Singing the praises of Foodsafe Week

If you're cooking and you know it wash your hands – that's the message from a group of Hastings Girls High School students who took out the top prize in this year's Foodsafe Week competition.

Their clever ditty (sung to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It) and accompanying video, together with a brochure and a PowerPoint presentation have won them – and their school – hundreds of dollars worth of prizes.

This week Meleane Filipo, Hariru Hawkins and MaryAnne Time flew to Wellington to meet Food Safety Minister Lianne Dalziel at her Beehive office where they were presented with their goodies, including a range of gift vouchers and cash prizes from Foodsafe Week sponsors including Inghams, Tegal Chicken and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA). The school also received an iPod and cash prizes.

Foodsafe Week (November 12-19) is an annual event held at the start of every Kiwi summer to highlight the importance of food safety in the home. It is run by the Foodsafe Partnership which works to remind consumers of the importance of the 4Cs and the 20+20 hand wash rule. The 4Cs are Clean, Cook, Cover, Chill and the 20+20 rule is 20 seconds wash + 20 seconds dry = clean hands. Proper kitchen hygiene will lessen the risk of you joining the 200,000 Kiwis who come down with foodborne illness each year.

As part of this year's campaign, which focused on food safety awareness among New Zealand's youth, final year high school students were asked to create effective and engaging food safety messages that would encourage first-time home leavers to take the issue seriously.

Lianne Dalziel says: "Young people tend to be over-represented in foodborne illness statistics. Those in their late teens who have flown the nest have more on their minds than proper food handling and hand and kitchen hygiene.

"Combine this with the need to make funds go as far as possible and aging fridges in student flats – any parent can see how the bacteria that can cause foodborne illness could be partying as hard as their kids."

Lianne Dalziel said she was impressed with the effort the Hastings students had put into their entry. "It's good to see young people taking an interest in the importance of food safety and I was delighted with their enthusiasm and creativity."

Note to editors: The New Zealand Foodsafe Partnership is made up of representatives from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, the food industry, consumer groups, public health units and the Ministry of Health, who work together to promote consistent and appropriate food safety messages to consumers and press home the 4Cs: Clean, Cook, Cover, Chill and 20+20 hand wash rule. For more information on the partnership, visit: www.foodsafe.org.nz
Photographs from the event can be downloaded from: http://www.foodsafe.org.nz/node/74