The simple act of preparing a meal harbors a surprisingly common and dangerous risk: cross-contamination. This unseen threat occurs when harmful bacteria from raw foods like meat, poultry, or seafood spread to ready-to-eat items such as salads, fruits, or cooked dishes via contaminated hands, utensils, cutting boards, or countertops. Recognizing this pervasive hazard, the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has launched its annual Food Safety Day (FSD) 2025 campaign under the critical theme “Preventing Cross-contamination”. This initiative, closely aligned with the UN’s World Food Safety Day (June 7th), highlighted a global effort to combat foodborne illnesses, which sicken an alarming 1.6 million people daily and impose crippling economic costs, particularly in vulnerable regions.
Three Pillars of Prevention: CFS’s Core Messages
The CFS campaign focuses on delivering three actionable pillars of defense against cross-contamination to the public and food trade:
- Strict Separation of Raw and Cooked Foods: This fundamental rule extends beyond storage. The CFS emphasizes using separate bags for groceries to prevent raw meat juices from dripping onto produce. In refrigerators, raw items should be stored below cooked or ready-to-eat foods to avoid drips. Dedicated containers for raw meats are also recommended.
- Designated Utensils for Specific Tasks: Colour-coding is a highly promoted strategy. Using distinct, easily identifiable cutting boards and knives – red for raw meat, blue for seafood, green for produce, and yellow for cooked foods – drastically reduces the risk of pathogen transfer. The CFS stresses that thorough washing with hot, soapy water is essential after every use, even when using designated tools.
- Vigilant Hand Hygiene: Handwashing is highlighted as the single most effective practice. The CFS campaign instructs on proper technique: wetting hands, applying soap, scrubbing all surfaces (including backs, between fingers, and under nails) for at least 20 seconds, thorough rinsing, and drying with a clean towel or air dryer. Crucially, hands must be washed immediately after handling raw foods, before touching ready-to-eat items, and after touching potentially contaminated surfaces.
A Multi-Channel Approach to Public Engagement
To embed these messages across the community, the CFS has deployed a diverse range of promotional activities accessible via its FSD thematic webpage. These include engaging thematic videos, digestible social media posts, interactive quizzes distributed through its WhatsApp group, and comprehensive educational materials tailored for both consumers and food businesses. Recognizing the importance of early education, special efforts target primary school students, ensuring the next generation internalizes safe food handling habits. Talks and workshops for the food trade reinforce the industry’s role in safeguarding public health. This multi-pronged approach acknowledges that preventing foodborne illness requires collective action – from households and schools to restaurants and market vendors.
The Critical Context: A Global and Local Burden
The FSD 2025 theme resonates powerfully against the backdrop of World Food Safety Day’s 2025 focus on “Food safety: science in action.” Cross-contamination is a primary vector for pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter, which science clearly identifies as major causes of diarrhoeal diseases, affecting millions globally every day and placing a significant burden, estimated at US$110 billion annually, on low- and middle-income economies. Locally, CFS surveillance data, often discussed in its “Food Safety Focus” bulletins, consistently identifies lapses in basic hygiene and separation practices as contributing factors in food poisoning outbreaks investigated throughout the year.
The CFS’s Food Safety Day 2025 campaign moves beyond raising awareness; it provides the clear, science-based “action” called for by the global theme. By empowering every Hong Kong resident with simple, practical steps to break the chain of cross-contamination in their kitchens, the CFS aims to translate knowledge into measurable reductions in foodborne illness, contributing to a safer, healthier city for all. This initiative forms part of the CFS’s broader, year-round commitment to food safety education and enforcement, detailed extensively in its publications and resources.
