Good hygiene, careful storage and food preparation are essential components of healthy eating. Here are some important points to remember if you want to improve food hygiene and have stored food last longer:

At the supermarket, frozen products should be the last thing to go in your shopping trolley. Best of all is to take a coolbag with you and pack the frozen stuff in it as soon as you’re past the checkout. In this way you make sure the cool chain isn’t interrupted. When the weather is warm, it’s advisable to transport fresh meat and fish in a coolbag anyway.

Once you’re back home with your purchases, there is more you can do for food hygiene. In commercial food processing plants, preparation areas are divided into ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ zones. You can apply this division at home in a modified way at home. So you’ll separate ‘unclean’ areas, like potato storage, beverage crates and the egg rack in your fridge (because of the salmonella risk) from the ‘clean’ areas where you make salads or prepare raw fish and meat.