Points for Food-handlers

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 915, 22 February 1957, Page 20

Points for Food-handlers

This is the text of a talk on health broadcast from ZB, YA and YZ stations of the

NZBS by DR.

H. B.

TURBOTT

Deputy-

Director-General of Health —

HE practice of buying quick-frozen foods igs growing, and, correspondingly, the places where they may be bought are increasing. This is all to the good, for quick-freezing of food, done properly, preserves the food for a long time, maintaining its full nutritional value. At the processing factory there must be quick delivery after harvesting of fruit and vegetables, and the manufacturer must lose no time in the quick-freezing process, The success depends firstly on careful handling and speed in reducing the prepared produce to the correct temperature, and secondly, on maintaining that correct temperature right to customer purchasing time. There must therefore be ‘transport in refrigerated or insulated vehicles and storage at the correct temperature until the time of sale. Deep-frozen foods must not be allowed to thaw partially, or down goes their nutritional value. Provided there has been proper handling and maintenance of the correct temperature, deep-frozen foods at purchase will be in better condition than most unfrozen fresh foods. The proper temperature for storing quick-frozen foods is within a few degrees of 0 deg. F. They will keep well for 8-12 months at this temperature. The life of the food varies with the extent of departure from this optimum. For example, the storage life of a food may be 16-18 months at -10 deg. F., but only 4-6 months at 10 deg. F. As the temperature rises above this point, the storage life’ rapidly decreases, even though the food is kept below freezing point (32 deg. F.). You see the reason for the term "deep-frozen" foods. Such foods should not be kept in ice-cream cabinets. In shops ice-cream is kept near to freezing point, but such a temperature will not preserve deepfrozen foods properly. Ice-cream and deep-frozen foods should not be stored in the same refrigerator at the same temperature. A further reason is for the good of the ice-cream, for in bulk it is very easily contaminated, and nothing whatever should be placed in the same compartment with it. The moral is to buy your quick-frozen foods at shops keeping them in separate compartments and at the proper deep-freeze temperature, 10 deg. F. or lower. Further, buy them at a shop which avoids overloading the deep-freeze refrigerator, The open type should have ample clear space between the top of the compartment and the top of the food. If overloading is allowed, and particularly if unfrozen or partly-frozen foods are put in together with the quick-frozen food, partial thawing may occur and the food deteriorates.

All these points hold for home deep- | freeze refrigerators, with an additional one applying to all deep-freeze units, that the stock must be "turned over" frequently so that the bottom layer of packages does not remain the "bottom" layer for long periods. Another subject now! A warning that concerns food premises and houses! Insecticide vaporisers are being widely sold, and many restaurants, food nremises, and homes are using them, Elec-trically-operated insecticide vaporisers can now be obtained for food and other premises. These are not advised for food shops and eating houses, for places where people are working or where the public comes and goes, or whereyer food is exposed to the air. There are poisons

in the insecticide vapours which can be breathed in by people, or absorbed by many kinds of food, such as fruit, vegetables, cereals, dairy products, meat, bread, and pastries. "Insecticidal poisons that are effective because of deliberate continuous pollution of the atmosphere have questionable safety,’ says the Committee on Pesticides of the American Medical Association. Hand operated insecticide vaporisers should not be used, either in food premises or private homes, unless food is under cover and protected from the vapour. Here is a further warning for food premises and homes, and it is that food handlers should never use anything but individual towéls. The old-fashioned roller towel has had it! Paper towels for commercial premises, personal towels for homes! If there is a sure way to ‘spread skin infections, sores, boils, and such like contagious things, it is to use an old-style roller towel. Food handlers in commerce or in the home, are sure to pick up and put into food infection leading to food poisoning if any member of the staéf or household has any septic condition of hands or arms, and all use the roller towel. The rolier towel belongs to the past. Many bacteriological studies have proved its danger, and it should find no place nowadays except in a museum.