Bugs like it hot: don’t let food bugs hijack your day trip this summer – says Food Standards Agency
Monday 11 June 2007
Ref: 2007/0694
A hot, sunny day should be an enjoyable day out for the family with the prospect of a picnic or barbecue but, if people are not careful, the day could be spoilt by food poisoning as food bug numbers can soar in the heat, says the Food Standards Agency (FSA) today.
During Food Safety Week (11-17 June) the FSA warns that 'Bugs Like It Hot', as there is a rise in cases of food poisoning during the summer months.
In 2005 there were estimated to be around 860,000 cases of food poisoning in the UK with a peak in the summer months – just under half of cases due to bugs such as salmonella and campylobacter occurred during the June to September period.
To combat this trend, the FSA advises the public to keep food cool when eating outside. Just ten invisible bugs in your food can multiply to 1,000 in six hours; 100,000 in less than ten hours; and to more than a million in 12 hours. And, when it’s very hot, bugs can multiply even faster!
'Bugs can be prevented from gatecrashing people’s summer parties,' said Dr Judith Hilton, Head of the FSA’s Microbiological Safety Division. 'Being stuck in a traffic jam is bad enough – but unless you keep your food chilled, any bugs in your food will have a party.
'These bugs can multiply at such a rate, especially in cars while travelling, that they threaten to take over the day! Picnics should be chilled, particularly if stored in the back seat of a car or in the boot, as they are breeding ‘hot spots’ for bugs.
'If you keep food cool or chilled, you won’t get such an unpleasant gathering... and there will be less chance of a problem later,' said Judith.
Top tips from the FSA to day-trippers on keeping food cool on hot, sunny days:
- avoid delays in getting shopping home – if possible, use a cool bag
- if you are taking food for a picnic or day out, put it in a cool bag with some ice bricks or frozen cartons of fruit juice to help keep it cool
- keep the food in the cool bag until you are ready to eat it
- always keep stored food covered and out of the sun
- make sure that raw foods such as meat are kept separately from ready-to-eat foods
Notes for editors
A food poisoning attack due to staphylococcus aureus or bacillus cereus can strike within two to six hours; salmonella infections take 12 to 48 hours, while the average incubation period for campylobacter is two to five days, and possibly up to ten days.
Food poisoning may not always result from the last thing eaten.
Bacillus cereus is a bacterium that can grow quickly on cooked rice or other foods if not properly cooled. It produces toxins (poisons), which cause the symptoms of diarrhoea or vomiting.
In July 2000, the FSA set itself a target to reduce foodborne diseases in the UK by 20% by 2006. The provisional number of laboratory reported cases of the foodborne pathogens monitored by the Agency in 2005 is 53,052. This represents a reduction of 19.2 % compared with the baseline figure for 2000. Over the same period it is estimated that the total number of cases have been reduced by 1.5 million at a cost saving of £750 million, representing a considerable improvement in public health and significant economic benefits.
An experiment on the increase in temperature of food in the cabin and the boot of a car in sunny weather was commissioned by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority for the New Zealand Foodsafe Partnership. Details of their findings and recommendations for keeping food cool can be found on the NZFSA website.
The Food Standards Agency has a five-year strategy to promote the safe handling of food in the home using the 4Cs food hygiene messages (cooking, cleaning, cooling and avoiding cross-contamination). The '4Cs strategy', can be found at the link below.
This is the first year that the Food Standards Agency has been the lead partner in National Food Safety Week.
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Telephone: 020 7276 8888
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Fax: 020 7276 8833
Email: press.mailbox@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk