A survey carried out by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) on the
microbiological quality of soft ice-cream, found that considerable improvements
are required during the handling and serving of soft ice-cream in retail premises.
Poor practices by the food handler can result in the ice-cream becoming unsafe
to eat and this can lead to food poisoning.
Food poisoning is an unpleasant illness. For young children, pregnant women,
the elderly and the sick, it can be serious and sometimes fatal. Typical symptoms
of food poisoning include:
• Nausea/vomiting • Diarrhoea
• Stomach pains • Headaches.
All food businesses have a legal obligation to:
• Produce food in a hygienic manner
• Implement a food safety management system based on the principles of
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)
• Implement a traceability and recall system
• Ensure that staff are supervised and instructed in food hygiene matters.
Aim of this Leaflet
The aim of this leaflet is to assist retailers involved in the sale
and serving of soft ice-cream (i.e. whipped and scoop ice-cream)
to comply with their legal obligations. This booklet does not deal
with pre-packed hard ice-cream (i.e. ice-cream sold in cartons,
tubs or on a stick).
Surely you have frozen banana mush? It's certainly not ice cream as we know it, Jim...When the kids want ice cream just put some in the food processer and you have lovely soft whip banana ice cream.
I would have used that argument as well. However I remember Pat Wall, then as CEO of the Food Safety Authority explaining that the bugs around then are not as same as the bugs around now. And the modern bugs have more potential to kill. I also once heard that whipped ice-cream, not kept well or in accordance with food safety procedure's is a potential source of listeria which apparently is very dangerous for pregnant women.Generations of kids have eaten ice cream from such vans - I wonder how many got sick afterwards?
Are you sure that he didn't say "hysteria"?I would have used that argument as well. However I remember Pat Wall, then as CEO of the Food Safety Authority explaining that the bugs around then are not as same as the bugs around now. And the modern bugs have more potential to kill. I also once heard that whipped ice-cream, not kept well or in accordance with food safety procedure's is a potential source of listeria which apparently is very dangerous for pregnant women.
Thrifty1...."Soft icecreams (Mr Whippy and 99's) are unpasteurised and therefore unsafe for pregnant women."
Can you back this statement up please ? Looking at that FSAI article listed above it suggests that the products in question are either sterilised or pasteurised or not required to be. Surely if they were unsafe for pregnant women they would also be detrimental to young children ?
Samples of soft ice cream were tested for levels of aerobic bacteria (aerobic colony count - ACC) and Enterobacteriaceae. These bacteria were chosen as indicators of i) the cleanliness of the machine and ii) the pasteurisation processes in the case of self pasteurising machines.
A total of 552 samples were examined and of these 51.1% and 6.5% were insatisfactory for ACC and Enterobacteriaceae respecitively.
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