Safe practices post floods

Eating tainted food after a flood puts you at risk for sickness. Unsafe food and water can result in serious illness and induce symptoms like vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, pains, and fatigue.

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CHENNAI: The last few days would have brought major or minor struggles to the people of Chennai. It is important to note and follow certain necessary food safety practices if your home has been flooded or your power and water supply has been cut off.

Sewage, animal waste, and other garbage from drains or the neighbourhood can contaminate floodwater. This implies that hazardous germs, viruses, or chemicals could be present. Any contaminants in the water are usually very diluted so the risks of getting ill are low, don’t panic. However, following certain simple hygiene practices will help you to avoid the risk.

Eating tainted food after a flood puts you at risk for sickness. Unsafe food and water can result in serious illness and induce symptoms like vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, pains, and fatigue. After a flood, it might be difficult to ensure that the food you eat is safe, but it’s crucial for your family’s health.

•  Do not eat anything that may have come directly into contact with the floodwater.
•  Do not eat anything which was stored in plastic, paper, cardboard, cloth or similar containers.
• Discard any food and beverage containers with screw caps, twist caps, and flip tops as they are easy to let in contaminants.
• If your house is flooded with water, empty out the fridge and separate cooked food from raw food.
• Refrigerated food should be safe if the power was out for no more than four hours.
• Clean and disinfect your fridge. Throw out any perishables and open food items. It is best advised to get rid of any cooked food as they would have been under odd temperatures for long hours, supporting more microbial growth.
• Discard any meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy as they are prone to making you sick if the storage is improper.
•  Throw out any food which is 0-15 days from its expiration date, if or not opened.
• If you are retaining any food items, note the expiration date, remove food labels thoroughly, wash the containers and rinse them. Name all the food kept inside and label them with their expiration dates.
• Throw out any food in your freezer if they have been exposed to temperatures above 5 degrees Celsius for more than two hours.
•  Discard any wooden cutting boards, dishes and utensils, plastic utensils and baby bottle nipples and pacifiers that have come in contact with flood water as they cannot be safely cleaned.
•  Never eat food to determine if it is safe. If in doubt, throw it out. 
•  Washing hands with soap is important, especially before and during handling food and after going to the toilet. To be effective, you should wash your hands for 40-60 seconds with (unboiled) water and soap, or 20-30 seconds with alcohol-based hand rub, if available.
• Floods can spread watery illnesses like cholera and hepatitis more widely.
•  Boiling water before using it for drinking, tooth brushing, cleaning cuts, or preparing meals can help reduce the risk of contracting a waterborne illness. Once the water reaches a vigorous boil, take the pot or kettle off of the hob and let it cool down naturally. Don’t include any ice/ room temperature water (unboiled).
•  To prevent scorching, keep children away from boiling water. All boiling water should be cooled and kept in a sanitised container with a lid. This keeps contaminants from getting back into the water. Consume boiled water, even if it is through an RO.
•  Consume bottled water if available. Before using any bottled water, ensure that the cap is securely closed. If the seal on the bottle is bent or damaged, do not drink from it.
•  As long as it’s safe to do so, use tap water for other household tasks like cleaning and laundry as well as personal hygiene tasks like handwashing, bathing, and showering.