Senator McLucas launches food safety advertisements

Media release

12 November 2008

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Jan McLucas, today launched two new TV community service advertisements to ensure that consumers are aware of the food poisoning risks when preparing food at home.

Senator McLucas said the advertisements had been developed by the Food Safety Information Council following a survey by Food Standards Australia New Zealand which found that 92 per cent of Australians were confident about food safety in their home.

“This finding is not in line with the real risk of food poisoning – each year there are about one million cases of food poisoning due to poor food handling in the home,” Senator McLucas said.

“The first ad features a bloke who has accidentally made one of his team-mates so sick from food poisoning at a BBQ that their side lost the final. The other features a woman who has made someone ill by leaving a pavlova unrefrigerated at a family gathering for her father’s birthday. Both of these are scenarios we can all relate to.

“Reducing the risk of food poisoning can be easily achieved by following the Food Safety Information Council’s advice about making sure food that won’t be cooked again isn’t contaminated by juices from raw meat or chicken, that your hands and kitchen utensils are clean and that your fridge is working at or below 5°c.”

The TV ads have been funded by the NSW Food Authority, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Queensland Health, Safe Food Production Queensland and the Victorian Department of Human Services who are all long-term members of the Food Safety Information Council.

In addition to the television advertisements there are three new radio community service announcements, one of them by celebrated food writer Margaret Fulton who has inspired so many Australians to adopt innovative recipes.

National Food Safety Week 2008 is 10-16 November 2008 and is the major activity of the Food Safety Information Council, Australia’s leading disseminator of consumer-targeted food safety information.

The theme of National Food Safety Week is Food Adventures – New Foods, New Techniques. It will focus on food safety in the context of the many new foods and cooking techniques that are becoming mainstream.

The Week kicks off the summer campaign of the Food Safety Information Council, which lasts until 31 January 2009. Food poisoning cases increase over the summer as bacteria are more likely to grow in warmer weather and people entertain family and friends more during this period.

 

 

 

 

The radio community service announcements (the last three are this year’s new announcements including one from Margaret Fulton) are at http://foodsafety.asn.au/publications/radiospots.html and press the play button under each title.

 

 

 

Media contacts: Mark Davis, Office of Senator Jan McLucas 0417 684 096

 

Juliana Madden, Food Safety Information Council 0407 626 688