Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Food safety experts on hand to check kitchen habits.

Food safety will be top of the menu next week as a team of experts will be helping people assess if their cooking habits are hygienic enough.

Food safety officers from Wiltshire Council’s public protection team will be on hand at County Hall, Trowbridge on Tuesday June 11th from 10am to 4pm to offer advice and help people with a kitchen checklist to see how high they score in preparing and cooking food hygienically.

By answering the questions on the checklist about food surfaces, preparation and cooking, participants can determine if they are a ‘hygiene machine,’ ‘kitchen cavalier’ or a ‘sloppy joe.’ The event is being held as part of the national Food Safety week which runs from June 10th to 16th.

Food poisoning is common and nationally about 100,000 people a year are affected. This figure represents those people who went to their doctor. However, food borne illness is under reported and the actual figure is probably about 10 times this, equating to one million people a year. In Wiltshire alone in 2012/13 there were 326 confirmed incidents of food borne infections.

The stand at the atrium will feature a range of food safety advice and will be available all week. You can also access the food safety check online at the Food Standards Agency website http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/webpage/kitchen-check-stakeholders/