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The holiday season, and holiday travelling, is a peak time for food poisoning illnesses. Here is some information, and some reminders, from BBC News: Health on how you can avoid getting – and giving – food related illnesses this season:
Food Poisoning
What is it?
It’s estimated there are more than 9 million cases of gastroenteritis each year in England. For an increasing number of people, it’s due to food poisoning, something that’s preventable.
Gastroenteritis describes symptoms affecting digestion, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach pain. Food poisoning is the type of gastroenteritis caused by eating or drinking something contaminated with micro-organisms or germs, or by toxic substances produced by these germs.
These illnesses are often accompanied by fever, muscle aches, shivering and feeling exhausted.
What causes it?
Micro-organisms enter the body in one of two ways:
In the food – the food isn’t cooked thoroughly, so the micro-organisms aren’t killed off, often the case with barbecued food.
On the food – the person preparing the food doesn’t wash their hands before handling the food, for example.
Campylobacter infection is the most common cause of food poisoning seen by GPs. It likes to live in milk and poultry.
Other common causes include salmonella, listeria, shigella and clostridia. Some take a few hours to cause symptoms, others a few days. Serious infections with E.coli are, fortunately, uncommon.
How can I prevent it?
Always wash your hands thoroughly before preparing food, after going to the toilet and after handling pets
Keep kitchen work surfaces clean
Make sure food is defrosted completely before cooking
Keep pets away from food
Ensure food is cooked thoroughly before eating. Meat shouldn’t have any pink bits
Serve reheated food piping hot
Keep raw meat and fish covered and store at the bottom of the fridge
Store all perishable foods at 5Β°C (41Β°F) or less
Keep raw food covered up
Rinse fruit and vegetables under running water before eating
Throw away any food that’s past its use-by date, doesn’t smell right and/or has fungus on it
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Amazina
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Here There and Everywhere 
*Don’t live the fridge open over night*
………………….. !!!
π
http://nicoleb.org/b2/
Dont sleep with your mouth open π
With so much of dinner/luncheon party this season, I’m getting scared about it’s hygiene!
Nicole/Rainmountain – Did you do that???
Fast Lane – I’ll try!
Joel – Yeh, it takes a little of the excess out of the season, doesn’t it, when reminded to be careful!
Well, the fridge did it.
Every few weeks we have to put dishsoap on the rubber to make it stick again (old trick), this time I forgot.
But nothing got spoiled – lucky us π