A day trip out for a picnic to one of the many green parks and open spaces around Huntingdonshire may be spoilt this summer by food poisoning if people are not careful and keep their food cool as food bug numbers can soar in the heat, says Huntingdonshire District Council’s food safety team.

This week is Food Safety Week and the Food Standards Agency warns that ‘Bugs Like It Hot’ as there is a surge in cases of food poisoning during the summer months – every year there are around 800,000 cases of food poisoning in the UK with just under half of cases due to bugs such as salmonella and campylobacter occurring during the June to September period.

To combat this trend, the district council’s food safety team advises the public to keep food cool when eating outside. Just ten invisible bugs in your food can multiply to 1,000 in six hours; 100,000 in less than ten hours; and to more than a million in 12 hours. And, when it’s very hot, bugs can multiply even faster!

“Bugs can be prevented from gatecrashing people’s summer parties,” said Environmental Health Protection Officer, Belinda Betham “These bugs multiply at such a rate, especially in cars while travelling, that they threaten to take over the day!  Picnics should be chilled, particularly if stored in the back seat of a car or in the boot as they are breeding ‘hot spots’ for bugs”.

“If you keep food cool or chilled, you won’t get such an unpleasant gathering…. and there will be less chance of a problem later”, said Belinda.

Top tips from the district council’s food safety team to day-trippers on keeping food cool on hot, sunny days are:-
• Avoid delays in getting shopping home –  if possible, use a cool bag
• If you are taking food for a picnic or day out, put it in a cool bag with some ice bricks or frozen cartons of fruit juice, to help keep it cool.
• Keep the food in the cool bag until you are ready to eat it
• Always keep stored food covered and out of the sun
• Make sure that raw foods such as meat are kept separately from ready-to-eat foods