Food safety - good food hygiene

For good food hygiene practice we talk about the four Cs which are, cross contamination, cleaning, cooking and chilling. The first C is cross-contamination which is the most common form of food poisoning. To prevent cross-contamination we must avoid contaminating ready to eat foods, such as cooked products, with raw foods or chemicals. So to prevent cross-contamination before you even begin to work with food, you must make sure that you are clean. You remove all jewellery, watches, tie hair back, and don’t forget to put on a clean hair net and hat. Put on clean clothes and clean aprons. Wash your hands. When you wash your hands use antibacterial liquid soap and hot water. Wash all of your hands in between your fingers, in between your nails, around your thumbs and wrists. Rinse your hands with warm water and dry them with a disposable paper towel. Use the paper towel to turn the tap off, then put it in the bin. Ideally this should take 45 seconds. If you are unwell, tell your manager and don’t come into work until at least 48 hours after your symptoms have stopped. When you’re preparing foods it is important to use separate colour coded chopping boards for raw meat, fish, cooked foods, breads and vegetables. This is to prevent food poisoning bacteria getting on to ready to eat foods. Try and use separate coloured knives if possible and always use separate equipment, such as vacuum packers, mincers and slicers for raw foods and ready to eat foods. Storing food safely in the fridge is very important. Cheese, dairy products and cooked meats should be stored at the top of the fridge; salad vegetables should be stored in the middle of the fridge away from raw products. Keep raw foods, such as raw meat, eggs, poultry, and fish stored at the bottom of the fridge. Keep all cleaning products and chemicals stored away from food in a separate cupboard. The second C is cleaning, cleaning is very important to get rid of food poisoning bacteria such as salmonella, e coli and listeria. All surfaces and equipment need to be cleaned down regularly. This includes things like fridge handles, taps, light switches, door handles, as well as food preparation surfaces and other equipment. It is important to clean effectively to remove bacteria such as listeria, e coli and salmonella. Difficult to clean areas such as vacuum packers, slicers and mincers need particular attention. To properly clean down your surfaces you need to use a two staged approach. Firstly use a cleaning product to remove all visible dirt, then use a disinfectant to clean off bacteria that you don’t see on the surfaces. It’s important to use the correct detergent, disinfectant and sanitiser for the job you’re doing. The third C is chilling. Chilled food must be kept at temperature of 8 Degrees centigrade or below. To do this it is important to keep fridges and chill displays at least 5 degrees centigrade or below. It is important to check the temperature of your fridges and any chilled displays regularly, at least twice a day. Put chilled foods into the fridge straight away after delivery. Don’t leave chilled foods sitting out of temperature control for long periods. Hot foods that are to be put in the fridge must be cooled down as quickly as possible. To do this either use several shallow containers or put pots of food into cold water or ice baths. The fourth C is cooking, it is important to cook foods to above 75 degrees centigrade. To check that foods are cooked thoroughly you can either use a probe thermometer or you can use visual means. Cut into joints of meat to ensure there is no pink on the inside of the joint and that juices run clear. Sausages and burgers should also be thoroughly cooked inside so that there is no pink in the middle. You can also check that liquid dishes are thoroughly cooked by ensuring that they are boiling and bubbling when cooking. If you are reheating foods, make sure they are reheated again to above 75 degrees centigrade and only reheated once. Foods that are to be kept hot must be kept above 63 degrees. We have a number of packs available to help you keep your customers safe. Subtitles: UTV