Food Safety
Although there's no substitute for quality training in the workplace, it never hurts to refresh your memory.
Here are our "Top 10 Greatest Hits" of food safety practices. Drum roll, please...
- Healthy workers make healthy food. We understand that many food service workers who don't have paid sick leave find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place: lose a day's pay for themselves and their families or put their health and that of their clients at risk by working while sick. However, if you're able, it's very important to stay home from work if you're sick, particularly with a heavy cough or other serious respiratory symptoms.
- Hand washing is key. The single most important thing any food service worker can do to keep the food--and the people--you serve safe and healthy is to wash your hands when you start work, between tasks, and after going to the bathroom. If your employer provides gloves, be sure to remove and discard them between tasks and on bathroom breaks.
- Clean as you go. Each kitchen and server station should be equipped with a small red "HACCP* bucket" with hot water and disinfectant. Each time you complete a task, wipe down your work station with the cloth from the bucket. Keep the cloth clean by storing it in the bucket between uses.
- More than just a label. Dating food is essential to maintaining a safe, healthy inventory. Labeling begins when an order is delivered. Each container, can or box should be labeled with the date of delivery, and rotated properly. Using the "first in, first out" procedure helps to prevent spoilage. Leftover food that is to be reused needs to be marked with the date it was cooked, as well.
- Stay cool. Reach-in and walk-in refrigerators and freezers should be equipped with a thermometer. Managers or chefs are tasked with recording temperatures on a written temperature log or through an automated program that sends the temperatures to their computers. You can help catch any discrepancies early by glancing at the thermometer each time you reach for something. Refrigerator temperatures should never go above 40 degrees. Freezers should not go above 0 degrees. Go to a supervisor if you spot a high temperature, or puddles on the floor.
- Time and temperature are critical. Make sure that temperature readings are taken as cooked food is removed from the range, and that the food registers at least 140 degrees. Temperature logs should be used to note the temperature at least three times during the day: as food comes from the range or oven, when it is put onto the service line, and when it is taken back off the line to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
- Maintain the high ground. Food should be stored at least six inches off the floor. If foods have been placed in the refrigerator or walk-in cooler to defrost, no other foods should be placed on the shelves below them.
- Cut it out. Your employer should provide safety gloves made of metal mesh for you to use when using the slicing or other cutting machines, or when cutting meat, poultry or fish by hand. Be sure to protect yourself by using these gloves each time, and rinse them and put them in the HACCP bucket or return them to your supervisor.
- Keep your feet on the ground. Kitchen floors can become incredibly slippery. Be sure to wear shoes with good soles, like tennis shoes. Most employers either provide non-slip floors, or equip the kitchen with perforated mats which serve the dual purpose of decreasing slipping and preventing leg fatigue.
- Never stop learning. We've barely scratched the surface. Food safety is a complicated, essential training area which is all too often given short shrift by food service companies. Asking your manager to provide you and your co-workers with solid training--especially in the areas of HACCP procedures, culinary procedures and other specialized skills--will not only improve your current job performance, but may prepare you for advancement down the road.
