Mail Online

Food poison ad’s enough to make you sick

By Krissy Storrar

IT could put you off your Christmas dinner in the first place.

A new public health campaign to warn about food poisoning over the Christmas season features a series of graphic adverts.

Set in a snow globe, scenes showing a woman being sick and a man sitting on a toilet have been released by Government agency Food Standards Scotland (FSS).

Shoppers, party-goers and commuters will be targeted by billboards featuring the two images at major train stations with the slogan ‘Christmas isn’t so magical with food poisoning’. The adverts will also run on social media and a radio version has been created as part of a month-long drive to raise awareness about cooking food and storing and using leftovers properly.

Experts said images of people suffering the ill-effects of food poisoning might be stomach-churning, but light-hearted campaigns tend to be the most effective.

Rodger Stanier, a founder of Edinburgh advertising firm The Leith Agency, said the key to a good campaign is for it to be funny and memorable. He said: ‘The Government has found that people don’t take kindly to finger wagging and doom-ridden messages.

‘It’s a clever juxtaposition of the happy, fun imagery of Christmas with a serious message in it... it’s a good way of nudging it into people’s minds.

‘Also if you do entertaining work it tends to get shared on social media, which effectively extends your advertising for free.’

Emma Agnew, senior scientific adviser at FSS, said: ‘We want to remind everyone in Scotland to remain super-vigilant to the risks of food poisoning this festive season, especially for those more at risk of severe or even life-threatening cases, such as the elderly, young children and those with weakened immune systems.

‘Our checklist provides top tips anyone might want to know about safe cooking, by highlighting good food safety behaviours.’

Research by FSS showed that two-thirds of people believe they are unlikely to get food poisoning from meals prepared at home, yet only 12 per cent use a meat thermometer. A turkey should be cooked to 75C at its thickest point, with clear juices and no pink meat. Use-by dates should be checked, and any leftovers should be put in containers and into the fridge within two hours and then eaten within two days.

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2021-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

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