Regardless of whether you are a head chef, sous chef or a relief chef, knowing your food hygiene and standards is absolutely critical if you are making and selling food.
When working in a kitchen it is important that you limit/ remove any risk from harmful bacteria. Food Safety Standards have therefore been developed around the following:
- Cross-contamination
- Cleaning
- Chilling
- Cooking
AKA the Four C’s.
Cross- contamination
In order to reduce the spread of bacteria, certain practices are put in place. One of the most common causes of food poisoning is from raw food touching surfaces, other food and kitchen equipment. Here are a selection of tips to help reduce the risk of cross-contamination in your kitchen:
Ensure all surfaces are disinfected and thoroughly cleaned both before and after preparing raw food.
Wash your hands before and after touching raw foods.
Create separate working areas and separate storing facilities for raw food.
Of course, is a lot more detail on preventing cross-contamination which can be found here.
Cleaning
Those working in the kitchen should be on top of cleaning practices to prevent the spread of bacteria.
Staff should always wash their hands thoroughly before and after handling food.Equipment and surfaces should be disinfected and cleaned on a regular basis and staff should get use to working in a clear and clean as you go workflow.
For more information from the Food Gov on cleaning your kitchen click here.
Chilling
Reduce and stop bacteria from having a chance of growing by chilling food accordingly. Certain foods MUST be kept chilled otherwise they could become harmful to eat. These types of food commonly have “use by” dates are already cooked or for example are prepared salads. Some of the top tips for chilling food include the following:
Check food temperature when it is delivered, if the temperature is too high you should refuse the delivery.
When preparing food limit the time as much as possible that the chilled food is out of the fridge.
Always check that your fridge temperatures are cold enough
For more in depth detail on chilling click here.
Cooking
Bacteria can be killed when it is cooked properly and thoroughly and food should only ever be served if it is properly cooked and has been checked. Pork, poultry and minced meat products are common culprits for causing food poisoning.
For more information about the safe cooking click here.
We have just touched upon some of the fundamentals of reducing the spread of harmful bacteria, there is so much important information out there on their food safety it is vital that your business is up to date. Check out the Food Hygiene for Business Guide by the government here.
