Food safety.

Someone sent me a mail yesterday about children licking sweet at night or when they are about ready to go to bed. It was actually an enlightening read, and I thought of food.

How safe are the food we eat?
Because a lot of us parents are working, this leave us with very little time to prepare food in the safety of our own kitchen. We are often condemned to a diet of fast foods, pre-packed meals or bulk cooking in work-place diners, and restaurants. This implies that we are robbed of a large part of whatever control we might otherwise have had over what our children and we eat. If it is necessary that we eat outside of our home, it is important to know how and where the food is prepared, the food handlers have to be given due consideration also. Foods generally become unsafe when:

1. The raw products are contaminated by disease causing agents and/or harmful chemicals (This may be from a polluted environment or from the handlers);
2. The technique of processing, storage and preparation is wrong;
3. Too much, or too little is eaten.

Serious care and attention should be given to children especially because their immunity is lower than that of adults. Please give them adequate supervision when they are about sitting down to a meal, after meals and most especially at bedtimes. Children should be given supervised bath before being taken off to bed and also tell them the importance of washing hands, wash for those too young to wash by themselves. We need to safeguard their health at all time.

Here are a few tips for hand washing:

• Use warm running water.
• Wet your hands before applying soap.
• Rub your soapy hands together for at least 10 seconds (pay attention to the finger nails and webs between the fingers, as well as the back of the hands and thumbs).
• Rinse your hands thoroughly to remove all soap
• Turn off water with paper towel.
• Dry your hands with an air-dryer or a clean paper towel.
• Wash your hands thoroughly after using the rest room/toilet.