bookmarkCategory: Food safety

Wash your hands with soap and dry well

• before touching or eating food
• after touching raw meat or chicken
• after you go to the toilet, smoke, sneeze or cough

Visit NSW Health for helpful hand hygiene steps.

Temperature danger zone 

Bugs grow best when the temperature of food is between 5 and 60˚C, so:

• keep hot foods steaming hot
• keep cold foods refrigerated
• if you travel a long way with food, use an insulated bag (cold pack) and ice-brick

Keep kitchen and equipment clean

• Wash equipment used for raw meat in warm soapy water
• Wipe down the kitchen bench with warm soapy water/kitchen spray
• Change tea towels and sponges regularly

Separate cooked and raw foods 

• Cover raw meat, poultry and seafood and keep clear of cooked foods
• Store foods in containers to avoid contact between raw and cooked
• Use different chopping boards and knives for handling raw foods

Wash all fresh fruit and vegetables before eating and cooking

• wash vegetables and fruit before cooking, preparing and/or eating
• chop vegetables before meat. If you use the same knife and chopping block for vegetables and meat, wash them before you cut the meat

What to do with a mad feed that’s leftover?

• If less than 2 hours: refrigerate the cooked meal as soon as it’s stopped steaming. Eat within 2 to 3 days or freeze (see Freezing tips)
• Within 2 to 4 hours of cooking: reheat meal and eat immediately – you can’t keep it
• Over 4 hours: throw it out! There are enough bugs now for food poisoning