The importance of food hygiene will be highlighted during of one of the north-east’s biggest food and drink festivals.
Taste of Grampian is being held at the Thainstone Mart, Inverurie this Saturday and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) staff will be on hand to remind people of the basics of avoiding contamination during cooking.
The FSS regulates Scottish food standards and encourages nutritious and healthy diets.
It will be teaching people attending the event the “four C’s” of food safety – cleaning, chilling, cooking and avoiding cross contamination.
Aberdeen Football Club staff will also be on hand at an FSS interactive stand with a football game showing where bugs can hide if food hygiene isn’t followed properly.
Exhibits explaining food labelling, healthy diets and how to avoid food poisoning will also be on show and demonstrations aimed at teaching kids how to make safer and healthier food choices.
FSS chief executive Geoff Ogle said: “We’re excited to attend this year’s Taste of Grampian as a new body focussed on championing the interests of consumers in Scotland when it comes to food safety, food standards and nutrition.
“The spread of dangerous food borne bacteria such as E-coli O157 and campylobacter through cross contamination affects too many people and can occur when preparing food so we like to take every opportunity to remind people of all ages how important it is to be careful about how to store and handle food.”
Diseases caused by food account for 43,000 infections, 5,800 GP visits and 500 hospital admissions in Scotland every year.