Food Safety Week 2024

Australian Food Safety Week will be held from 9 to 16 November 2024 with the theme - Look before you cook – read the food labels.

This year’s theme encourages consumers to follow the food safety instructions on packaged food.

There is 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.

Tips for food safety

We recommend you follow these useful tips to stay food safe:

1. Check out the use-by-date on packaged food and use it by that date. To prevent food waste you can remove the food from its packaging and freeze it for later use. You can also cook the food into a meal and freeze in shallow containers.
2. Best before dates mean just that: the food will be best before that date but can be eaten after that although it may have lost some nutrition or quality.
3. Some very long-life foods, such as cans, may not have a date mark as it is assumed you’ll have eaten it by then. But check cans for any swelling, dents or rusting and discard them.
4. Put your most recent food purchases at the back of the pantry or fridge so you use the oldest product first.
5. The date marking will only be safe if you follow the storage instructions such as keep refrigerated under 4°C, keep frozen under minus 15°C or store in a cool dry place.
6. Follow the manufacturer’s cooking instructions on the packaging as they know exactly how to cook the product safely. Make sure you follow the instructions depending on how you will cook the food, whether in the oven, in a microwave or, increasingly, in an airfryer.
7. Use a meat thermometer to check the recommended cooking temperature it doesn’t have to be a fancy digital version (although they can be more effective) one with a dial can be just as effective.

Learn more about food safety and test your knowledge and take the food safety quiz on the Food Safety Information Council website here.