Do not put your Business on the Spot this Easter.

Dear Business Owners,

it is a great thing to be able to entertain and feed the masses at such great occasions like Easter. But please, do not risk your reputation or (even worse) your business by being too careless about Food Safety.

Staff handling food are one of the most important source of food poisoning outbreaks. About 50% of the human population are healthy carriers of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that is not only infamously dubbed the 'Hospital Superbug', but that is also an important foodborne pathogen. Healthy humans carry this bacteria in their noses, throats ears or the back of their heads. They do not show any signs or symptoms of disease. If ready-to-eat food is contaminated with this bacteria, which produces a toxin that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, a food poisoning outbreak is likely! Especially older and very young people (exactly those we all wish to be extra safe and well protected) are at risk of suffering food poisoning from that cold lunch or lovely dessert they chose from your menu.

Educate your food handlers in personal hygiene procedures and enforce a stringent illness reporting policy in your business to avoid pathogen contamination of the foods you serve from food handlers that either do not observe the simplest of personal hygiene rules or from food handlers that work with food despite having just suffered from symproms of foodborne illness or infection.

The best way of educating staff is to train them regularly: MKRMS Food Safety offers a range of food safety training courses for food handlers at all levels.

The next available course will be held in Gorey, Co. Wexford on the 22nd April 2009, starting at 9.30 a.m. I hope to see loads of eager participants at this course, because only by educating those who might become the source of food poisoning outbreaks can we effectively avoid our customers becoming sick from the food they ate in our restaurant or from our Deli counter.

For more information log on to http://www.mkrms.com. Page now also available in German.