Food safety awareness over the holidays

During the recent Australian Food Safety Week, which ran from 14–21 November 2020, we were reminded that each year in Australia at least 4.1 million cases of gastroenteritis occur as a result of eating contaminated food.

Metro North Public Health Unit would like to remind GPs of the importance of pathology testing to confirm the cause of foodborne illness, and of the need to promptly notify Public Health Units of foodborne illness outbreaks or any foodborne illness in a food handler.

Early intervention helps us to identify potential clusters and laboratory analysis helps identify the source of infection or contamination, which in turn may help prevent further cases of illness.

If you identify a suspected foodborne illness outbreak (two or more cases of a similar illness after consuming a common food or meal) or clinically diagnose foodborne illness in a food handler, immediately notify Queensland Health by telephoning or forwarding a completed copy of the Notifiable conditions report form to your local Public Health Unit on 07 3624 1111.

For further information on notifiable conditions in Queensland including fact sheets, clinical guidelines, notification/surveillance forms and epidemiological data, see Queensland Health’s Communicable Disease Control Guidance website at disease-control.health.qld.gov.au.

For more information call Metro North Public Health Unit on 07 3624 1111.