If you have cooked in or run a restaurant in Melbourne, you know that you are playing to a tough crowd! Not only does the city have great restaurants serving all types of food at a range of prices, but you will also find that it is a town with a long memory.

If customers are provided with the right combination of food and atmosphere they'll come back, possibly with friends in tow. The rumour mill also works for negative experiences however so if customers find themselves with food poisoning as a result of food from your establishment they are very unlikely to return.

In the event of a food poisoning outbreak, at the very least you'll get bad publicity and horrible word of mouth advertising. A serious outbreak could lead to fines, legal disputes or even the complete shut down of your restaurant. Food poisoning outbreaks are about the worst thing that can happen to you as a restaurateur, and you should take every possible effort to prevent them from happening.

Unfortunately the customers who are most likely to get sick from food poisoning are the elderly and the very young, and even if their parents or caretakers don't get sick, they'll steer their charges away from your establishment as a matter of course.

Several common causes of food poisoning are undercooked meats, spoiled dairy products, and food borne pathogens. Of these, food borne pathogens are perhaps the most dangerous. The two major culprits here are salmonella and e. coli. Salmonella is commonly found in poultry and eggs, and is killed by cooking them thoroughly; the problem is that anything that has had poultry or raw eggs on it can transmit it to another food item that you wouldn't associate with the illness. E. coli occurs when food comes into contact with faeces, often as a result of poor hand washing.

There are many different ways to prevent a food poisoning outbreak. The first and most obvious thing that you need to think about is the fact that your staff need to be taught how to handle and prepare food. Strict regulations about hand washing and sanitation on the food preparation floor are things that you really need to drill home.

You will also find that good storage, where raw food is never permitted to come in contact with food that is ready to serve is something that all staff need to be aware of. It is important to establish routine to ensure that staff form good hygiene habits.

The truth of the matter is that there is a multitude of different ways that a food poisoning outbreak can occur, but you don't need to live in fear. Most restaurant managers aren't experts in food safety, which is why they will enlist the services of a good food safety expert before anything goes wrong. If you want to make sure that nothing gets overlooked in the food safety of your restaurant, talk to an expert. If you are cooking in Melbourne, you already know that you are playing to a tough crowd, so don't make it any harder than it has to be!