CONSUMERS are increasingly taking health risks by eating leftover food to cut costs during the economic downturn, research has found.

One-third of people are more likely to judge if food is safe to eat by how it looks and smells, rather than the use-by date, leaving them susceptible to invisible bugs such as E.coli and salmonella, according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA)

Households are also trying to make their food go further by re-using leftovers, a practice the watchdog warns can be dangerous if food is not stored or re-heated properly.

The agency has issued guidelines on how to ensure leftovers are properly handled to coincide with Food Safety Week, which starts today.

Jacqui McElhiney, a food safety expert with the FSA in Scotland, said: "With most of us seeing our weekly shopping bills increase over the last few years, we are all looking for ways to get the most out of our shopping budget.

"Using leftover food is a good way of making our meals go further. However, unless we're careful, there's a chance we can risk food poisoning by not storing or handling leftovers properly.

"During Food Safety Week we are encouraging people to view their fridge as their friend and make the most of leftovers while staying safe."

The research showed 97% of those surveyed said their typical shopping basket had gone up in price significantly in the past three years. This resulted in half of them trying to make better use of leftover food.

However, some people are also ignoring use-by dates more than they used to, while others are keeping leftovers for longer than the recommended limit of two days in the fridge.

There are around one million cases of food poisoning every year in the UK and the FSA said many of these are caused by people eating out-of-date food.

Ms McElhiney added: "It's tempting just to give your food a sniff to see if you think it's gone off, but food bugs like E.coli and salmonella don't cause food to smell off, even when they may have grown to dangerous levels. So food could look and smell fine but still be harmful.

"These dates provide helpful information on how long food will stay safe for, so it's very important you stick to the use-by date. Other dates marked on foods focus less on food safety. The best-before date relates to food quality and can be treated more flexibly, while display-until dates are there to help shop staff to manage stock."

Emma Marsh, of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, added: "Food is there to be eaten, so this food safety week let's enjoy our leftovers and do it safely – lovefoodhatewaste.com has hundreds of tips, recipe ideas and inspiration to help us all waste less and save more."

The FSA advises that leftovers should be cooled as quickly as possible, ideally within 90 minutes, then covered and kept in the fridge below 5ºC. They should then be eaten within two days.

They can also be frozen and stored almost indefinitely, although the quality will deteriorate so it is best to eat them within three months.

Once defrosted, leftovers should be eaten within 24 hours and cooked until steaming hot throughout. They should never be refrozen.