{"id":11559,"date":"2023-05-02T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11559"},"modified":"2025-04-22T11:10:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T11:10:55","slug":"8-great-food-safety-tips-for-coronation-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/8-great-food-safety-tips-for-coronation-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"8 great food safety tips for coronation parties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s not long now until the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla<\/strong> and many people are planning to celebrate with family, friends and neighbours. Perhaps you\u2019ll be quaffing coronation cocktails or tucking into the official coronation quiche of spinach, broad beans and tarragon. Maybe you\u2019ll be having a street party with buffet food or enjoying a delicious afternoon tea. Whatever your plans are, please don\u2019t forget these basic food safety<\/a> guidelines in your excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Make sure your hands are clean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just because we\u2019re no longer testing for coronavirus on a regular basis, it doesn\u2019t mean it and other viruses and bacteria are not around such as staphylococcus and campylobacter. To guard against this, make sure that you wash your hands <\/strong>before preparing and touching food. You can also make hand sanitiser available for guests on a buffet table, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Don\u2019t overfill the fridge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having a refrigerator that\u2019s full-to-bursting makes it harder for cold air to circulate. This means that food, milk, cream and fruit juices won\u2019t stay as cool as needed. A top tip is to ensure that food that requires chilling is kept in the fridge but remove wine and beer and put them in a bucket of water filled with ice cubes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Keep food refrigerated for as long as possible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the subject of fridges, try to keep food in the fridge for as long as possible<\/a>. This especially applies to meat, poultry, shellfish and any foods containing cream. Another golden rule for ensuring fridge temperatures remain at 5\u00b0C or below<\/strong> is to make sure you don\u2019t put hot or warm food into the fridge. Let it cool down first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Food safety and salad greens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lettuce and other salad greens account for 22% of food poisoning outbreaks<\/strong>. If at all possible prepare salads yourself by carefully washing lettuce and other greens. If you are using a prepared bag of salad leaves, be sure to check the \u2018use-by\u2019 date. This is because cut leaves can become damp and stick to the plastic bag forming an area where bacteria can have a party all of their own!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. The difference between \u2018Use-by\u2019 and \u2018Best Before\u2019 dates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If a product has a \u2018Best Before\u2019 date<\/strong>, this relates to the quality of an item. Provided that they have been stored correctly, eating biscuits or crisps that are past their \u2018Best Before\u2019 date are unlikely to cause you harm. They might only have lost their flavour or crunchiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Use-by\u2019 dates<\/strong> relate to food safety and are a different matter altogether. You should not eat products beyond their use-by dates – even if they look and smell OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Food safety rules around reheating<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re serving hot food that you\u2019ve prepared earlier, never reheat it more than once and ensure that it\u2019s piping hot before you serve it. Don\u2019t ever feel under pressure to reduce cooking times just because there\u2019s a queue of people waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the weather\u2019s fine and you\u2019re firing up the barbecue, please ensure that burgers, chicken, sausages etc. are cooked all the way through \u2013 not charred on the outside and pink on the inside<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. A word about food allergies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t forget that if you\u2019re catering for a large number of people, there are likely to be people with different food allergies or dietary requirements. If you\u2019re providing a buffet, label products clearly and try not to mix vegetarian\/vegan products with those containing meat. Most people with food allergies<\/a> will ask what products contain, so make sure you\u2019re aware \u2013 or provide labelling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. How long can I leave food out?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chilled food can be kept at a temperature of 8\u00b0C for 4 hours maximum. <\/strong>This is because after this time food poisoning bacteria can begin to form. Also, nobody really fancies curly egg mayo sandwiches or limp lettuce, do they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK \u2013 food safety lecture over!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the Coronation Bank Holiday weekend, whatever you plan to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not long now until the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla and many people are planning to celebrate with family, friends and neighbours. Perhaps you\u2019ll be quaffing coronation cocktails or tucking into the official coronation quiche of spinach, broad beans and tarragon. Maybe you\u2019ll be having a street party with buffet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[928,1541,1539,1540,387,307,993,39,30],"class_list":["post-11559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-safety-hygiene-news","tag-avoiding-food-poisoning","tag-coronation-food","tag-coronation-food-safety","tag-coronation-party","tag-food-allergens","tag-food-labelling","tag-food-safety-tips","tag-food-safety-training","tag-verner-wheelock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}