SWINDON Council has been given a national commendation for its food safety messages.

The commendation was for environmental health staff's work at the junior Good Citizen event held at Wroughton Airfield in June.

The commendation comes from Foodlink, a nationally organised campaign to focus on food hygiene which is run by the Food and Drink Federation.

At the event, 1,000 year six pupils received practical training in the importance of thorough hand washing, barbecue food safety and cross contamination.

The training was delivered in 12 minutes in a giant kitchen housing a barbecue, fridge and a UV hand-wash detector.

Teacher packs were prepared and sent out in advance to participating schools so the children did not arrive without prior knowledge.

Environmental health education officer, Eunice Salmon, said: "We received some very favourable feedback from the children themselves saying that they now realised the dangers of bacteria and why it's important to separate raw and cooked foods."