The View of a Microbiologist and Food Technologist

by Sophie
(Scotland)

As a Food Technologist for the past 20 years, I often feel I maybe missed the point somewhere regarding Food Health and Safety. At work I would never take a risk with recipes, times and temperatures. Everything is done by the book. However at home it's a different story.

I truely believe one of the reasons our children are gowing up with so many allergies is that they are being brought up in a too sterile environment.

We need micro-organisms in our life, the vast majority of bacteria are good for us and keep the circle of life in balance. Only a handful are dangerous, and basic food hygiene and common sense will keep them at bay. The fridge is our best friend!

I have never been uber clean, the steriliser went out of the window when the children were 3 months old, they played with the dogs and cats, got dirty, picked blackberries and ate them (yes without washing them!) They are fit and healthy kids, no asthma or allergies and I can't rememeber the last time they were ill.

May be I'm lucky, but I do think we can get too hung up about food. I try and live by the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time we eat fresh healthy home cooked meals, 20% of the time we don't!

The photo's above are of my son Fraser. He was out fishing today and returned with a catch of cod and mackeral, yum!

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