Community Health

Abstract

Precautions which serve to reduce the incidence of food poisoning are as follows:

• 1. Storage of food in vermin-proof rooms avoids contamination by faeces of rats and mice.

• 2. Slaughter and evisceration of animals away from carcass meat or cooked food.

• 3. Regular disinfection of equipment in slaughterhouses and butchers’ shops.

• 4. Exclusion of any human ‘carriers’ of disease from slaughterhouses and food shops.

• 5. Refrigeration of meat and fish; thorough thawing before cooking.

• 6. Thorough roasting or pressure cooking to achieve high temperatures; many spores of bacteria are resistant to boiling for several hours.

• 7. Avoiding reheating of food that has been standing in warm conditions.

• 8. Reducing the handling of food to a minimum and excluding food handlers with septic sores on any part of the body.

• 9. Education of food handlers in personal hygiene.