Parents are warned not to use processed meats in children’s lunch boxes.
Keep food at safe temperatures, refrigerate and reheat foods correctly.
After the Minister announced that the source of the outbreak was found to be processed meat products such as polony, vienna sausages and other processed cold meat products often consumed by children, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) sent out a press statement reassuring parents that the National School Nutrition Programme is not affected by Listeriosis.
The DBE urges parents to heed the advice from Health Minister Motsoaledi when preparing lunch boxes for their children, to ensure that they contain no food items that may carry Listeriosis.
The DBE advised schools of the following:
– Volunteer Food Handlers should maintain a high level of personal hygiene and wash hands at all times. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Ensure safe preparation, cooking, serving of meals and cleaning of the cooking area.
– Learners should wash any fruit bought from the school vendor before consuming it. Practice basic food hygiene principles as outlined in the World Health Organisation’s ‘Five Keys to Safer Food’ programme. The core ‘commandments’ of food hygiene are: Keep clean by washing your hands before handling food and often during food preparation. Separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other foods. Cook foods thoroughly, especially meat, poultry, eggs and seafood.
Keep food at safe temperatures, refrigerate and reheat foods correctly.
Use safe water and raw materials: use safe water or make it safe (by boiling); choose foods processed for safety such as pasteurised dairy products. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly, especially if eaten raw.
The Department of Health advises members of the public to avoid all processed meat products that are sold as ready-to-eat. While we know that polony is definitely implicated, there is a risk of cross-contamination of other ready-to-eat processed meat products, either at production, distribution or retail. This is because Listeria on the exterior casing (packaging) of products such as polony can be transferred to other products it comes into contact with, including viennas, russians, frankfurters, other sausages, and other ‘cold meat’ products that are typically not cooked before eating.
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