Food 'n' Drink – Food and Drink news |

Rachel Sanders is a nutrition and food safety expert and lecturer at Northampton College. She is an expert in making sure the people working in a kitchen maintain excellent health standards and there are several methods that she has taught and employed to keep people safe. One of these is ensuring that people wash their hands for a long enough time, she taught students to sing happy birthday to themselves twice over while washing their hands to ensure that they have done this for long enough.

Most people, especially those working in the catering industry, understand the need for food safety and hygiene in preventing illness. However over 1 million people, every year, in the UK still suffer from some sort of food poisoning and of this 1 million over 20,000 require hospital treatment. People speculate that the reason this figure is still so high is that people know the rules but it is all too easy not to follow them.

One of the most common areas that people lack knowledge in the UK is the risk that is posed from fruit and vegetables. Generally people associate food poisoning with meat, but one of the biggest causes of food poisoning is often from vegetables. Often there is also cross contamination as people are less careful in changing boards and equipment when cooking with vegetables.

A chief scientist at the FSA is Dr Andrew Wadge has recently commented, “Unfortunately it is a rather common myth that vegetables cannot make us sick however there are many harmful bacteria in the soil and these are the cause of many food poisoning cases in the UK each year. Some food producers have excellent controls in place but it is really impossible to get rid of all contamination.

“It is important that people realise the importance of washing vegetables, and salads, before they eaten. The only time that you do not have to wash a salad or vegetables is if the packages marked as ready to eat.”

Ms Sanders has commented about this situation, “It is all too easy to violate this rule. Just think about how many times you have been in the supermarket and have eaten a grape without thinking twice. It only requires a few seconds of washing to remove the harmful bacteria from fruit that is something that I cannot recommend enough.”

In order to emphasise how important handwashing is to her students, Ms Sanders has a special gel which they can put on their hands after washing which will highlight any bacteria left when their hands are put under ultraviolet light. For most students this is a real eye-opener to how resilient bacteria are to washing your hands.

She also recommends that every kitchen has different sets of chopping boards. For example you should have one that is specifically allocated to cutting raw meat, and it is also important to make sure that you use a different board for different vegetables, especially if you are mixing cooked with uncooked.

One of the most familiar sights to British shoppers is set for a major overhaul. The Government has indicated that there is to be a shake up in ‘best before’ labelling. Although they have been around for years, there is still a lot so confusion between what they actually mean.

A “best before” date indicates when a food should be eaten by for optimum enjoyment. They are perfectly fine to eat after this date, but their texture and flavour many have started to diminish. The only exception to this rule is Eggs. On fresh foods however you will see a ‘use by’ date. This is because certain foods go off very quickly, such as meat, and eating these after the ‘use by’ date presents certain health risks.

Anti-waste campaigners have long argued that putting ‘best before’ dates on everything encourages people to throw food out if it has passed the date. The retail industry obviously disagrees, and says it helps the consumer and encourages them to rotate their cupboards. ‘Use by’ is obviously completely different, as eating out of date meats, soft cheese or dairy products can be risky health wise.

When you see food products labelled with ‘sell by’ and ‘display until’ dates they are for the retailers only, who face hefty fines if found to be selling food after these dates. The Foods Standards Agency admits that there is much misinterpretation of the labelling. Fresh food in particular may go off before its ‘use by’ date if it isn’t stored correctly.

Many foods that are meant to be kept refrigerated at all times are often left out on benches etc and allowed to warm up. They are then returned to the fridge and the contrasts in temperature cause the food to deteriorate much quicker, so they may become unsafe to eat before their ‘use by’ date.

The government seems to be clearing a route for the official acceptance of cloned meat, milk, and cheese available for sale and marketing, whether intentional or not.  A recent finding by the Food Standards Agency has stated that any banning of such products from the lineage of cloned animals is disproportionate with findings that these food products are no less safe than others of the same type.

The government does not seem to care that the European Union has placed a five-year ban on the production of such products, saying that it would prohibit the cloning of animals for the express purpose of manufacture.  However, they have not gone so far as to say they consider the products to be any sort of risk.

Meanwhile, the FSA finding shows that the British government is not concerned with the cloning of animals for such purposes.  Many people wonder if this is going to lead the way for the selling of such products from cloned animals in UK shops.  If indeed, it does, others wonder if there will be any labelling done by which to inform the purchaser that the products come from a lineage of cloned animals.

It is predictable that, since the FSA finding says that there is no discernable difference and no extra risk from the consumption of such products, no one will see a need to require labelling.

Many farmers interviewed in recent studies say that they consider cloning just another sort of reproductive method on a scale with artificial insemination.  However, vast segments of the public express concerns with consuming such products and polling shows that many would not purchase products revealed to be from cloned animals or their lineage.

The debate rages on with the man in the street, but the recent documents coming out of the Food Standards Agency attest to the position of the British government.

British Troops who happen to be Jewish will now be able to eat a better range of kosher meals, according to Ministry of Defence officials.  The meals will include a kosher meat dinner and will be made available for all troops in all the branches of service.

Many of the new meals are designed to be easier to travel with and allow them to give precious boosts of energy to troops while on patrol.  The kosher meals will be very much like general rations, and will be boiled in a bag meals with meats and vegetables.

Ministry of Defence spokesmen say that it is difficult to give a detailed accounting of how many Jewish troops serve in the armed services, as they do not at all times identify themselves as such when filing records.  Still, even if it were only one, we should do our best to accommodate the need for Kosher food supplies, say authorities.

Spokesmen for the troops say that they will appreciate the Ministry of Defence doing this very much.  It means a lot to our service people as it supports the notion that their desires are being respected and that they are more than just numbers to the Ministry, but real people with genuine concerns and beliefs.

Last week it was found that meat from a handful of cloned cows was sold on the market and ended up being consumed by several British families.  It was added later that milk from the animals may also have ended up on supermarket shelves.

The news caused headlines to cry out that ‘supercalves’ were now being used within the diary industry.  It was claimed later that hundreds of cloned cows were found in farms throughout the UK.  The headlines claimed that meat from the cloned animals would soon fill up the meat shelves at grocers.

Although one might expect the FSA to lash out with a sense of calm, it instead announced that any items from a cloned animal should be thought of as a novelty item and thus would need to be approved by the FSA before it was sold and that they simply had not given permission.

However, the EU responded by saying that approval for the goods was not needed and that milk could be sold from the animals without any need to tell the authorities.

With this interpretation in mind, the milk and meat from cows could be all over the place without people being aware of the fact.

Grahame Bulfield, the past director of Roslin Institute where the first sheep was cloned, stated that the FSA is simply making itself look ridiculous because it cannot actually prove that cloned meat or diary is being used in any way or is in fact different than any other type of meat that may be consumed.  He added that since there is not any evidence, it must be the same.

Ministers have been charged with giving in to the junk food manufacturers by bending out of any strategies that would impose tougher controls on the amount of fat, sugar, and salt content in snacks instead settling to simply lend financial support to healthy eating campaigns.

Yesterday health specialists warned that any proposal to enforce regulation on confectionary makers and drinks in return for money was the same as bribery.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, revealed new plans that would include the companies giving cash for the Change4Life campaign run by the Government in which a serious of advertisements are being launched to encourage the public to keep healthy by eating healthy.

In return, Lansley promised that firms will not have to worry about too much regulation.  Despite this fact, food industry companies have not yet offered much money for the campaign which has caused critics of the move to warn that junk food manufacturers are getting off the hook without actually being forced to offer something in return.

Doctors have already responded negatively responded to Lansley’s plans stating that the campaign will do little to help a problem that is quickly rising in intensity which can be seen in people’s health.  Lansley also called the healthy school meal movement by Jamie Oliver  a bomb which stirred up a bit of controversy.

The Government has ruled out a ban on trans fats in food that may cause danger even though there is strong evidence that trans fats can cause around 7,000 premature deaths annually.

NICE, the official health watchdog, has asked for a veto on the fats that are the culprits often blamed for clogged arteries, high cholesterol, and heart attacks. However, Andrew Lansley the Health Secretary has decided not to follow the advice and instead chose the food industry arguing that the ban is not necessary at this time.

In a separate announcement Lansley also stated to the British Medical Association (BMA) that the Government should not be responsible for any legislation enforcing diet or health issues.  He continued to explain that it is not the Government’s place to lecture people on their eating habits and that even efforts by Jamie Oliver to tackle poor eating habits in children has failed.

The NICE on the other hand continues to argue that a ban on trans fat is necessary in order to combat up to 40,000 deaths every year that are linked to medical causes of high salt, fat, and sugar that comes from junk food.

NICE stated that it is known that fatty acids that make up trans fat pose a large health issue to many, and although many food companies have made some efforts to remove the fats from their products, there is still a large population that continues to consume much more of these elements on a regular basis than there should be.

The health watchdog also stated that it is important that all social groups are aware of the dangers of IPTFAs.