Christmas Dinner - Thank God We're Still Alive

Now that Christmas is well and truly out of the way, we should all count our blessings that (hopefully) we made it through in one piece.

Research published last year by the Public Health Laboratory in the UK suggests that 88% of all cases of food poisoning occur at family social functions and Christmas dinner is a major culprit.

Sarah O'Brien commented "Many hosts, unused to preparing food for large numbers of people, undercooked meals, failed to keep food stored correctly and allowed food to become cross-contaminated, by using the same knife or surface to chop uncooked and cooked meats".

According to experts, Christmas dinner is a disaster waiting to happen with it's combination of large frozen poultry, unusually large numbers of dinner guests, re-served cold leftovers and meals which people are not used to cooking throughout the year.

In Britain, 39% of food poisoning cases between 1992 and 1999 were caused by poor food storage, 31% by undercooking and 20% by cross-contamination. The U.S department of Agriculture estimates 60% of poultry sold in the States is contaminated with some form of bacteria.

Contaminated food does not affect all of us in the same way. Most immune systems can cope with bacteria, viruses and parasites, although food poisoning is a particular danger to the very young, the elderly and anyone whose immune system is weakened (by illness or long-term stress, for example).

Saturday, 2 February 2002