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Food Safety

AHS reminds residents of food safety during the holiday season

Dec 14, 2019 | 1:30 PM

Lethbridge, AB – You’re at a party this holiday season; maybe you’re the one hosting- maybe it’s an office party or a gathering at someone else’s home. There are all kinds of meats, seafoods, cheeses, nogs and toddies that you’ve never even heard of, and mayonnaise generously covers just about everything.

For the next few hours you eat and drink your fill and head home after a great evening, tummy full of good food. Or, so you think.

Not too long after – an hour or two, maybe longer…your stomach begins protesting; rumbling. You begin to sweat or get cold suddenly. Nausea hits you like a semi-truck out of control on an ice-covered highway. A short time later it’s a desperate trip to the bathroom (hoping those cookies you ate aren’t tossed before you get there), where a loss of control over any number of bodily functions occurs. Over and over again.

The bathroom becomes your best friend for the rest of the night, morning and maybe even the next several days. It’s exhausting, dehydrating and painful.

It’s happened to everyone: food poisoning. Those microscopic Salmonella, E-coli, Listeria or Campylobacter viruses that can invade your body from time to time. It doesn’t have to happen. You can lessen your chances of getting those disease-causing organisms with just a few simple and common steps.

According to AHS, one of the simplest ways to avoid getting sick is to wash your hands with soap and hot water, especially after handling raw meat or seafood.

Also, thoroughly wash all utensils and surfaces that come into contact with raw meat and meat juices. Don’t use the same utensils on vegetables AND raw meat. Cross contamination can easily occur.

Keep hot foods hot (60 degrees Celsius) and cold foods cold (4 degrees Celsius or below).

Don’t leave meat, poultry, eggs or shellfish (raw or cooked) at room temperature for more than two hours.

Chill your leftovers as soon as you finish eating, don’t reheat contaminated food and store leftovers in small, shallow containers so they can cool faster.

Also, if you’re thinking of buying food from that person advertising their culinary creations on social media, ask if they have a food-handling permit. Anyone with questions about the sale of home-prepared goods is asked to call their local Environmental Public Health Office.

All food prepared, served or sold to the public must be from an approved facility. The only exception is food sold at Alberta-approved farmers’ markets.

Anyone with additional questions, can click on this link. https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/EPH/EPH.aspx

Hopefully, your holiday season is, or remains, food safe.