HOW TO AVOID ILLNESS DURING LOAD SHEDDING

SOUTH AFRICA has been grappling with power cuts for 15 years, which have worsened in recent years. The persistent power outages have disrupted every facet of life, including food safety. The Conversation Africa’s Ina Skosana spoke to food safety expert Lise Korsten, from the University of Pretoria, about the impact of persistent power cuts on the food in our homes and the best ways to protect ourselves.

How should we manage the food in our fridges?

The reality is that load shedding for extended periods is causing temperature fluctuations in our fridges, particularly if the fridge is regularly opened during load shedding or has old rubber sealants. Temperature fluctuations can make food go bad.

To start with, let’s consider “what’s in our fridges”, “do we really need to keep so much perishable food in our fridges” and “how safe is it, given current load shedding schedules”.

Load shedding is forcing us to think about food safety and spoilage, our general behaviour in terms of food purchases, storage, managing our fridges, hygiene and the use of leftover food.

We need to ask ourselves: “Are we buying more food than we should, and are we not wasting more food?”

Perhaps we should consider a more minimalist lifestyle if we are to survive the economic downturn and manage the impact of load shedding.

Keeping too much food in a fridge increases the potential risk of food-borne illness, given our energy crisis. In short, households need to better manage the food in their fridges and keep as little of it as possible.

What’s the best way to avoid illness?

Keep your fridge – and kitchen – clean. Doing so will reduce the potential of organisms that can proliferate in these environments and cause illnesses, such as food poisoning. There are a few ways to maintain hygiene:

✦ Regularly clean your fridge and keep a special eye on obvious potential contamination points such as areas where, for instance, the blood from raw meat dripped onto the bottom shelf.

✦ Defrost your freezer to remove any ice that is building and can affect the performance of the freezer.

✦ Fridges often maintain the temperature more effectively for longer periods due to new, well-fitting seals. If it’s an older fridge and the rubber seals are broken or the door doesn’t close properly, temperature fluctuations are more likely to occur.

✦ A good rule is also to keep your fridge closed during load shedding and pack higher-risk items towards the back where less temperature fluctuations will occur. The door of the fridge is a higher-risk area because of higher temperature fluctuations. This is important since we often keep milk in this compartment, thereby increasing the risk of it going off before the use-by date.

Why does fridge temperature matter?

We don’t get sick from just one organism. We get sick from a certain number of tiny organisms. What is important to keep in mind is that some microorganisms can multiply rapidly – in fact some every 20 minutes, others even every 10 minutes.

Environmental conditions, such as fluctuating temperatures, will influence how many organisms are present at a certain point in time and can multiply. If the food is kept at temperatures that fluctuate, it will encourage rapid growth of microorganism to levels high enough to cause illness by the time the food is consumed.

In general, microorganisms can multiply at temperatures between 4°C and 60°C. The temperature range is often called the “danger zone” in food safety. Some of the organisms prefer room temperature to rapidly multiply. Leaving food outside the fridge is, therefore, risky behaviour since you do not know if food is contaminated with pathogens or general spoilage can occur. The strategy is, therefore, to prevent contamination or “slow down” the growth of organisms through effective cold chain management.

It’s also important to remember that not all microorganisms are enemies. Less than 1% make us sick. We need to understand the microbial balance in nature and manage the system to our benefit.

Is it safe to eat leftovers?

It’s interesting to mention a study where waste-pickers were asked how they knew when food was safe to eat. They explained reliance on basic skills and instinct, which means sensory parameters: smelling if food is off, touch (that slimy feeling), that “look” (texture and offish) and memory – once you have been sick from a specific food item your body will instinctively react (almost like a shiver down the spine).

The instincts are important and, in a way, a survival skill, so be stringent when keeping leftover food. If you do keep leftovers, try to consume it as soon as possible, preferably the next day.

Also, if you heat something, do so properly. A golden rule is to avoid reheating food, especially not more than once. Keep in mind that microorganisms can survive high and low temperatures, and can rapidly multiply during the cooling periods. Your timeline for safety is reduced the longer you keep your food and expose it to fluctuating temperatures.

If possible, make sure you prepare enough food for only one meal, and try to keep fewer leftovers in your fridge. We should also start thinking about eating smaller portions and asking ourselves: “Do our bodies really need that volume of food?”

What to do?

Plan meal portions, preparation and serving times around load shedding, and manage the food in the fridge more wisely. – excerpts from a piece in The Conversation.