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  • wooden board too difficult to clean - get a plate
    cleaning, Food Hygiene, hygienic cleaning, Targeted hygiene

    Why I’d like a clean plate for my dinner, please!

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 21st January 2018
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    I know it is incredibly trendy to eat food off anything other than a “boring” plate, but really, do you want a mouthful of someone else’s meal mixed with their saliva with your dinner?  Or maybe the dirty washing up water has softened up the food debris which then got stuck in the cracks of a broken board. That’s what I got when I had my pizza on this board!

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  • best before, Cooking Safely, Food Hygiene, Food Storage, Reducing food waste, use by dates

    Reducing Food Waste Safely – Top Tips

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 6th May 2017
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    I guess the first thing about reducing food waste is not to buy so much – plan ahead, see what you already have and don’t shop when hungry. Using a list can help, and on-line shopping can be a godsend for many reasons, but one is that you can check your cupboards as you shop. However, with all the will in the world, you may be faced with a load of food in the fridge that is making you feel guilty! Here are some simple tips to save waste.

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  • Pasta has a best-before not a use-by-date
    Food Hygiene, Food Poisoning, Food Storage, Home hygiene

    Rubbish Eating – food past its best-before or use-by-date

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 11th April 2017
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    Is it Safe to Eat Food Past its Best-Before or Use-by Date?

    Recently there has been quite a bit in the news about whether it is safe to eat food that has gone past its best-before or use-by date, and even more worrying, food being retrieved from skips and bins to eat. So what are the risks and more importantly, what can you do to save money with food without putting yourself or your family at risk?

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  • Clean the sides of the BBQ as much as the grill
    Food Hygiene, Food Poisoning, Garden Hygiene

    BBQ Season – an opportunity for Campylobacter?

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 10th April 2017
    • Leave a comment

    Campylobacter is still at large – so be prepared in BBQ season

    Summer is here (well in theory) and the BBQs come out, but in the light of the recent findings that Campylobacter is still likely to be present in over 70% of raw chicken, what can we do to ensure that we are not serving up a dose of food poisoning to friends and family?

    First of all, let’s think about how you can infect someone – bear in mind that Campylobacter is infectious in very small doses:

    • If you contaminate your hands with raw chicken, and then make up a wrap with cooked chicken, you could be passing the organism on in the ready-to-eat food. Your friends may not realise it was you that did it – they may not be ill for a couple of days, and it is possible that one slip up only affected one person, so no-one would associate the BBQ with their illness.
    • By putting raw chicken on a platter, cooking it and then putting it back on the original platter – you have caused classic cross-contamination – everyone could be ill!
    • When chicken isn’t cooked all the way through – for example cooked too much on the outside and underdone in the middle – this is a recipe for disaster as bacteria could survive!
    • Using the same utensils to put the raw chicken on the BBQ as to taking the cooked chicken off could give you more cross-contamination.

     

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  • Bacteria can stick to food when it falls on the floor
    Food Hygiene, Home hygiene

    The 5 Second Rule – revisited?

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 14th March 2017
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    The 5 Second Rule: should you eat food if it drops on the floor?

    Recent research by has hit the press this week, reported as concluding that bacteria may not transfer quickly to some foods when dropped on the floor, and therefore the 5 second rule may apply. I carried out an experiment and put some special powder on the floor to simulate bacteria, and then dropped some bread on the floor and picked it up immediately. The bread looked fine in daylight (see the left of the image), but under the UV light showed up all the powder that had transferred (right of image) – showing what can be picked up if you drop food on the floor!

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  • Ketchup may need to be stored in the fridge
    Food Hygiene, Food Storage

    Ketchup and sauces in the fridge – what is all the fuss about?

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 11th February 2017
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    Traditionally many foods have been preserved without being stored in the fridge because they contain high quantities of salt or sugar which are used as preservatives. However, as we are being told we need to eat less salt for our heart’s health, and less sugar to reduce obesity, manufacturers are being urged by government departments to reduce sugar and salt in items we buy regularly. Read more

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  • Make sure you disinfect surfaces and utensils after preparing chicken
    Food Hygiene, Food Poisoning

    Did your last meal give you food poisoning?

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 30th January 2017
    • Leave a comment

    Food poisoning often starts with a bad bout of diarrhoea and or vomiting. It is understandable that you might think that the cause of your illness is the first thing you throw up, but in fact that can be far from the truth! In a recent survey carried out by Biomaster, 99% of respondents did not know that it takes a while for Campylobacter to make you ill after infection.Read more

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  • Make sure you are safe with your Christmas turkey - use a thermometer
    Campylobacter, Cooking Safely, Food Hygiene, Food Poisoning, Handwashing

    Christmas Turkey – top tips for safety!

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 7th December 2016
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    Christmas is coming and the turkey questions keep rolling in! So here are some simple answers and top tips to keep you safe this Christmas. Watch this space – more updates to come!

    Q How do I store the raw turkey?

    • In the fridge – lowest shelf, protected from any foods that are ready to eat.

    Q Should I wash raw turkey?

    • Absolutely not – never!!! If you wash turkey you risk spreading germs all over your kitchen sink, draining board and anything else in the vicinity. Try not to handle it too much either – anywhere it’s been needs disinfecting – use an antibacterial spray such as Dettol. And don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly using soap and dry with a paper towel. I wash my hands twice after handling raw meat and poultry just to be on the safe side.

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  • Grandma boiled her cloths
    anti microbial resistance, Campylobacter, Food Hygiene, Food Poisoning, Home hygiene, Kitchen cloths

    Grandma’s kitchen cloths: the good old ways?

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 19th November 2016
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    In the 1960s I remember my Grandma boiling her kitchen cloths with washing powder on the stove in an ancient pan designated for this purpose. She used a pair of wooden tongs to get them from the pan to the sink where they were rinsed and then put on the drying rack. We could learn a lot from her.

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  • are we too clean?
    anti microbial resistance, Food Hygiene, Handwashing, Home hygiene

    Are we too clean? I don’t think so!

    • by Dr Lisa Ackerley
    • 18th November 2016
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    Every day people ask me the question about whether we are too clean. My first answer is that if we were too clean, then 17 million people in this country would not get an infectious intestinal disease every year! 280,000 people suffer from Campylobacter alone, and 300 people a year die from this.

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Recent posts

  • Are you losing sleep over bedroom hygiene?
  • Why I’d like a clean plate for my dinner, please!
  • Bags for life or death?
  • Reducing Food Waste Safely – Top Tips
  • Rubbish Eating – food past its best-before or use-by-date
  • BBQ Season – an opportunity for Campylobacter?
  • The 5 Second Rule – revisited?

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