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Because of consumer demand, preservatives have been removed from many pre-prepared foods. This
together with the changes in shopping habits to a once-a-week shop, mean that safe handling and
storage of food is even more important than ever.
The following tips should help you to ensure
that the food in your home is in as perfect condi-
tion as possible.
■
Keep the time between buying chilled food and
placing it in your fridge as short as possible.
Tests showed that the temperature of 1 litre of
orange juice rose to 22°C in an hour between the
supermarket and home. It then took 11 hours to
get down to 7°C in the refrigerator.
■
Keep the refrigerator door closed as much as
possible.
■
Do not push food together too much, try to allow
air to circulate around each item.
■
Cool cooked food as quickly as possible but do
NOT place in the refrigerator until cool. (Leave
food in a cool place in order that it can then be
placed in the refrigerator as soon as possible).
■
Do NOT mix raw and cooked meat, they must be
in separate containers. Take care not to let the
meat juices drip onto other food. If the meat does
drip, remove everything and clean thoroughly.
■
Do not store food uncovered.
■ The best way to defrost food is to put it in the
refrigerator to thaw slowly.
■ Ensure that food placed in the freezer compart-
ment is dated and labelled and used in date
order to ensure that food is consumed at its best.
■ It is important that food is used before its “best
before” date.
■ The foods to be frozen must be fresh and of the
best quality.
■ The size of each pack should be small enough to
ensure that it is used in one go. Small packs
freeze more quickly and uniformly and give better
results.
■ Frozen food, once thawed, must not be refrozen.
Lean food keeps better and longer than fatty
food, salt reduces the storage time.
■ Wrap the food in polythene or aluminium freezing
bags or foil so that they adhere to the food and
provide an airtight seal.
■ Packaging which is swollen or has traces of
refrozen water droplets on the pack could indi-
cate that the product has not been kept at a suit-
able temperature and that it may have lost its
original quality. Partially thawed food must not be
refrozen, it must be consumed within 24 hours.
Never exceed the storage time indicated.
■ Never place hot food, bottles or cans of fizzy
drink in the freezer compartment as they may
explode. Containers with a lid must not be filled
to the brim.
■ Do not open the door or place extra fresh food in
the freezer compartment next to food which is
already frozen as this could cause the tempera-
ture of the frozen food to rise and its quality and
storage life to reduce.
■
Remove suspect food from your refrigerator and
clean (Refer to “Maintenance and Cleaning”).
■
Never allow spillages to dry and harden.
■
Store eggs in the egg rack provided in the refrig-
erator door. Discard any broken or chipped eggs.
■
Regularly check the refrigerator and the freezer
door seals to ensure that they are clean and free
from debris.
■
Always wash your hands with soapy water and
dry them with a clean towel before handling food.
■
Keep work surfaces clean and avoid cross conta-
mination by not using the same work surface or
knife, without washing them thoroughly in
between.
HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDELINES