Food Safety Week in Scotland

With the major E.coli incident ongoing in Europe, the start of the annual Food Safety Week is a strong reminder of the importance of following good food hygiene.

This year, Food Safety Week is focusing on good hygiene in the home, which will help stop the spread of harmful bacteria. At the same time the Agency is working closely with food businesses all along the food chain to reduce the risk of harmful bacteria reaching our plates.

To investigate what people think good hygiene is, in the run-up to Food Safety Week, the Agency asked more than 2,000 people across the UK whether they thought a range of statements about food safety were true or false. The research showed that most of us are aware of good hygiene in the kitchen, but can still fall foul of some common misconceptions around food safety.

In Scotland, more than half (53%) of the people we surveyed believe that people can tell if food is safe to eat just by its appearance or smell. This is wrong. Potentially dangerous food bugs like E.coli and Salmonella don’t always make food smell ‘off’ and do not affect the appearance of food.

About a third (31%) of people questioned in Scotland thought that ‘use by’ dates are put on food packaging to encourage shoppers to throw it out so they have to buy more. In reality the ‘use by’ date is required by law and is an important indicator of how long a food will remain safe to eat. Other dates that also appear, such as ‘best before’ and ‘sell by’ dates, relate to the food’s quality rather than its safety.

One in ten people questioned in Scotland believe that if you drop food on the floor it is safe to eat as long as you pick it up within five seconds. Alas there is no truth in the ‘five second rule’, or any of its variations. If there is one place your food is most likely to pick up bugs, it’s on the floor.

Other myths highlighted in the research include:

'Plastic chopping boards are more hygienic than wooden ones.' Not true, but 64% of people asked in Scotland thinks it is. Both can harbour germs if they aren’t cleaned properly after use.

'If you get food poisoning it was from the last thing you ate.' In Scotland 17% of those questioned incorrectly thought this was true, but in fact for some bugs it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to develop.

'You need to wash chicken and poultry before you cook it.' This was one of the most common misconceptions with two thirds (66%) of people surveyed in Scotland thinking this is true. In fact washing chicken could splash germs around the kitchen. Cooking it thoroughly will be enough to kill any bacteria that may be present.

Dr Jacqui McElhiney, a food safety expert at the Food Standards Agency in Scotland, said: 'This research shows that many of us still have misconceptions about how we should store, prepare and cook our food, which could put us at more risk of food poisoning.

'There are about a million cases of food poisoning every year in the UK and as we have seen with the incident in Germany some cases can be very dangerous. We’re working hard with food producers, processors and retailers to bring that number down and we want consumers to do their bit too. With Food Safety Week starting this week, we hope this research will help people think about what they do and better separate fact from fiction in their kitchens.'

A range of Food Safety Week events are being run in Scotland, in schools, community groups and local authorities, to highlight the importance of food safety and hygiene in the home.

Click here to view the full set of results from the research (pdf from FSA website)