FS724009 - Crucial Crews Wales

The FSA continues to undertake a wide range of work to fulfil its duties and protect consumers' interests across the whole FSA. This includes continued work to improve public awareness about good food hygiene practice at home.

It does this through its school's engagement programme, where the objective is to enhance and encourage children's understanding of potential hygiene-related risks within their everyday environment, not only at home or when eating out but also in school.

These include: -

• Making children aware of essential food hygiene messages such as the importance of hand washing; when this action should be carried out (to combat problems such as E. coli) and what dangers are attached to not carrying this process out regularly.

• The correct methods for storing food, where and why.

• Basic rules surrounding preparing and cooking food (the Agency's 4Cs campaign, cooking, chilling, cleaning and cross contamination), offering a basic understanding of what signs would show that food was under-cooked, and the dangers connected to this.

The Agency's schools work, through the medium of Crucial Crew events, contributes towards our recognition that "food safety and hygiene has always been at the heart of what the Agency delivers, protecting the interests of consumers" and aspires to aid young people to make more informed choices on how to cook and eat safe food.