Food safety procedures are simply common sense guidelines that make it possible to store, prepare, and keep food items fresh and safe for human consumption. Most jurisdictions today have imposed several basic safety measures and regulations that ought to be adhered to in order for commercially prepared items to be fit for consumption by the general public. Generally though, most of these basic regulations boil down to basic safety tips that can be applied at home as well. Here are different applications of food safety tips that can be observed at home.

Ensuring you maintain the correct temperature when storing food is arguably the most critical of all safety tips. When you expose food to high amounts of heat, bacteria will start to grow and multiply once the food starts to spoil. Needless to mention, using any type of food after the process of deterioration has started can cause gastronomical discomfort, food poisoning and perhaps worse.

The same holds true in regards to temperature for cooked food. When you reheat already cooked food after it has been left to cool down for a while, it is advisable that you ensure the food returns to the right temperature before you serve. By the same token, inappropriately heated food can cause health complications in form of diarrhea, stomach upset, indigestion etc. In a nutshell, the two most important food safety tips that relate to temperature are very critical; first, you must ensure hot foods remain hot and cold foods remain cold. When you follow these basic safety tips, you will significantly reduce the odds of contamination.

The other basic yet very important food safety tip is to avoid cross contamination. For instance, you should never place cooked food on a container or plate that recently had raw meat. By the same token, you should avoid using a cutting board to chop carrots, onions, or tomatoes after dicing sections of raw meat or chicken as it can easily enhance the odds of contamination. To avoid cross contamination, you should always ensure you use a clean dish, you rinse the cutting board thoroughly using warm soapy water, and wash all tools such as knives after using them on raw meat and before starting to use them on vegetables.

Storing leftover food products is another important area although most people fail to observe basic food safety tips. Never place leftover foods in the refrigerator on uncovered bowls; if you are using the freezer, you should always use freezer bags which are more superior to any other type of plastic bags available. Keep in mind that sealing food containers tightly helps slow down the deterioration process.

Another important basic food safety tip is to ensure preparation surfaces and all cookware remain sterilized and clean at all times. Be advised that foods are contaminated by substances such as dust that settle in an ill-maintained kitchen. Many times, preparing food in an unclean kitchen can be equated to cross contamination, as anything could be prowling on utensils, cookware, and/or countertops.

The post Important Food Safety Guidelines and Procedures appeared first on Catering on the Move.

Completing a food safety course or food handler’s course online is an essential requirement for any kitchen job, from being a chef to putting the parsley on plates before you take them out to customers. Today we check out the 18 major guidelines that your food safety course online will teach you, to give you a head start on your study!

Business practices

Make sure that people who haven’t completed a food safety course online or other food hygiene course don’t enter the food preparation areas of your business
If there is a legitimate reason for people to be in the area, make sure they are supervised by someone who is trained in food handling

Employee guidelines

Every employee must thoroughly wash their hands with the approved technique before handling food, after going to the toilet, after smoking, after eating or drinking, and after touching their face or body.
Have employees wear hair nets

Hazardous foods

Make sure that all food handling staff know all of the hazardous foods, which include:
– Raw and cooked meats or foods containing meat
– Dairy products
– Seafood
– Processed fruits and vegetables
– Cooked rice and pasta
– Foods containing eggs, beans and nut
Change your food preparation implements (knives, cutting boards, etc) when switching between preparing one hazardous food and another, or from hazardous foods to non-hazardous foods.
Keep raw food away from cooked or ready to eat food, regardless of whether it is a hazardous food or not as described in your food hygiene course

Temperature guidelines

If you’re concerned about food being cooked properly all the way through, use a probe thermometer to check that the centre of the food has reached 75 degrees Celsius.
Keep colds foods cold, at 5 degrees or cooler, and hot foods hot, above 60 degrees C.
Don’t leave cooked food out to cool for more than an hour. Put it into the refrigerator once it has come down to an appropriate temperature.
Keep frozen food out of the ‘Danger Zone’, which your food safety course online will teach you about. It is best to thaw frozen foods in the fridge; or if they will be cooked thoroughly and immediately, under running water or in the microwave.
Temperature test any foods that you receive as deliveries – cold deliveries should be under 5 degrees Celsius.

Receiving food

Check that food you receive is in intact packaging without rips and tears.
Don’t allow your suppliers to deliver food supplies if nobody is there to check off the delivery
Visually inspect all food while it is being delivered, not afterwards.
Make sure any deliveries you receive are marked with a Use-By date, if applicable.

Buying canned foods

Make sure than tins of food have not swelled, aren’t dented or rusted, and don’t have damaged seams. Botulinum toxin, which causes botulism, can grow inside improperly canned or sealed foods.
Treated tinned foods which have been opened in the same way as fresh foods.

The post The 18 Major Food Safety Course Guidelines appeared first on Catering on the Move.