Food safety authority chimes in after Varadkar shows off his meal prep
Kenneth Fox
While Tánaiste Leo Varadkar may have just wanted to show his social media followers his meal prep for the week, he inadvertently ended up getting the Food Safety Authority involved.
Posting on Instagram stories on Monday he showed an image of his fridge open showing all the meals his partner Matthew Barrett had prepared for the week ahead.
The picture showed open containers with no lids on a number of them. It prompted one Twitter user to question how safe it is to be storing food like that.
They tweeted at the Food Safety Authority "Not being funny but are all of these particular foods safe to prepare in advance like this? I’ve my doubts about some of the elements here."
Hi Fionnan. Storing batched cooked or leftover food safely will reduce the risk of possible food poisoning. By safely we mean that the food should be stored in the fridge (at between 0-5°C) or freezer (at -18°C or less) within 2 hours of cooking and used within 2-3 days. (1/2)
— FoodSafetyAuthority (@FSAIinfo) October 17, 2022
When asked whether the food should have lids on they said "Generally we recommend that lids are used. But if there is no risk of cross-contamination from raw foods to cooked or ready to eat foods, then it should be safe."
Earlier today, Varadkar cleared up the confusion around lids showing some more meal prep saying "For everyone asking, yes we do use lids."
