The following are few tips to avoid food poisoning • Good personal hygiene. Keep your nails short. Wash your hand regularly especially after toilet, touching soiled plates, dustbins etc. Keep your hair neat. Wear gloves when necessary. • Keep your environment neat and clean. • Separate raw and ready to eat foods to avoid cross-contamination. • Clean and sanitize cutting boards, meat slicers and utensils between tasks or every 2 hours if doing the same task. Consider using different coloured boards for raw foods (meat, chicken, fish) and those that are ready to eat (lettuce, tomato, fruit etc). • Minimize the time food spends in the temperature danger zone. For example, when cutting large batches of potentially hazardous food, such as chicken, take only one container of chicken out of the refrigerator at a time and then place back in the refrigerator before bringing out additional meat for preparation. • When preparing large volumes of food, assign one person to focus on the cutting or slicing for the duration instead of many people doing multiple tasks at one time. This will prevent cross contamination. • Keep cold food cold (less than 5°C) and hot food hot (over 60°C). • Thaw foods in the fridge/microwave. • Reheat leftovers to steaming hot • Wash hands, utensils and bench tops with hot soapy water. • Rinse fruit and vegetables under cold running water. • Cool hot foods in the fridge, not on the bench. • Check that the food packaging is not damaged and there is no obvious sign of pest presence. • Use a thermometer to make sure refrigerated food is 5°C or below if chilled, or at or below minus 18°C if frozen, before accepting the food. • Look at the vehicle that delivers your food – make sure it is clean and that it is not used for transporting anything other than food - e.g. it is not used to carry animals or chemicals. • Check the “best before” or “use by” date – if the “use by” date has passed the food may have spoilt.