Food safety is essential as failing to adhere to the right standards can result in bacteria staying in the food. This will invariably result in cases of food poisoning. Despite the presence of guidelines and standards, there are millions of cases of food poisoning every year and some are fatal.
That’s why, whenever you’re preparing or handling food, you need to take the following simple steps:
1. Wash Your Hands
You may be surprised by how long bacteria can survive on surfaces and what temperatures they can survive, or even flourish at. In some cases, cooking the food properly is the only way to eliminate the bacteria.
That means you’re going to get the bacteria on your hands when you handle the food. To prevent bacteria from being introduced to the food or transmitted to other services, you simply need to wash your hands with soap and water before and after you handle the food.
Soap and water are effective at eliminating bacteria and stopping the spread of bacteria or cross-contamination of foods.
2. Store Foods Separately
Raw food should always be stored separately from cooked, or ready-to-eat foods. Ideally, you should store the different foods in containers and cooked foods should always be higher in the refrigerator than uncooked items. This helps to prevent cross-contamination through drippage or accidental touching.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional chef or just cooking at home, adhering to this principle will help to ensure you don’t give your family and friends food poisoning. Because assuming they survive it’s one thing you’ll never hear the end of. For those of you professionally working in kitchens and handling food, it’s mandatory to get a food handlers certificate, so that certainly helps to maintain the quality of your work.
3. Use the Right Equipment
In order to ensure your food preparation is hygienic, you need to invest in good quality industrial food machinery. This is important as industrial machinery is very easy to clean, does the job efficiently, and helps to prevent the spread of bacteria.
Ideally, you should have separate machines for cooked and uncooked foods, as well as separate areas of the kitchen. Anything that minimizes the chance of interaction between cooked and uncooked foods is a good thing.
Just remember to wash all machinery and utensils thoroughly under hot soapy water. This will eliminate the bacteria and keep you safe.
4. Store Promptly
Potentially one of the biggest issues and risks in any kitchen is the failure to store food promptly, specifically items that need to be refrigerated.
These types of food items need to be kept cool to prevent bacteria from growing on them, ensuring they have the maximum shelf life possible.
Leaving chilled products on the side allows them to warm, this activates the dormant bacteria in them which start to breed. Subsequently placing them in the refrigerator may not be enough to kill the bacteria. It will flourish and can be easily spread between food and people.
Remember, a few simple precautions can keep you, your family, and even your customers safe from food poisoning. Paying attention to these four simple steps is the least you can do!
