Food Safety Information Council: The Food Safety Information Council is using May Day to put out an SOS call to save Food Safety Week with a crowdfunding appeal. Council Chair, Rachelle Williams, said there are an estimated 15.9 million cases of gastroenteritis in Australia each year and a quarter of these are due to food poisoning. ‘We are calling on Australians to share their ‘Gastro Nightmare’ story with us on social media. ‘We’d like to hear your story and also ask you to donate to our appeal to ensure the 20th Food Safety Week can still go ahead in November 2016.

‘[T]he loss of Federal Government funding in 2014 has left us with greatly reduced income, to the extent that we may not be able to run Food Safety Week and our educational campaigns this year. This is tragic as the estimated 4.1 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year result in 31,920 hospitalisations, 86 deaths and 1 million visits to doctors.