Health risks arise from home hygiene
1 June 2000
Health risks arise from home hygiene
INDIVIDUAL hygiene at home is to blame for a significant proportion of food poisoning in Britain, claims the head of the governments food safety watchdog.
Foods Standards Agency (FSA) chairman Professor Sir John Krebs said education in food hygiene had slipped over the years.
“A lot of people get food poisoning and we cant identify exactly where theyre getting it from,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Farming Today programme.
“But certainly some of it boils down to individual hygiene at home.”
He added: “We all recognise that education in food hygiene and in nutrition has somewhat slipped.
“All the people that Ive talked to about that say there isnt enough education in that dimension.”
Sir John said efforts had to be made to improve education in food hygiene.
The FSA is currently analysing the results of major consultation on labelling earlier in the year.
The results will be published later in the year after which the agency will work with industry and consumer groups to improve labelling.
Sir John also suggested that barcode readers in supermarkets which show barcode information on monitors could provide more labelling information for consumers.