When preparing and serving food at church and community events, there are some things that you must do to make sure that the food is safe to eat.
There are two to four million cases of foodborne illness in Australia every year. Illnesses such as food poisoning are becoming more common as our lifestyles change – for one thing, we eat out more. However, it is estimated that one in five occurs from incorrect food handling in the home!
One of the reasons for this is that you cannot always tell by looking at food, smelling it, or tasting the food whether it contains dangerous levels of food poisoning organisms. Most food poisonings are a result of mishandling food – keeping it at the wrong temperature, cross-contamination, and incorrect reheating.
Remember, food safety applies to ALL foods – the important point is to treat all foods with care. Food safety is mostly common sense, and this basic course will help you do the things needed to make and keep food safe.
In general, most churches have few regulations when it comes to food that is not sold (for example, church lunches). However, each state or council can be different in the criteria it sets up for organisations. Sometimes, the facility where you hold your event, including church kitchens, must be registered as food kiosks. Check your local council as your church may require someone with formal safe food handling certification as outlined in the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991.
People get sick from food because the food they have eaten contains bacteria, viruses, toxins, contaminants or harmful chemicals. It can take from an hour to a few days to develop food poisoning, depending on the cause, but the best way of preventing food poisoning is to use safe food handling practices.
Bacteria are the biggest problem, because they are so common, and are found in soil, on animals, people and even their clothes. In the kitchen, bacteria often come from raw vegetables and raw meat. Sometimes bacteria can move from these raw ingredients to cooked food, in a process called cross-contamination. Even though most church food is vegetarian, it is still important to maintain strict food hygiene laws.
Some ways that these germs can move from dirty to clean surfaces include:
Food poisoning bacteria are often naturally present in food, and in the right conditions a single bacterium can multiply into more than two million bacteria in just seven hours. So it is very important not to give bacteria the conditions under which they multiply rapidly which include:
