Our Secondary students doing VCE Unit 1 & 2 Food Studies attended a personal development class with Veg Education on Tuesday, 14th February 2023 to learn about safety and hygiene practices.
A major pillar of their Food Studies subject is food safety and hygiene practices: Students are required to demonstrate the safe use of both equipment and techniques in relation to the preparation, cooking and presentation of food. Proper steps must be taken to ensure all foods are always safe for consumption. This means practising personal hygiene, appropriately storing foods and maintaining cleanliness in the kitchen.
The session helped our Senior students to gain a deeper understanding about preparing food safe for consumption by considering temperature, time, storage and cross-contamination. They delved into how food poisoning can occur and what can be done to avoid food spoilage and contamination when preparing food at school or at home.
Students also learnt that an estimated 4.1 million cases of food poisoning occur in Australia each year, including 31,920 hospitalisations, 86 deaths and one million visits to doctors – all because of unsafe food handling.