Food safety

Chemotherapy can affect the body’s natural defence against infections. This means your immune system might be weakened.

It’s very important to store and prepare food carefully while you are having chemotherapy, to keep the risk of food poisoning as low as possible.

The best way to make sure food is safe to eat, is to cook food properly. This reduces the numbers of germs to a safe level. You should also store food at correct temperatures, and avoid contaminating cooked food with other foods, kitchen utensils or people.

Tips to make sure your food is safe

Shopping 

• Check expiry and "use by" dates on food labels.
• Avoid mouldy, bruised, or damaged fruits and vegetables.
• Avoid foods with damaged or broken packaging. 
• Make sure you get chilled and frozen foods home from the shop as soon as possible, and into your fridge or freezer.

Storage 

• Keep your fridge between 0C and 5C. 
• Keep your freezer below -18C. 
• Chill foods properly. Especially foods with a "use by" date, cooked dishes, and ready-to-eat foods such as prepared salads, cut fruits, and desserts.
• Cool cooked food within 2 hours, and cover food before storing it in the fridge or freezer.
• Store raw and cooked foods in separate areas or shelves. Cooked and ready-to-eat foods should be at the top of the fridge. Raw meats should be at the bottom of the fridge in a covered container.
• Throw mouldy food and any food past its "use by" date away. 
• Do not re-freeze raw food once it has been defrosted. If you have cooked it, it you can then re-freeze it. 
• Leftover food should not be kept in the fridge for more than 2 or 3 days.

Preparing food

• Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing food.
• Wash your hands thoroughly after touching raw foods such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and unwashed fruit and vegetables.
• Make sure all the surfaces you are using are clean before you start preparing food. 
• Use separate chopping boards for raw food and ready-to-eat food.
• Wash salads, fruit and vegetables thoroughly before eating.

Cooked food should not come into contact with: 

• raw meat
• unwashed vegetables or salads
• any utensils, cloths or surfaces that have been in contact with raw food 

Cooking 

• Thaw frozen foods in the fridge and cook as soon as it is thawed. 
• Make sure food is cooked properly, and is piping hot throughout.
• When cooking with a microwave, turn and stir food halfway through the cooking time so it cooks evenly.
• Serve hot food as soon as possible after cooking.
• Do not reheat cooked food more than once. If you do, make sure it is piping hot throughout.

Eating out

• Always ask for your food to be freshly prepared.
• Make sure hot foods are served piping hot and cooked all the way through.
• Avoid buying food from salad bars, buffets, street vendors and ice cream vans.

Foods needing extra care

Some foods have a higher risk of carrying germs. It is important to be careful when you prepare, cook, and store these foods to limit the risk of food poisoning.

Eggs

• Store eggs safely in a cool dry place, such as a fridge. 
• Follow "best before" dates. 
• Eating lightly-cooked eggs is safe as long as they are produced under the British Lion Code of Practice (and have the British Lion symbol stamped on them). If you choose lightly-cooked eggs when eating out, check that they are British Lion eggs.
• Avoid foods containing raw eggs, such as home-made Caesar salad dressing and hollandaise sauce.

Poultry, red meat and products

Cook thoroughly and do not serve pink or rare.

Rice

• Serve as soon as it is cooked.
• If storing cooked rice, cool quickly within 1 hour of cooking, and store in the fridge.
• Do not store cooked rice in the fridge for more than 1 day.
• When reheating cooked rice, make sure it is steaming hot all the way through. 

Milk, cheese and yoghurts

Pasteurised milk and cheese products are safe to eat, but avoid unpasteurised products.

Avoid mould-ripened and blue-veined cheeses such as Brie, Camembert, Gorgonzola and Roquefort.

Cheeses that are safe to eat include:

• hard cheeses such as Cheddar, Cheshire, Derby, double Gloucester, Edam, Emmental, Gouda, Gruyère, Parmesan and red Leicester
• soft cheeses such as cottage cheese, mozzarella, feta, cream cheese, paneer, ricotta, halloumi, goats’ cheese, quark and processed cheeses including cheese segments

Avoid supplements, food and drinks containing probiotics (such as bio-yoghurts, Actimel^®,Yakult^® and supermarket own brands). These contain live bacteria and although they are considered safe, they need to be used with caution during chemotherapy.

Fish, oysters and other seafood 

Do not eat raw seafood, such as oysters or shellfish.

Sushi made from frozen raw fish and cooked shellfish are safer to eat, as freezing or cooking will reduce the risk of food poisoning. 

Avoid eating smoked fish unless it is cooked thoroughly. This will reduce the risk of getting a listeria infection.