We all take food to provide nutritional support for our body but the reverse might be the case if proper food hygiene is not observed.



So one might ask, what is food hygiene?

Food (culinary) hygiene are those hygiene practices related to food management and cooking to prevent food contamination, food poisoning and minimize the transmission of disease to other foods, humans or animals (for those that keep pets or rear animals).

Food poisoning is a common, yet distressing and sometimes life-threatening problem for millions of people today. Nigeria for example records about 200,000 related food poisoning deaths annually (according to Alfred Inhenkuronye – A visiting Professor of food science and technology at FUT Minna) even our own president His Excellency Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had his own share of food poisoning during his two-day state visit in Gambia in November 2013. . Hence the importance of food (culinary) hygiene for a healthy living cannot be overemphasized.

According to WHO, the key principles of food hygiene are:

v Prevent contamination of food with mixing chemicals spreading from people, pets and pests. e.g. when making use of your insecticide.


v Separate raw and cooked foods to prevent contaminating the cooked food.


v Cook foods for the appropriate length of time and at the appropriate temperature to kill pathogens.


v Store food at the proper temperature to prevent contamination.


v Use safe water and raw materials.


Culinary practices include:

v Cleaning and disinfection of food preparation areas and equipment on a daily basis.


v Careful avoidance of meats contaminated by trichina worms, salmonella and other pathogens or thorough cooking of questionable meat.


v Dish sanitizing by washing with soap and clean water. Please avoid storing dirty plates through the night as they serve as breeding sites for vectors,


v Washing of hands thoroughly before touching any food.


v Washing of hands after touching uncooked food when preparing meals.


v Not sharing of cutlery when eating, hope the lovers would understand.


v Not licking fingers or hands while or after eating, this is common with us, Nigerians.


v Not reusing serving utensils that have been licked.


v Refrigeration of foods.


v Proper disposal of uneaten food and packaging.


Can`t help but observe that I have to improve on my food hygiene practice, lolz.

source:http://joeterryscorner..com/2014/11/food-hygiene.html#more

Finally science has justified my nt sharing my cutlery wit u,gosh!!! why wud u want to share my spoon wit me...


Just my observation,are they mods scared of putting health topics on the front page?

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