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Food Focus June 2009

Food safety

Hot tips for a safe sausage sizzle

Sausage sizzles are a popular way to raise money for schools, sports teams, charities and community groups. But if the food is not prepared, stored or cooked properly it can make people sick. Event organisers need to ensure the food they sell at their sausage sizzle is safe.

NZFSA has published information online called Hot tips for a safe and successful sausage sizzle. It is part of a series of food handler guidance information sheets which give food safety tips for selling food at occasional events and food safety tips for event organisers, as well as sausage sizzle advice.

Hot tips for a safe and successful sausage sizzle provides clear advice to help fundraisers plan, prepare, cook and serve food safely.

In particular, you should:

• Organise to collect food from your supplier as close as possible to the event so it is fresh and at a safe temperature.

• Ensure everyone who will help on the stall thoroughly washes their hands, is clean and healthy, and free from colds, cuts and skin rashes.

• Make sure cash handlers do not handle food unless they wash their hands thoroughly between tasks.

• Store food so it’s kept clean and protected from contamination, such as in a chilly bin or portable fridge.

• Cook sausages right through to the centre, until there are no pink bits left.

• Keep cold food cold (below 4ºC) and hot food hot (above 60ºC) to prevent harmful microbes from growing.

• Throw away any cooked food that has been on display but hasn’t been sold by the end of the day.

Most fundraising activities involving food, including sausage sizzles, are not required to meet the same registration requirements expected of food businesses. However, there may be local requirements, particularly concerning where food may be sold. Before making any firm plans, event organisers should contact their local council to discuss what food they want to sell and where they want to sell it. The council’s environmental health officer will tell you about any requirements the council may have, such as a permit to sell the food.

Hot tips for a safe and successful sausage sizzle and other food handler guidance can be viewed on NZFSA’s website

Tasty treat with a nasty bite

It may be a traditional treat to lick the bowl and spoon when baking, but the New Zealand Food Safety Authority is advising against it after an outbreak of Salmonella was linked to some brands of flour.

Eating uncooked flour in batter or home-made play-dough is one of the possible activities associated with a Salmonella outbreak in December 2008.

Raw ingredients such as flour and eggs aren't sterile. Cooking will kill any bacteria and make home-baked goods safe to eat. Licking the bowls and utensils during cooking exposes you to raw ingredients that could contain harmful bacteria.

Not berry nice

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) is investigating how black nightshade berries got into some frozen vegetables packets.

While it is very unlikely a person could eat enough to be at risk, the unripe green berries can be mildly toxic and should be avoided.

Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) berries have been found in several packets of frozen vegetables. The plant is distinct from deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) which can be fatal but is rare in New Zealand.

NZFSA compliance director Dr Geoff Allen says the contamination probably occurred when the berries were inadvertently harvested with peas.

“Black nightshade is a common weed in New Zealand so it’s possible for small numbers of the berries to be found in any product that contains peas.”

While NZFSA believes it is unlikely to be a safety issue, it is not appropriate for frozen vegetable products to contain the numbers of berries that have been reported.

“We are working with the companies concerned to make sure they have put in place solutions that will minimise the chance of a repeat of the problem,” Geoff says.

Unripe black nightshade berries are similar in size, shape and colour to peas but have star-like scales where the berry originally connected to the stem. They also reveal seeds when squeezed.

If you find berries in a frozen vegetable product, remove them or return the product to your supplier. If you find a large number of berries, alert your local public health unit, and see a doctor if you have any health concerns.