Food business - health promotion
Top food safety tips
By following these simple steps you could reduce the possibility
of you and your guests getting food poisoning:
- Always check the ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates before buying
your food and check general appearance of the produce and it’s
packaging.
- Keep raw and cooked foods separate. Raw foods should be stored
at the bottom of the fridge so juices don’t drip onto other
foods.
- Keep pets out of the kitchen – they carry germs.
- Make sure worktops are cleaned with an antibacterial cleaner
before food preparation and ‘clean as you go’.
- Before preparing food make sure you thoroughly wash your hands
with warm water and soap. Hands need to be washed especially after
using the toilet, handling raw meat/eggs, playing with pets,
emptying the bin.
- Allow plenty of time to defrost foods thoroughly before
using.
- Do not prepare food too early, no more than 12 hours in
advance.
- Do not leave food standing at room temperature for long
periods, use your fridge or cool boxes with ice packs. Make room in
your fridge for food not beer and wine. Beer/wine can be stored
outside or in the garage.
- Make sure hot food is piping hot before serving
- If there are any leftovers remember – If in doubt, throw it
out!
Remember keep hot food hot and cold food cold.
Food hygiene tips for Retailers
- Make sure that you the difference between disinfectant (kills
most bacteria) and detergent (moves grease and food debris without
killing bacteria) and a sanitiser (combining detergent and
disinfectant) and use them properly.
- Disinfectant food contact surfaces and equipment such as slicer
blades, knives, chopping boards and display surfaces, along with
hand contact surfaces such as refrigerator handles, utensils and
taps, regularly and thoroughly.
- If you dilute your own cleaning chemicals,make sure you follow
the manufacturers instructions – too strong can be as bad as too
weak.
- Ensure your stock rotation is accurate, using food strictly in
date order and taking care that any slices meats are sold the day
they are sliced.
- Ensure all raw meat and associated activities are properly
separated from cooked meats and other ready to eat foods, to
control cross contamination.
- Make sure your display units are calibrated and are operating
at or below 8ºc and preferably at around 5ºc.
- Check the temperature across the display bed to see where the
lowest temperature area is and place ready to eat foods here
(taking care not cross contaminate with any raw foods)
- Check to make sure your processes and distribution chain, if
appropriate, keep ready to eat products like cooked meats cod. 5ºc
is recommended.
- If you produce cooked meats with a shelf life of more than 5
days, implement an environmental sampling plan for Listeria with
corrective actions for positive results. Ask your environmental
health officer for advice if this may affect you.
- If you have a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP),
make sure the pack is up to date and accurately reflects your
practices.
Food hygiene tips for fish retailers
- To ensure that cross contamination doesn't occur on raw fish
counters, retailers should follow these simple guidelines:
- It is important that the same food hygiene/safety procedures
are applied for raw fish as for raw meats.
- Use separate utensils and serving equipment for raw and ready
to eat fish products
- Make sure that raw and ready to eat products are displayed
separately to avoid cross contamination.
- Ensure that all staff wash their hands thoroughly after
handling raw fish.
- Make sure there is a good stock rotation system in place as
Listeria can grow at fridge temperatures
How to avoid cross contamination in Chinese restaurants or
takeaways
General
- Thorough regular and end of the day cleaning and disinfecting
of surfaces and kitchen equipment.
- Good staff personal hygiene and adequate hand washing
facilities in the kitchen area.
Crispy duck
- Store raw and cooked foods separately.
- Use different knives and utensils, preferably colour coded, for
raw and cooked foods.
- Use separate areas for raw and cooked foods if possible, or if
not use separate colour coded chopping boards.
Egg and egg mix
- Use UK eggs, lion marked are preferable. Only use clean,
undamaged eggs and within shelf life.
- Store shell eggs and egg mix away from other foods, preferably
in a fridge.
- Take care not to splash egg mixture onto surfaces.
- Consider the use of pasteurized egg, otherwise cook eggs
thoroughly.
- Do not crack eggs in a food production area, aerosols which may
contain salmonella could contaminate a wide surface area.
- Use a clean fresh bowl (with a lid) each time the egg mix is
prepared and avoid topping up.
- Do not leave egg mix out of the fridge for long periods of time
(no longer that 1 hour).
Cleaning cloths
- It is best to use disposable cloths and throw them away after
each use.
- If non disposable cloths are used there must be separate cloths
for clean and dirty areas. These cloths should be colour
coded i.e. red cloths for raw food areas.
- Non disposable cloths must be soaked overnight in a sanitizing
solution and washed regularly at a high temperature.
- Dirty cloths must not be left in the kitchen area where they
may be used accidently.
NHS Direct.
Health Protection Agency.