Don’t ‘burger-up’ your Bank Holiday

As we gear up for the long weekend, a warning has been issued to ensure your Bank Holiday does not end up.

Despite showers forecast, the Bank Holiday weekend tends to be a busy time for our local safety and security services, and food poisoning cases jumped last year locally due to poorly cooked BBQ food.

And it has prompted Powys County Council to relay a warning from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to ensure it is a safe success.

“With gourmet burgers in restaurants becoming increasingly popular some people may be tempted to serve their guests with burgers that are pink in the middle,” the agency wartned in a statement. “But a burger is not like steak. Steak can be served rare because any contamination on the surface of the meat is destroyed when the steak is seared on the outside. Burgers are made of minced meat, so any bacteria, on the outside of the whole piece of meat, are mixed up throughout burgers when the meat is minced.

“If bacteria are mixed into the middle of the burger and it isn’t cooked all the way through, the bacteria can survive and cause food poisoning. That’s why a burger should be thoroughly cooked all the way through.”

So, this Barbecue Weekend, rain or shine, the FSA is reminding everybody to:

• cook burgers so they are steaming hot all the way through, no matter how good quality or expensive the meat

• check that none of it is pink and that any juices run clear

• avoid cross contamination by storing raw meat separately before cooking, using different utensils, plates and chopping boards for raw and cooked food.

Cllr John Powell, Powys County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environmental Health, added: “It’s the little things like following this advice that can keep your loved ones safe. Children, elderly and poorly people in your family could get food poisoning, or even worse – a life threatening illness through serving a less than well-cooked burger at your barbecue this weekend.”