Vomiting, diarrhea, stomach ache ... Between 10 and 13,000 people report food poisoning (or collective food poisoning) to health professionals each year. But according to Laurent Laloux, director of the Food Safety Laboratory at ANSES, "an estimated 1.5 million people" are actually affected per year. On Europe 1, he therefore recalled the good hygiene practices to be observed to avoid bacteria, parasites and other viruses, the most frequent being Salmonella, Campylobacter, and the enteric virus.
What to pay attention to when shopping?
First, you have to look at the expiration dates at purchase, but also throughout the life of the product. With "a tolerance" for yogurts, as explained by Laurent Laloux. "It is an airtight product. It lasts long enough, you can largely leave it behind for seven days."
No question, on the other hand, of "leaving lying around" perishable foodstuffs (meats, fish ...) because "spoilage can be very rapid". If the symptoms of poisoning are often mild, "frail, elderly, young children, pregnant women, immunocompromised people" may have trouble fighting the contaminant. "It can go as far as death, including septicemia, hemolytic and uremic syndromes depending on the pathogens." Hence the importance of being careful.
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You must also try to reduce the time between removing the food from the supermarket and the one where you are going to put it in the fridge, to "limit the time of exposure to ambient temperatures".
What rules in the fridge?
It is also important to keep a good temperature in your refrigerator: between 0 and 4 ° C for the coldest area, generally below, where you put perishable foods, meats and fish. All other areas have slightly higher temperatures, up to 8 ° C. In the door you can put "drinks, condiments, possibly eggs". Above, the rest, cold meats, cooked vegetables ...
Another piece of advice: "avoid cross-contamination between foods" by covering them to protect them. Regarding vegetables, it is best to wash them before putting them away because there is a risk of "contaminating the fridge with the soil". Laurent Laloux also advises to clean his fridge at least once a month, with soap and water or with vinegar water.
What about hygiene in the kitchen?
Especially for meats but also for vegetables, "cooking has always made it possible to suppress bacteria", reminds the director, and "to destroy a large part of the pathogens". On the other hand, certain bacteria produce toxins, "like staphylococcus aureus", in which case cooking destroys the bacteria but not the toxin. If you are a healthy carrier of Staphylococcus aureus, avoid cooking for others.
Parents should be careful to cook steaks well for children, and "clean the bottles systematically". Eggs should not be washed as this weakens the shell and may allow contamination on the surface of the egg to enter. Finally, Laurent Laloux recalls that it is necessary to change or clean "regularly the tea towels and sponges", which quickly carry bacteria, and to avoid letting your pet enter the kitchen.