The deadly germ in your fridge...

Wednesday 20 May 2015

A potentially deadly germ lurking in uncooked chicken is affecting 1,000 Islanders every year – and the Health department is trying to stamp it out.

Campylobacter can’t be seen, tasted or smelt, but every single day around three Islanders are affected by it, and already this year it has landed four people in hospital and led to 43 people having to see their GP. In the UK, it causes more food poisoning than salmonella, E. coli and listeria combined.

Most just suffer from stomach pain, diarrhoea or vomiting, but in serious cases it can lead to chronic illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, reactive arthritis or Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can lead in extreme cases to paralysis or even death.

Health say that there are simple steps that Islanders can take to protect themselves and their families:

-      Bag and store raw chicken on the bottom shelf of the fridge, separate to everything else.

-      Don’t wash raw chicken, but wash everything it’s touched from hands to utensils to worktops.

-      Check chicken is cooked properly – there should be no pink meat, it should be steaming hot and the juices running out should be clear.

Health Minister Andrew Green – an expert in food preparation who used to run professional food safety classes – says that good standards of food hygiene are critically important.

He said: “Food poisoning can have a range of negative consequences, including absence from work, the additional burden on our healthcare service and of course the discomfort of feeling unwell.

“To stop the spread of germs we need to spread the word about good standards of food hygiene.”

The message from the Health department is part of Food Safety Week.