In 2009 National Food Safety Week ran from Monday 15 June to Sunday 21 June.
Listeria Awareness for the Over 60s
The focus was food hygiene advice for the over 60s on the need for correct storage and handling of food at home, to avoid deadly listeria food poisoning.
The council's food safety team in Environmental Health worked with local voluntary groups such as Age Concern and local places of worship.
The reason for this focus is the recent rise in cases of Listeria within this age group. Cases have doubled since 2001 and it causes the same number of deaths per year as Salmonella and E.coli O157 combined.
Key Messages
The key messages are that people can take practical actions themselves to reduce the risk of contracting Listeria, including storing food correctly by:
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Keeping fridges at the correct temperature
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Following the storage instructions on the label
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Using food by its Use By date and understanding the difference between Best Before and Use By
For more advice, go to the Look Out for Listeria page in our Food Safety at Home section, or download the leaflets below. In this section you can find out more about our local activities for Food Safety Week in Eastbourne.
In this section...
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Beat the Bingo Bug! Game - a fun way to spread the Food Safety Week messages to older people locally, including several sessions at the Age Concern Eastbourne Centre in Junction Road.
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Look Out for Listeria Information Displays - in our Customer Contact Centre at 1 Grove Road Eastbourne and the Age Concern Centre. We gave away 100 free fridge thermometers to local people over 60.
Over 400 fridge thermometers and advice leaflets were also distributed to residents of Eastbourne Homes sheltered housing by the Older Persons Social Engagement Officer.
National Awareness Campaign
You can also obtain a fridge thermometer by contacting Food Standards Agency Publications on 0845 606 0667. You can download national campaign resources from the FSA website.
The FSA's national campaign activities for Food Safety Week 2009 involved:
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distribution of nearly 1.5 million leaflets through GPs surgeries and pharmacies across the UK
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campaign messages printed on 2.25 million pharmacy bags, distributed from 15 June for three months through 750 pharmacies in areas with higher proportions of people aged 60 and over
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a six week run of advertorials in the Daily Telegraph engaging the audience through case studies, quizzes and checklists
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media relations activity to encourage print and broadcast media to promote the messages
