Handy tips to avoid poisoning

Food hygiene is a big concern to dieticians and doctors. If you ever get sick in the tummy ... food is suspect number one.

If you go to the doctor after you have been cuddling your toilet for two days, the first thing he or she will ask you is: "What have you been eating?" Then they might ask you something like: "How have you been eating?" The WHAT and the HOW of your recent food intake will reveal your food hygiene (and nutrition to a degree) and determine the reason WHY you are sick.

Some disease-causing organisms enter the body with the food we eat and because we eat so much food every day, the potential to become sick is great.

Thank goodness food poisoning does not occur too frequently due to modern research that guides food preparation procedures, as well as industrial laws to protect consumers.

For example, restaurants, and other food outlets, all over the world are subject to 'health inspections' if the law requires it, and a dirty restaurant or food outlet that falls under the category of dangerous, will be shut down.

I contracted salmonella poisoning on a vacation in Java some years ago. I think I caught it in a shabby little restaurant a few hours drive out of Kuala Lumpur when I ate some chicken.

Strangely enough, I did not hear the waiter say "...and madam, would you like bacteria with that?" If I had, perhaps I would have changed my order!

A few hours later, I was a heaving, retching pile of a woman by the side of the road and the colour of the steamed rice that accompanied the said chicken.

By day eight, I was convinced I was going to die. Dangerously dehydrated with alarming weight loss and a new green complexion, I begged my travel companion to organise a plane home for me so I could see my parents one last time!

Additionally, the indignity of it all (I could not venture further than five paces away from a toilet and near the end, did not have the strength to shower myself), encouraged me to make a promise to myself that if I did survive, I would be much more cautious with my diet in terms of hygiene.

At your local supermarket, you can generally be assured that meat, chicken, fish and milk demand a high degree of care to avoid contamination - and generally get it by trained staff.

If any animal product is deemed unhealthy or unclean, it will be discarded before it goes onto supermarket shelves, and used by dates should be monitored carefully by 'perishable food' management.

These same people are also responsible for maintaining a temperature that is accommodating to animal products. For example, milk must be kept at 5C or below. Fish should be kept even cooler.

At home, if your meat, fish or milk looks and smells foul, it's probably because it is! Peanuts and peanut butter also can harbour the salmonella bacteria and this is much harder to detect until it is too late.

Unclean drinking water can harbour dysentery and E-coli bacteria, which are both very nasty to your tummy and other organs and even MORE DIFFICULT to detect.

Fruits and vegetables should be carefully looked at by farmers for bugs and decomposition. The green-grocer is responsible for discarding any rotten produce before fungi and bacteria can spread. They are also responsible for keeping goods in a cool, dry environment.

The men and women who put your goods into plastic bags should have clean hands or wear gloves or use utensils. Bread and cakes (especially those with whipped cream or butter frosting), do not last very long at all on the shelves and should be discarded appropriately.

Packaging food can include sterilising all tins and containers, vacuum sealing foods to ensure oxygen is not present (fungi and bacteria cannot grow in the absence of oxygen) and the use of food additives to preserve food and discourage germ growth. Milk is sterilised through a series of processors and long life milk is also heat treated.

There are also many things in the home that you can do to help prevent you getting sick. Some of these will surprise you!

Firstly, wash your hands. It sounds obvious but so many people do not even wash their hands after using the bathroom - totally gross and selfish!

Another good way to stop spreading germs to your insides is to use clean rubber gloves when washing up and a new sponge every few days.

This always surprises people but it adds up like this: - hands + germs + warm water + dirty dishes + dirty sponge = bacteria spreading.

And don't forget to disinfect your kitchen benches and inside your kitchen sink every now and then!

Think about this ... are your knives and forks really clean? Is the inside of your fridge and microwave oven really clean? Germs, germs, germs, my friends! These things too, should be scrubbed regularly.

Fruit and vegetables must be washed thoroughly in clean, cold water before eating.

Pour any out-of-date drinks down the sink and rinse the carton or bottle with clean cold water before disposing to prevent the attraction of ants and other creep crawlies and bacteria.

Check the temperature of your fridge and freezer. We always read the label of a new pair of trousers before washing them, but we are never sure at what temperature to keep our fridge running at. For the sake of your health and wallet, check the manufacture's recommendations.

Do not keep leftovers uncovered in the fridge and even if they are covered and kept at the right temperature, do not keep them longer than 48 hours from the time of cooking.

When re-heating leftovers or heating de-frosted food, heat thoroughly and, never re-freeze.

Do not let ice-cream or butter melt then re-refridgerate. It's a honeymoon suite for loved-up bacteria to breed. Be careful with chocolate products and let your eyes and nose decide what is safe to eat and what is not.

The exception to this is honey. Honey is sterile and remains so no matter what you do to it. This miracle food from bees can even kill germs when applied to wounds!

When you are not sure about the water supply, use your common sense and buy bottled water. Don't take risks.

Brush your teeth and wash your face with bottled water too and remember to ask for 'no ice' in your drinks from the dodgey bar.

Finally, clean out your food pantry a couple of times a year and check used by dates of EVERYTHING in there.

Other things to do twice a year include - thoroughly clean your toaster and kettle, scrub your oven, scrub your grill, disinfect your dish-rack, disinfect your kitchen tidy bin or buy a new one, disinfect the dog/cat food bowl, disinfect your chopping board or buy a new one and throw away chipped crockery where millions of germs live in the porcelain.

Enjoy your cooking and eating everyone, but look after yourself!