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Key food safety tips video
Food safety
Keeping food safe can be quick and easy. And food safety is vitally important to maintaining good health.
About 5.4 million Australians get food poisoning each year.
This, on average, results in 120 deaths, 1.2 million visits to doctors, 300,000 prescriptions for antibiotics and 2.1 million days of lost work.
The estimated annual cost of food poisoning in Australia is $1.25 billion. NSW and the public health system bear roughly one-third of these costs.
Keep it cold
- keep the fridge at 5oC or below
- put any food that needs to be kept cold in the fridge straight away
- don't eat food that’s meant to be in the fridge if it’s been left out for 2 hours or more
- defrost and marinate foods – especially meats - in the fridge
- shop with a cooler bag, picnic with an esky
Keep it clean
- wash hands thoroughly before starting to prepare or eat any food, even a snack
- keep benches, kitchen equipment and tableware clean
- don't let raw meat juices drip onto other foods
- separate raw and cooked food and use different cutting boards and knives for both
- avoid making food for others if sick with something like diarrhoea
Keep it hot
- cook foods until they're steaming hot
- reheat foods until they're steaming hot
- make sure there's no pink left in cooked meats such as mince or sausages
- look for clear juices before serving chicken or pork
- heat to boiling all marinades containing raw meat juices before serving
Check the label
- don’t eat food past a 'use by' date
- note a 'best before' date
- follow storage and cooking instructions
- be allergy aware
- ask for information about unpackaged foods
For more information call the NSW Food Authority helpline on 1300 552 406.
Also on this site
- Allergies and food
- BBQs
- Cassava-based chips and crackers
- Complaints about food
- Consumer advisories and recalls
- Dioxins in seafood
- Eggs
- Family feasts and food safety
- Food crimes you can avoid
- Fresh fruit and vegetables
- Floods, fires and power cuts (pdf, 51KB)
- Food poisoning
- Labelling
- Low immunity and food safety
- Mercury in fish
- More food safety tips
- Poultry and red meat
- Pregnancy and food safety
- Raw meat
- Raw milk products
- Rockmelons and salmonella
- School lunch boxes
- Sprouts
- Summer eating
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