'Food Safety on a Budget' is the focus this Food Safety Week and the FSA (Foods Standards Agency) are reminding people not to take risks with food safety, even when budgets are tight.

This has become more apparent as food prices have significantly increased in the last three years and people are trying to save money and make their meals go further.

The FSA have given the following advice to reduce your chance of food poisoning by not storing or handling leftover food correctly.

Leftover food advice:

• Cool food within 90 minutes if possible, cover and store in the fridge. Consume within 2 days.
• Make sure your fridge is set to below 5 degrees.
• If you freeze leftovers, ensure sufficiently cooled first.  Remember quality deteriorates after 3 months, so it is best to consume before then.
• Always thoroughly defrost leftovers before using them, if eating straight away in a microwave, if not defrost them in the fridge overnight.
• Eat leftovers within 24 hours of defrosting and DO NOT refreeze again.  If raw meat is defrosted and then cooked this is ok.
• Make sure all cooked food is steaming hot throughout

Emma Marsh, Community Partnership Manager at the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, said: 

'Making the most of the food we buy is increasingly important to us all, especially with ever tighter household budgets, but we’re still unnecessarily wasting 20% of the food we buy. Food is there to be eaten, so this Food Safety Week let’s enjoy our leftovers and do it safely. LoveFoodHateWaste.com has hundreds of tips, recipe ideas and inspiration to help us all waste less and save more.'

Use by Dates:

'Use By Dates' are very important as the quality of the food deteriorates rapidly and then the food can become unsafe.

Bob Martin, a food safety expert at the FSA, said:

'It’s tempting to just give your food a sniff to see if you think it’s gone "off", but food bugs like E.coli and salmonella don’t cause food to smell off, even when they may have grown to dangerous levels. So food could look and smell fine but still be harmful.

The verdict is to stick to use by dates as these are the most important on the packet.  The best before date relates to the food quality and is not such an issue.

So follow the above guidelines and have a safe summer, if it ever arrives!!