DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines - Eat For Health

[929]. Fresh fruit and vegetables can also be contaminated, depending on soils and farming
practices. The main causes of foodborne illness in Australia are:
inadequate cooking [928, 931]
improper holding temperatures [928, 931]
contaminated equipment (such as knives, cutting boards and dishcloths) [931]
contaminated food storage and preparation areas
unsafe raw food [931]
allowing raw foods to make direct contact with ready-to-eat foods [928]
poor personal hygiene of food handlers (such as not washing hands adequately,
particularly after handling raw food and immediately after using the toilet) [931]
6.2.1 Foods which may cause problems if not handled
correctly
The following are examples of foods that are normally considered potentially hazardous if not
stored and prepared safely:
raw and cooked meat or foods containing raw or cooked meat
dairy products and foods containing dairy products
seafood and foods containing seafood
cooked rice and pasta
processed fruit and vegetables such as salads
processed foods containing eggs or other protein-rich food
foods that contain any of the foods above, for example, sandwiches [932].
The foods most commonly implicated in foodborne illness in Australia are meat and seafood [928].
Some foodborne pathogens, such as viruses and enterohaemorrhagic strains of E. coli, do not need
to grow in foods to produce illness. Contamination of any ready-to-eat food with such a pathogen
can result in foodborne illness.
6.3 Why it is important to prepare and store
food safely
The ability of micro-organisms to grow in a food depends on external factors (such as
temperature) as well as characteristics of the food itself, such as protein content [933, 934], water
content and pH. For example, bacteria are least active in very acidic foods (pH less than 4.5).
Most bacteria can multiply at temperatures between 5°C and 60°C but a few pathogenic bacteria
multiply at temperatures at or below 5ºC [932]. Exposure to high temperatures destroys the
DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines- December 2011 147