubilee Street during Food Safety Week (19 June to 25 June) to give advice and information about safe barbecuing and picnics.

They will also be giving out free fridge thermometers to help check whether food is being stored at the correct temperature. Thermometers will be available while stocks last.

There will also be displays of food safety information at Hove Town Hall Customer Services Centre in Norton Road and Brighton Town Hall in Bartholomew Square.

Nationally there are an estimated one million cases of food poisoning every year, with bugs like E Coli, Listeria and Salmonella more prevalent in the summer months.

Find out more about food safety in Brighton & Hove

Tips for effective chilling and thorough cooking to prevent problems

  • Storing your food properly chilled is one of the best ways to ensure it will be safe to eat.
  • Make sure your fridge is set to the right temperature – the coldest part should be below 5C.
  • Cool cooked foods quickly at room temperature so that they can be stored in the fridge within 1-2 hours.
  • Store raw foods separately from cooked foods, covered on the bottom shelf of your fridge.
  • Do not defrost raw meat or raw meat products at room temperature (as this will increase your chance of getting food poisoning). Ideally food should be defrosted fully in the fridge or if this is not possible, using a microwave on the defrost setting directly before cooking.

Cooking food

Cooking food at the right temperature and for the correct length of time will ensure that any harmful bacteria are killed.

  • Check that food is steaming hot throughout before you eat it, especially meats like poultry, pork and minced products, which need to be cooked thoroughly before eating.
  • Burgers prepared at home should always be cooked all the way through until steaming hot. They should not be served rare or pink because harmful bacteria may be present in the middle of the burger, causing food poisoning.