Russell McMahon wrote:

>>> NZ site giving official coordinated guidelines on health-safety=20
>>> procedures for food cooking, refrigeration, freezing,  thawing and=20
>>> more.
>         http://www.safefoodonline.com/article.asp?article=3D653

>> About as useful as the California warnings on everything suspected=20
>> of causing cancer.   Bah, humbug. =20

> It's not quite that bad. It does point out that people with certain=20
> specified problems or conditions should avoid the above.
> And it does give some good quantitative data on eg temperatures, max=20
> times before refrigeration, max times after thawing and it gives a=20
> little insight into why it recommends what it does.=20

Not enough insight for my taste... :)

"Keep domestic fridges at temperatures of 5=B0C or below."=20

Why is that? Most fridges below 5=B0C tend to have places where stuff fre=
ezes
uncontrolledly in certain places and gets bad (greens for example).

"Do not use pre-packaged foods beyond the manufacturer=A2s =A1use by=A2 d=
ate."

While it is a wise thing to check things out before use, this "use by" da=
te
has not much to do with whether the content is good, it has to do with th=
e
manufacturer's liability. There's lots of food where you can check for
yourself whether it's still good or not -- and you should do so, even
/before/ the "use by" date has gone by, and you can trust your judgment
better than the stamped-on date even after the date.

"The maximum length of time that home-prepared food should be stored at
refrigerated temperatures is 3 days."

That depends /a lot/ on the type of food.

And so on.=20

> I get the feeling  that these people, while somewhat mother-henish, do
> know why they are  giving the advice that they do.

I found they give few if any reasons for their rules, and it seems to be
that these rules are pretty broad generalizations. Of course, they seem t=
o
be a governmental agency, and sometimes they are bound by regulations tha=
t
prevent them from giving actually useful advice :)

Gerhard

--=20
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