Safety, Sanitation
Food Safety and Sanitation
Responsibilities
Food safety, or the safe handling of food, is an
important public health priority. Every employee in a
restaurant is responsible for using proper food
handling procedures, maintaining safe and sanitary
food and eating conditions for guests. Improper food
and utensil handling can lead to contamination and
foodborne illnesses. Foodborne illnesses are carried or
transmitted to people from unsafe foo.
Each year, millions of people become infected by
foodborne pathogens in food they eat, resulting in
thousands of cases of foodborne illness and death. The
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the
government agency that strives to protect people’s
health and safety in the United States and around the
world by providing reliable health information. While
the food supply in the United States is one of the safest
in the world, the CDC reports that 76 million illnesses,
325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths are
attributable to foodborne illness each year.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Food Code is a model of sanitation rules and
regulations that every state adopts and implements
as its legislature requires. It provides requirements
for safeguarding food and ensures that
unadulterated and honestly presented food is
offered to the consumer (guest). The Food Code
defines a foodborne disease outbreak as “an
incident in which two or more persons experience a
similar illness after ingestion of a common food.”
Four Principles of Food Safety
four simple tips to reduce the risk of food contamination.
1. Clean. - Wash hands for at least 20 seconds with
soap and running water before handling food and after
using the bathroom
- Fruits and vegetables should be rinsed thoroughly to
eliminate dirt and bacteria.
- Use paper towels to soak up spills rather than cloth
towels.
2. Separate. To avoid contamination, use these tips
- Use separate cutting boards to cut meat and for
preparing produce.
- Wash all surfaces you use to cut meat in warm, soapy
water.
- Keep meat in separate grocery bags to prevent
bacteria from spreading to other products.
- Do not place cooked food on surfaces that previously
held uncooked or raw meat, eggs or poultry.
3 Cook. the internal temperature is high enough
to kill bacteria that can cause illnesses. You
can use a food thermometer to check for
the following:
- Steak or ground beef should be cooked at
160°F
- Seafood should be cooked at 145°F.
- Chicken or turkey should be cooked at 165°F
- Eggs should be cooked till the yolk and the
white is firm.
4. Chill. By refrigerating food at appropriate
temperatures you can slow down the growth of
bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Here are
some useful tips
- The refrigerator should be set below 40°F and the
freezer should be set at or below 0°F.
- Perishable food should be refrigerated immediately
- Food should be stored in small containers that are
at least 2 inches deep
Four Dangers to Food Safety and How to Prevent Them
1. Cross-contamination.- When pathogens from
one food item are inadvertently transferred to
another, that’s cross-contamination. This usually
happens when raw meat is stored with ready-to-
eat food (bread, for instance) inside a refrigerator
and the two come into contact with each other.
2. Cooling time and temperature. Because pathogens
proliferate above 41 degrees Fahrenheit and below 135
degrees Fahrenheit, food safety practices dictate that stored
foods stay well out of this temperature range. The longer
they are in this danger zone the greater the chances
bacteria will grow and spread.
3. Improper hygiene. Hand washing is one of the pillars of
food safety. Food-handlers need to wash their hands with
soap and water before they touch any food item and each
time they’ve come into contact with raw food, especially raw
meat, the latter being a primary carrier for common food-
borne pathogens such as E. coli,
Salmonella, and Listeria. Proper hygiene doesn’t
end with hand washing though. Foodservice
personnel must also wear clean clothes and slip-
resistant shoes all the time. Fingernails should be
short and clean and hair pulled back and in a cap or
hair net.
A pathogen is a tiny living organism, such as a bacterium
or virus, that makes people sick. Washing your hands
frequently helps you avoid the pathogens that can make
you sick. Pathos is the Greek word for disease and
-genes means"born of."
Salmonella, refers to a group of bacteria that
cause Salmonella infection, or salmonellosis, in the
intestinal tract.
Typhoid fever, food poisoning, gastroenteritis, enteric
fever, and other illnesses are all types
of Salmonella infection.
Salmonella poisoning is often linked to contaminated
water or foods, especially meat, poultry, and eggs.
Symptoms include abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and
vomiting, which tend to appear 12 to 72 hours after
infection.
Common examples of pathogenic organisms include
specific strains of bacteria like Salmonella, Listeria
and E. coli, and viruses such as Cryptosporidium.
E. coli is a type of bacteria that normally live in the
intestines of people and animals. However, some types
of E. coli, particularly E. coli O157:H7, can cause
intestinal infection. ... Most intestinal infections are
caused by contaminated food or water
Listeria - a type of bacterium which infects
humans and other warm-blooded animals
through contaminated food.
- food poisoning or other disease caused by
infection with listeria; listeriosis.
Listeriosis, also called Listeria, can be a serious
infection; it strikes pregnant women, newborns,
the elderly, and anyone with a weakened
immune system.
Symptoms
The following symptoms
of Listeria infection are likely to last 1-3
days:
•muscle aches
•fever
•flu-like symptoms
•nausea
•diarrhea
4. Cleaning and sanitizing. Cleaning involves washing
away grime and germs while sanitizing involves killing
the germs with a food-friendly chemical agent.
FIVE SAFETY RULES IN THE KITCHEN;
Symptoms can include:
Rule 1: Wash hands between steps.- wash your hands
•abdominal cramping
after touching any other surfaces. Little things like
•sudden, severe watery diarrhea that may change to
running out to the garage to grab something out of the
bloody stools
deep freeze expose your hands to germs on light
•gasswitches, doorknobs and handles. Before handling any
•lossfood
of appetite
again youorneed
nausea
to once again wash your hands.
•vomiting (uncommon)
•fatigue
Rule 2: Sanitize work surfaces.
•fever
When preparing meals make sure that your counters,
cutting boards and all work surfaces have been
sufficiently sanitized first.
Rule 3: Use separate cutting boards for raw meats,
vegetables and produce, and cooked foods
Designate one board for raw meats, one for fruits and
vegetables and one to cut cooked or prepared food on.
This keeps cross contamination to a minimum, and will
result in safe and healthy food preparation in your
kitchen.
Rule 4: Cook foods to safe temperatures.
Check out the recommended temperature for food
safety and make sure that you are cooking foods to
safe temperatures.
Minimum recommended cooking temperatures
a. poultry – 165 degrees F. No rest time
b. beef – 145F; medium 3 mins rest
c. pork – 145 F . 3 mins rest
d. Lamb 145 F, medium are; 3 ,in rest
e. Round meats – beef, pork lamb,- 160 F; chicken,
turkey – 165 F
f. Seafood - `45 F; until opaque, shellfish until opaque,
Mussels- clams, oyster until shell open
g. Eggs- until yolk and white are firm. Egg dishes, 160
F
Rule 5: Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
- Hot foods should be kept at 140 degrees or
higher and cold foods at 40 degrees or lower.
WHO "Golden Rules" for Safe Food Preparation
1. Choose foods processed for safety - When
shopping, keep in mind that food processing was
invented to improve safety as well as to prolong
shelf-life. Certain foods eaten raw, such as lettuce,
need thorough washing
2. Cook food thoroughly = Thorough cooking will kill the
pathogens, but remember that the temperature of all parts
of the food must reach at least 70 °C. If cooked chicken is
still raw near the bone, put it back in the oven until it's done
- all the way through. Frozen meat, fish, and poultry, must
be thoroughly thawed before cooking.
3. Eat cooked foods immediately - When cooked foods cool
to room temperature, microbes begin to proliferate. The
longer the wait, the greater the risk. To be on the safe side,
eat cooked foods just as soon as they come off the heat .
4. Store cooked foods carefully- store them under
either hot (near or above 60 °C) or cool (near or
below 10 °C) conditions. This rule is of vital
importance if you plan to store foods for more than
four or five hours. Foods for infants should
preferably not be stored at all. A common error,
responsible for countless cases of foodborne
disease, is putting too large a quantity of warm food
in the refrigerator
5. Reheat cooked foods thoroughly- test protection against
microbes that may have developed during storage (proper
storage slows down microbial growth but does not kill the
organisms). Once again, thorough reheating means that all
parts of the food must reach at least 70 °C.
6. Avoid contact between raw foods and cooked foods-
Safely cooked food can become contaminated through
even the slightest contact with raw food. This cross-
contamination can be direct, as when raw poultry meat
comes into contact with cooked foods
7. Wash hands repeatedly - After preparing raw foods
such as fish, meat, or poultry, wash again before you
start handling other foods. And if you have an
infection on your hand, be sure to bandage or cover it
before preparing food. Remember, too, that
household pets - dogs, cats, birds, and especially
turtles - often harbour dangerous pathogens that can
pass from your hands into food.
8. Keep all kitchen surfaces meticulously clean- Since foods
are so easily contaminated, any surface used for food
preparation must be kept absolutely clean.
9. Protect foods from insects, rodents, and other animal -
Animals frequently carry pathogenic microorganisms which
cause foodborne disease. Storing foods in closed
containers is your best protection.
10. Use safe water - Safe water is just as important
for food preparation as for drinking. If you have any
doubts about the water supply, boil water before
adding it to food or making ice for drinks. Be
especially careful with any water used to prepare an
infant's meal.
