Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Jan McLucas, has launched two new TV community service advertisements to ensure that consumers are aware of the food poisoning risks when preparing food at home.

McLucas said the advertisements had been developed by the Food Safety Information Council following a survey by Food Standards Australia New Zealand which found that 92 per cent of Australians were confident about food safety in their home.

"This finding is not in line with the real risk of food poisoning - each year there are about one million cases of food poisoning due to poor food handling in the home," McLucas said.

"The first ad features a bloke who has accidentally made one of his team-mates so sick from food poisoning at a BBQ that their side lost the final. The other features a woman who has made someone ill by leaving a pavlova unrefrigerated at a family gathering for her father’s birthday. Both of these are scenarios we can all relate to.

"Reducing the risk of food poisoning can be easily achieved by following the Food Safety Information Council’s advice about making sure food that won’t be cooked again isn’t contaminated by juices from raw meat or chicken, that your hands and kitchen utensils are clean and that your fridge is working at or below 5°c."

The TV ads have been funded by the NSW Food Authority, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Queensland Health, Safe Food Production Queensland and the Victorian Department of Human Services who are all long-term members of the Food Safety Information Council.