Preventing listeriosis

The best way to prevent getting listeriosis is to always ensure thatyou follow good basic food hygiene.

This includes:

  • Peeling raw vegetables, saladsor fruit, or washing them thoroughly before eating.
  • Washing your hands before preparing food, before eating and after going to the toilet.
  • Washing kitchen surfaces and utensils regularly, particularly after preparing raw meat, poultry and eggs.
  • Always separating raw foods from ready-to-eat foods. Don't store raw meat above ready-to-eat foods, because there's a risk that juice containing harmful bacteria may leak from the raw meat.
  • Always cooking food thoroughly and checking cooking instructions carefully, including the cooking time.

For foods that are "ready to eat", the most important ways of reducing the risk of listeriosis are to:

  • not use food after its "use by" date
  • make sure that the temperature of your fridge is 0-5C
  • follow storage instructions on food labels

This is to avoid the small, but serious, risk of an infection.

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Content supplied by the NHS Website

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 28 Nov 2016