Look at the list below. It shows you how to make food safe to eat.
| What can make food unsafe to eat? | How can we stop this? |
| Bacteria get into food | Keep
raw food, especially meat and
chicken away from other food. Keep pets out of the kitchen. Wash hands well before touching food. Clean equipment thoroughly. |
Look at the list below. It shows you how to make food safe to eat.
| What can make food unsafe to eat? | How can we stop this? |
| Bacteria grow in food | Keep food at the right temperature. This could mean keeping it cold in the fridge or making sure it is cooked properly. |
Keeping food cold is the best way to keep food safe to eat at home. Other things are done to food at the factory to make it last longer and to keep it safe. This is called preserving food. We do this at home too. For example, some people make fruit into jam to preserve it. Other people pickle onions or beetroot to make them last longer.
Before food reaches the shops it can be preserved at the factory.
After food has been treated at the factory, a label is put on it. The law says that the label must tell you:
There
must be a date on the food to tell
you how long it will keep. After this date it might not be safe to eat.
Some food, like fruit, does not have a date on it because you must use
it up quickly and you will be able to see if it is going bad.
On
milk, meat, cream, yoghurts, etc., the date will say 'use
by'. This means you must eat the food by that date. After that
date the food may be unsafe or has gone off. This food is usually kept
in the fridge.
Some food can be kept for longer and is still safe to eat. The date will
say 'best before'. After the date
the food may still be safe to eat but it might not taste so good.
If the date says 'display until',
it is telling the shop to sell the food before this date.
Microwave ovens cook and defrost food very quickly, but they must be sued properly to make sure that the food is safe to eat.
