Food hygiene course for Waimarino

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 3, 16 June 1987, Page 4

Food hygiene course for Waimarino

A course in basic food hygiene is to be run at the Ohakune Borough Council Chambers for Waimarino food handlers. In order to inform food handlers of the hygiene disciplines required for their responsible roles in the community, Basic Food Hygiene Courses have been run through the Wanganui Regional Community College. This has been arranged by the Wanganui City Council for four years

in Wanganui. The course covers microbiology, food poisoning, personal hygiene, food storage, cross-contamination, temperature control, premise construction and design, cleansing and housekeeping, and rodent and insect control. The course concludes with an examination with certificates presented to persons undertaking the course. The course will be conducted over three consecutive Wednesdays commencing on 17 June. Although the course is aimed at the food handlers management should also have an appreciation of sound hygiene principles. In many instances, cases of food poisoning are attributable to cost saving short cuts. This profit orientated approach is very self defeating in the event of an outbreak of food borne illness. This often leads to the failure of the business and a substantial financial loss. During 1986 the

Department of Health received notifcation of 1520 cases of food poisoning and Salmonella. The notification rate is considered to be approximately 10%. This indicates that approximately 15,000 persons suffered a food borne illness during 1986. It is also likely that some of the 2809 cases of campylobacter and 207 cases of shigella were also food borne. The reasons for the low notification rate are: the wide range of severity of symptoms, people's differing attitudes and a large number of people not wishing to go through the trauma of submitting specimens and information to a stranger. The prevention of food borne illness should not be reliant on the followup of cases. Effort must be concentrated in the elimination of the cause before infection occurs. The most important measure to achieve this is the education of food workers.

In most cases of food borne illness no single factor is responsible. The consumption of the contaminated food and resultant illness has been brought about by a combination of bad practices. All cases could have been prevented by strict observance of hygiene practices by the food handler. People preparing food in the home comprise the largest body of food handlers. Unless requiring medical attention household cases are not notified for obvious reasons. The potential of food poisoning in the home is very real. However its significance is obviously less than cases from commercial premises. Because refrigeration space is often limited in the household, conditions exist to permit cross contamination. Preparation benches are often not cleansed between contact from cooked and raw meats. Details of the courses are available from Bev Kerr or the Ohakune Borough Council Office. In order to recover costs at least twelve persons must be enrolled before the course can proceed. Should there be sufficient demand further courses will be arranged in the future.