Food safety warning for over 60s

Friday, 19 June 2009

People over the age of 60 are more likely to take risks with ‘use by’ dates than younger people, according to new research findings published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Eating food beyond its ‘use by’ date increases the risk of food poisoning from listeria. A recent sharp rise in the number of people taken ill with listeria has seen more older people affected by the potentially deadly food bug.
The number of cases of listeria food poisoning rose by 20 per cent in 2007 and has doubled since 2000. This increase has occurred predominantly among people over 60.
The research - published during Food Safety Week (June 15 - 21) - shows less than half of this age group recognise ‘use by’ dates as an important indicator of whether food is safe or not, and so could be putting themselves at risk of serious illness.
The research findings include the following:
• less than half of older people questioned in the survey correctly identified the ‘use by’ date as an important indicator of whether a food is safe – much lower than people in younger age groups.
• older respondents were more likely to eat food past its ‘use by’ date. For example 40 per cent would eat dairy products up to three days past their ‘use by’ date – listeria has been reported from dairy products as well as a wide range of other chilled ready to eat foods.
• less than half of people aged over 65 checked their fridge temperature at least every six months – setting the right temperature is important for controlling listeria growth in food.
According to Jeff Beynon, Pembrokeshire County Council’s food, safety and port health manager, there are three key messages for the over 60s -don’t eat food past its ‘use by’ date; ensure your fridge temperature is between 0c and 5c; follow the storage instructions on food labels.
He said: “In Pembrokeshire, the council’s public protection food safety and standards team develops and implements a sampling programme each year for checking the microbiological quality of foods produced and sold in the county.
“We sample from each of the approved manufacturers of products of animal origin and participate in co-ordinated sampling programmes organised with other local authorities in Wales through the Welsh Food Microbiological Forum.
“These surveys can either be fairly general - where food samples are obtained from a list of foods, depending on what foods are available in randomly chosen premises - or can be targeted, looking at certain types of foods to determine their quality.
“Indeed targeted surveys are sometimes utilised to look for certain organisms such as listeria monocytogenes in foods that are likely to support its growth.
“We would take in the region of 170 samples per year for microbiological purposes and a range of potential disease causing bacteria are sampled for including salmonella, campylobacter, E.coli, staph aureus and listeria.”
To mark Food Safety Week in Pembrokeshire, information leaflets on listeria and free fridge thermometers are available in the Customer Service Centre in North Wing, County Hall, Haverfordwest.
For more advice log onto www.eatwell.gov.uk/listeria or www.eatwell.gov.uk/germwatch

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