We went to 4 secondary schools, and the best part for me was teaching the children in year 7 and 8 about food safety. Then we sampled in total 70 packed lunches to analyse them from a nutritional angle and 49 of them were sent for microbiological analysis.

Only 7% of the lunches passed Robert’s criteria for a healthy lunch. The most popular non-permitted snacks were crisps, which were recorded in 42% of packed lunches. On the plus side, 56% of lunch boxes did contain at least one piece of fruit and therefore the recorded levels of vitamin C were well above the nutritional standard.

From a food hygiene perspective, 41% were either borderline or unsatisfactory in terms of the presences of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms. Thirteen samples tested positive for Enterbacteriaceae, which is a group of bacteria used to assess the general hygiene status of a food product and includes species that originate from the intestinal tract of animals and humans, as well as plants and the environment. E.coli was also found in one sample and two samples were positive for Staphylococcus aureus, an organism that is indicative of poor personal hygiene.

To reduce the risk of pathogenic bacterial growth or contamination in lunch boxes, care must be taken when preparing lunches to avoid contaminating the food, hands are washed before preparing any foods and lunch boxes are cleaned each day. Over 90% of students confirmed that their lunch box is stored in their schools bags, which have also been used to carry books or sports kits that could easily contaminate the lunch box’ external surfaces, which can then be transferred onto the student’s hands and subsequently the contents of the packed lunches.

From the initial findings it is clear that many lunch boxes are kept for several hours at room temperature, potentially allowing food poisoning bacteria to grow.

Robert Hobson RPHNutr MSc said; “The audit we have produced shows that a majority of the lunch boxes analysed failed to meet the food and nutrient-based standard for school lunches and this implies that food brought from home was less healthy than the food provided by the school canteen, whose menu is required to meet such standards. It is tricky for parents to not only take into consideration the nutritional standards when packing their child’s lunch each morning, but to offer variety. This analysis highlights that lunches offered in the school canteen can instead offer a far healthier alternative.”

As part of the Lunch Box Amnesty study group, 80 students were questioned as to whether they ever throw away any of the contents of their lunch box. Just under 43% said they do and the main reasons stated (in order of prominence) included not liking the food provided, no longer feeling hungry or concern about whether the food is safe to eat based on the ‘use by date’ or its smell.

With children of my own, I know how difficult it is to provide packed lunches that are nutritious, safe and which contain foods the children will actually eat. My children have school lunches, because I know that they get a nutritious meal prepared and stored under temperature control, rather than festering at the bottom of a warm school locker. Plus I don’t have to buy packed lunch food and get nagged to include unhealthy items – and then feel guilty about it! So my advice to parents is put your foot down – let the school do the catering!

The recent figures show that 90% of cases of Campylobacter from catering establishments come from consumption of chicken liver pate. There have been 443 this year and one hospitalisation.

Bob Martin, head of foodborne disease strategy at the FSA, said: “Unfortunately, levels of Campylobacter in most raw chicken are high so it’s really important that chefs cook livers thoroughly to kill any bacteria, even if recipes call for them to be seared and left pink in the middle.

“The only way of ensuring the pate or parfait will be safe to serve to your guests or customers is by cooking the livers the whole way through. Caterers should also follow good general hygiene practices when cooking and handling poultry livers, to avoid cross contamination with Campylobacter.”

So come on BBC – get your chefs up to speed with government advice!

And if anyone is thinking of serving up chicken liver parfait, all nice and pink to Granny on Christmas Day, do think again! Stick to the sherry and crisps instead.

Cheers, and have a good Christmas.

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 We gave the producer two Proclean swabs to see instantly whether they had dirty surfaces in their studio – unfortunately I had to get on a train at that point, so I don’t know what they found!

 Whilst this was a bit of fun, it highlighted that the items had become rather dirty. The serious part of this is that if any of the cells we recovered had been dangerous bacteria or viruses, they could be transmitted to the user. Therefore where such items are shared, then they should be cleaned from time to time to reduce the risk of infection, and also if someone is ill with a cough or cold, then more vigilant cleaning should take place to make sure that diseases are not spread around the work-place. Above all, hand washing is really important.

 What had prompted the BBC radio piece is the fact that tomorrow is Global Hand washing day, and to mark this researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London had taken nearly 400 samples from mobile phones and hands in 12 British cities. They found 16% of phones and 16% of hands harboured E. coli (Escherichia coli), bacteria which inhabit the human intestines. The largest proportion of contaminated phones was in Birmingham (41%) while Londoners were caught with the highest proportion of E. coli present on hands (28%).

The clear message is that we all need to remember that hand-washing one of the most important measures of preventing infectious disease, and that we all have a responsibility to participate, particularly after using the toilet – it appears that many of those people in the survey had not bothered. Yuk!

Proclean and systemSURE products are available from Hygiene Audit Systems.

The Health Protection Agency today revealed that unwashed
leeks and potatoes may have been the cause of 250 scattered cases of E.coli O157 during 2010- 2011 which
hospitalised 74 people and killed one already sick person.

The message is simple: cooking kills E.coli, but make sure you wash your hands properly after handling
raw vegetables – not a quick swill under the tap, but with soap, warm water and
dry them properly afterwards preferably on a paper towel or hand towel – not a
tea towel! Also use anti-bacterial products to kill E.coli on potentially contaminated surfaces such as chopping boards
and sinks. This advice is sound for catering environments and in the home.

I am chairing the RSPH conference on E.coli on 16^th
November 2011 in London; my paper is on prevention of E.coli in the home environment. For more information go to: http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/courses-conferences-and-events/events/index.cfm

It raises the issue again of how to clean produce which is
to be eaten raw: produce wash for domestic and commercial use is available: http://shop.hygieneauditsystems.com/

So would I want to eat a peck of dirt? Not if it has E. coli on it – and how can you tell? It seems as though nearly every month another source of this potentially deadly organism is uncovered.

But there is still a lot of confusion about what the “use-by” or “best-before” actually means and I was asked to explain this on BBC Breakfast TV on 15^th September.

“Best-before” relates to quality – so it gives an indication of how long the food will be at its best quality.   The manufacturer of a product with a best before date will not guarantee the products safety or quality after the best before date.  It is not an offence to sell food after the expiry of the “best-before” date, however it is not good practice as the quality may have been affected and in some cases the safety.  With some products including fresh produce, you can use your common sense to decide whether to use it or not (trimming bruised apples, and keeping tomatoes after the “best-before” date has expired if they still look fine). Confusingly eggs have a “best before” date but this DOES need to be adhered to.

“Use-by” dates are an indication of how long the food should be safe to eat if stored under the conditions the manufacturer recommends – for example under 5^oC.  Of course if a fridge operates at a higher temperature, then the food may not last as long.  It is an offence to sell foods after the expiry of the “use-by” date, even if it is later proved that it was not dangerous.  It is important NOT to rely on organoleptic assessment of foods with “use-by” dates because many of them have been processed, and the normal indicator organisms of spoilage may have been killed; this means that pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus can grow, leaving harmful toxins on foods such as cooked meats, with no tell-tale signs at all. So don’t take risks with “use-by” dates – let’s face it, if you could tell whether a food would give you food poisoning by looking at it, there wouldn’t be any food poisoning would there?!

The Innovate ‘Lunch Box Amnesty’ project has invited a number of schools from across the UK to participate and involves myself and food nutritionist Robert Hobson hosting a lesson with students to discuss the life of a lunchbox.

We attended our first session at a high school in Worthing last week and the participation from the 30 year seven and eight students was excellent.  The interactive event quizzed the students on food nutrition and health, and afterwards samples were taken from their lunchboxes and sent to the lab for analysis.

We will be releasing the findings during the start of the Autumn term and look forwarding finding out just how safe our kids lunch boxes really are!

 www.innovate-services.com

As a precaution, the Agency is advising that sprouted seeds should only be eaten if they have been cooked thoroughly until steaming hot throughout; they should not be eaten raw.

Before cooking you should also:-

• keep sprouting seeds refrigerated
• avoid sprouts that have turned brown or have a strange odour
• rinse raw sprouts thoroughly
• follow any instructions on the packaging and use the beansprouts by the ‘use by’ dates

After handling sprouted seeds you should:-

• clean equipment which has been used for sprouting seeds thoroughly after use with hot soapy water
• wash your hands thoroughly

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its report into the source of the outbreaks which concludes that a batch of fenugreek seeds, originally supplied from a company in Egypt to a German company is the most likely link between the two outbreaks.

Sprouting seeds have also been reported to be implicated in over 40 outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli over recent years and contaminated beansprouts were the cause of a UK outbreak of Salmonella Bareilly in 2010 that resulted in 241 confirmed cases. 

For more information on E. coli and beansprouts please visit the news pages on our website at www.hygieneauditsystems.com

To read the article click on this link and go to page 18/19:

http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2011/05/09/

As I have been called on as an expert witness in cases involving E. coli outbreaks it is a subject that I feel very strongly about.

In my capacity as Food Safety Advisor to the RSPH I have been asked to chair their E. coli conference on 16th November   2011.

Expert speakers will be reviewing case studies from farms, beaches, pop festivals, petting zoos, kitchens and hotels and asking ‘Why does E. coli appear in so many different locations?’

Significant discounts available for EHOs for more details contact Claire crobins@rsph.org.uk

Save the date!

All these questions keep coming up – but what truth is there in them? First, I’d say that no-one is telling anyone to create a sterile environment, and to disinfect every surface we can see. Moderation in all things is important, and with cleaning, the message is to ensure that the surfaces that really matter are cleaned to high standards, which would mean to disinfect  them, and other things just need to be visibly clean.

 As a busy mum, I don’t have the time or inclination to create a sterile home environment – and that’s just not possible anyway. What I do concentrate on though is making sure that after handling raw meat and poultry I am particularly careful to wash my hands thoroughly and to disinfect the surfaces and utensils – this takes minutes, but could prevent no end of suffering. If you have had food poisoning, you will know what I mean. Equally, if you take your kids to the farm, you don’t want them to be at risk of E.coli, so hand washing and taking care is essential – particularly before having a picnic or meal in the café. So the message is, let kids get mucky, but before they eat, make them wash their hands – the old values need to come back.

 Studies in the home that we have carried out have been enlightening – I can’t see much evidence of sterile homes at all! Kitchen cloths, fridges, taps etc all have been found to harbour bacteria, and some of them potentially hazardous, so I can’t buy in to the theory that we are all too clean!

 So some dirt may be ok for you, but don’t eat E.coli O157, Campylobacter or Salmonella, and leave out the Listeria too! Simple measures with the knowledge of how these bacteria can enter the home or kitchen, and controlling them through proper storage, cooking and cleaning takes very little time up, costs little, and can save you and your family or customers no end of trouble, for many of these illnesses result in not just a bit of diarrhoea and vomiting but can have long lasting ill-effects such as reactive arthritis, kidney failure and even death. After all, you wouldn’t want to be responsible for that would you? A bit of disinfection and cleaning is a small price to pay and when it comes to removing those pathogens, you can’t be too clean.

 It’s amazing that whilst 72% of a group surveyed said they would spring clean their house, many did not actually do any cleaning on a daily basis! The importance of cleaning in the kitchen is that it is done on a when needed basis, for example, after preparing raw meat and poultry, rather than saving up all the cleaning up to do once a year! E.coli and Campylobacter can survive for long periods of time on kitchen surfaces, so it’s important to clean as you go to make sure that you don’t spread these bacteria from a dirty surface or hands onto ready-to-eat foods.

Here’s a clip of me on my Mission for Health : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ7pISjR1hk