Catering Melbourne Blog

Reheating - Prepared Food
Any bacteria can easily survive in reheated foods, it is vital the core (internal) temperature of the food reaches the required minimum of 75 C

• Use a Thermometer to check the core temperature has reached the required 75 C
• Never reheat food in a Bain Marie (reheating is to slow and core temp minimum will not be reached)
• Check all utensils and containers are properly cleaned – including no residue water pooled in containers.
• Wash and dry hands properly before handling food
• Ensure food has not sweated whilst in storage

Remember: Bacteria love warm moist places

Actions to protect products
• Reheat food rapidly so the centre Core reaches at least 75 C
• Avoid the temperature danger zone 5 C to 60 C
• Hold food at or above 60 C
• Use the thermometers provided
• Ensure cutting boards, utensils and equipment are clean and dry.
• Return food to the cooking method/procedure if 75 C has not been reached

Use food immediately that has been between 5 C and 60 C for more than 2 hours but discard (throw out) food that has been between 5 C and 60 C for more than 4 hours.

Bacteria can grow to huge numbers given the right conditions. These conditions are present in reheating of foods. It is very important to use the two hour/four hour rule.

Time, Temperature and Food Safety (Remember the 2 hour 4 hour rule)

Ready to eat food that has been kept between 5 and 60 C:
• For a total of 4 hours must be thrown out ( This is LAW, you are liable)
• For a total of 2 hours must be used or refrigerated immediately
• More than 2 hours but less than 4 hours must use immediately

These Rules are Cumulative – add the last period of time to the new period.

“If in DOUBT, Throw it OUT”

Cold Holding – Prepared Food
There are ways of displaying and storing foods which reduce the risk of food poisoning

• Store all high risk foods in fridges and/or cold rooms at or below 5 C
• Do not display high risk food in open cabinets if you can avoid it (if you must keep a time check on it Ref: Storage and Temperature log)
• Frequently check cold room and refrigerator temperatures (request more thermometers if needed Ref: Equipment Calibration Sheet)
• Move thermometers to different locations for readings of cool air flow
• Ensure cooked food is stored above and away from raw foods
• Use appropriate food safe containers and with lids or cover with wrap
• Never store food on floor
• Always check the Use By – Best Before Dated

Actions to protect products:
• Check and use Storage and Temperature log
• Check temperature of food and refrigeration, don’t over load refrigeration
• Ensure proper and appropriate storage methods
• Cool foods quickly – avoid temp zone 5 C to 60 C, place in Cool Room
• Don’t allow to sit in own juices
• Ensure proper stock rotation procedures are followed
• Get second opinion, if not available then- IF IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT
• Keep refrigeration and cool rooms clean
• Always label and date food
• Throw away all foods that have been out for 4 hour or more above 5 C
• Throw out any food that has been cross contaminated by raw food
• Use the OUTSIDE SAFE ZONE LOG – if you are organized and follow safe practices you will not need this log, if you do use it (no questions will be asked)

Time, Temperature and Food Safety (Remember the 2 hour 4 hour rule)

Ready to eat food that has been kept between 5 and 60 C:
• For a total of 4 hours must be thrown out ( This is LAW, you are liable)
• For a total of 2 hours must be used or refrigerated immediately
• More than 2 hours but less than 4 hours must use immediately

These Rules are Cumulative – add the last period of time to the new period.

“If in DOUBT, Throw it OUT”

Cooking Food
Cooking food thoroughly is very important because poisoning bacteria can’t survive at temperatures above 75 C

• Check food has reached 75 C at the core by using a thermometer. This is a random check that you would do every day on differing random items in a cycle.
• Certain meats such as steaks and oily fish don’t have to reach the core temperature and can be cooked to preference.
• Check soups, sauces, gravies, casseroles boil
• Check only clear juices run from thoroughly cooked roast meats, mince and poultry

Once cooked food should be served or kept at 60oC or higher

Actions for suspect products
• Sauce has tiny bubbles on top or tastes fizzy – throw away, has ammoniated
• Check proper stock rotation is taking place, correct volume is being prepared
• Return food to cooking process if core temperature not reached
• Adjust recipes if core temperatures are not reaching 75 C

Time, Temperature and Food Safety (Remember the 2 hour 4 hour rule)

Ready to eat food that has been kept between 5 and 60 C:
• For a total of 4 hours must be thrown out ( This is LAW, you are liable)
• For a total of 2 hours must be used or refrigerated immediately
• More than 2 hours but less than 4 hours must use immediately

These Rules are Cumulative – add the last period of time to the new period.

“If in DOUBT, Throw it OUT”

Preparation
Raw food contains Bacteria.

Preparation means preparing food for cooking, display, packaging, serving and transport.

Three possible causes of food poisoning:
Biological – in the right conditions bacteria will multiply
Physical – When things which should not be on/in food ( stones, dirt, insects, glass…)
Chemical – Caused by chemicals like cleaning agents, pesticides, detergents…
By eliminating all of these you will break the contamination/poisoning chain.

Have you done a food safety course or training???

• All work surfaces need to be clean and sanitized before preparing foods
• Wear or change into clean clothes when working with food
• Wash your hands properly

Hand Washing Procedure
1. use water, as hot as you can stand
2. use soap and a brush
3. give a thorough scrub
4. rinse in hot water
5. dry with paper towel
6. If possible don’t use hands to turn tap on or off

Actions to Prevent Contamination
• Keep the food out of fridge for as short a period as possible
• Check all utensils are properly cleaned, sanitised and dry before use
• Keep raw and cooked (ready to eat) foods away from each other
• Pay special attention to cutting boards, and utensils
• Change wiping clothes frequently, wash after use
• Wash ready to eat foods such as fruit, vegetables
• Use separate cutting boards for different foods, or wash the one you are using
• Use and frequently change food handling gloves
• Through out single use items after use
• Prepared foods containing meat or small goods can contaminate fast, EG; pizza

Gloves
If you are using gloves, change them at least once every hour. Use only clean disposable gloves.

Change your gloves:
• If they become contaminated.
• If they tear.
• When switching between raw and ready-to-eat food.
• When changing jobs.
• After taking rubbish out.
• After sweeping, mopping and cleaning.
• Always use fresh gloves.
• Always wash your hands before putting on gloves.
• Always wash hands after taking gloves off.

Remind each other of safe food practices, take pride in your clean, safe kitchen

No one was more surprised than television chef Gary Mehigan that MasterChef’s celebrity contestants could actually cook. “We thought, oh come on, they’re celebrities, they’re just doing it to get on TV they won’t know how to cook,” said Mehigan, who joins Matt Preston and George Calombaris as judges on Ten’s new Celebrity MasterChef series which airs on Wednesday. “What we forget is they all eat out a lot in restaurants - especially some of the sports stars and musicians, they’re eating at some of the best in the world. “So they know what good food is, particularly Eamon Sullivan and Rachael Finch, she was a big surprise.” Ms Finch, who came fourth in the Miss Universe pageant in Barbados last month, is the youngest competitor in the kitchen. The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), September 27.

Twenty-seven years ago, a dedicated and visionary group of Brunswick residents banded together to transform the local rubbish tip into an oasis of sustainable farming. They named the site CERES, after the Roman goddess of agriculture, and she must have been watching with a felicitous eye—today CERES is the most visited environmental park in Australia. So successful is the CERES model, with its organic farm and market gardens, mushroom, egg and honey production, aquaponic systems, cafe, shop and fruit and vegetable market, that every year the non-profit organisation fields a dozen or so inquiries from community groups in Australia and from overseas wanting to know how to set up a similar scheme. “People come here and go, ‘we want a CERES’, but the thing is you don’t very often find old quarries or rubbish tips of nine acres [3.6 hectares] in the inner city with an understanding community around them,” CERES’ organic farm manager Chris Ennis said yesterday. The Age (Melbourne), September 28.

Licence fees will rise, binge drinking promotions will end and a specialist police team will enforce tougher alcohol laws in a proposed shake-up of the ACT’s Liquor Licensing Act. The reforms follow 18 months of public consultation but the Government is going to take another six months to consult before the changes are debated in mid-2010. Attorney-General Simon Corbell said the alterations would improve public safety. ” I want licensees and the broader community to see the detail of the proposal because the drafting of the Bill will be complex and there will be a lot of line by line consideration by people, which is why we need that additional time,” Mr Corbell said. Publicans now pay about $3000 for a liquor licence if they sell more than $100,000 of alcohol each year. Mr Corbell said the new risk-based liquor licence laws were based on laws in Victoria and Queensland

The Victorian Government has extended the freeze on late-night liquor licenses in inner Melbourne for two more years.

The freeze means no new applications for bar, pub and nightclub licenses to operate after 1am in the municipalities of Melbourne (including Docklands), Port Phillip, Stonnington and Yarra will be granted by the Director of Liquor Licensing before 31 December 2011.

Membership clubs and most restaurants and cafés are not affected by the freeze, which has been in place since May 2008.

“We know many of the violent incidents in our entertainment precincts occur after 1am on weekends. The freeze will keep growth in late night venues in check so our other long-term strategies to improve the safety and amenity of our entertainment precincts can take effect,” said Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson.

“Due to our world-class restaurants and bars, Victoria has a vibrant nightlife but we need to restore the balance to ensure the continued liveability and safety of our cities.”

This week Restaurant & Catering Australia submitted a response to PPCA on the proposed PPCA Tariff R - Restaurants, Cafes and Similar Establishments (Proposed Scheme).

R&CA commissioned economic research to refute the PPCA’s claim, which found that assumptions relied on by PPCA in calculating the Proposed Scheme have no empirical or academic basis, are lacking in any real world practicality, and/or are based upon other inherently flawed assumptions.

The Association noted that one of the key flaws was that, unlike many of the examples used by PPCA in their claim, the proposal bases the value to restaurants and cafes on turnover rather than profit. The R&CA response shows that if the formula properly used profit the annual fee would be between $131.80 and $184.52.

Restaurant & Catering Australia summarised its submission by suggesting that the PPCA scheme should be:
• A simple scale based on floor space in which music is
audible; and
• A fee in the order of $100 - $200 per annum with a
threshold separating small and large businesses (e.g.
300m2).

R&CA describes the proposed scheme as fundamentally unreasonable, unsupported by evidence or empirical analysis and is unworkable.

Diners are choosing more casual and cheaper eateries over fine dining restaurants, according to the latest research by American Express.

The American Express insight data, released recently with Restaurant & Catering Australia, found that 82% of restaurants reported reduced consumer spending, while 28% of bars and 27% reported increasing revenues.

Restaurant diners are choosing cheaper menu items and are more likely to share a dish.

The research also found that 41% of cafes and 43% of bars reported an increase in business diners, compared to just 25% of restaurants.

In Sydney, the more affluent areas have seen a decline in both spend and frequency of visits to fine dining restaurants, but casual dining establishments have seen an increase of 15% in spending and 30% in frequency.