Australian Food Safety Week

Australian Food Safety Week will be held from 11 to 18 November.

This year’s theme is Food Safety – dollars and sense, and warns about how to manage the increased cost of living without compromising food safety.

There are an estimated 4.67 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year that result in 47,900 hospitalisations, 38 deaths and cost to the economy of $2.1 billion. Food borne disease isn’t a minor illness but can leave you with long term effects such as reactive arthritis.

We recommend you follow these useful tips to stay food safe during Australian Food Safety Week:

• Buy yourself a meat thermometer and use it
• If you are moving to cheaper cuts of meat such as mince, sausages, rolled roasts, liver and other offal and chicken, remember they need to be cooked to at least 75°C in the centre
• Beef, lamb, kangaroo in whole cuts like chops, steaks, pieces and roasts at least 63°C (medium rare) and leave to rest three to five minutes. Pork steaks and pieces to 70°C and roasts to between 70°C and 75°C and leave to rest three to five minutes.
• Don’t be tempted to forage for wild food as a saving, mushrooms and other plants can be toxic and wild foods can be contaminated by animal faeces
• Don’t purchase food from unknown sources such as on social media, make sure they are a legal source

If you need support contact a local food charity, never ‘dumpster dive’ for discarded food which is likely to be contaminated or may have been discarded due to a food recall.

Learn more about food safety and test your knowledge and take the food safety quiz on the Food Safety Information Council website www.foodsafety.asn.au