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Food safety

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Food safety is a scientific discipline describing the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent Foodborne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. Food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning.


Basic Practices

The following are fundamental requirements to maintain sanitary hygiene while preparing food:

  1. Wear clean clothes and apron.
  2. Wash your hands with soap and water before and after cooking.
  3. Tie your hair back with elastic band or rubberband.
  4. Keep the temperature of hot food above 140°F / 60°C and keep the temperature of cold food below 40°F / 4°C. Food should not sit at intermediary temperatures (defined as 40-140°F / 4-60°C) for more than 2 hours.
  5. Use an instant-read thermometer with a food-safe probe attached, to measure the internal temperature of cooked meats.
  6. Keep raw meat apart from cooked meat, and wash the cutting board and knife before reusing.
  7. Wash meat, fruit, and vegetables thoroughly before use. (although some sources (http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter10.htm) suggest washing meat spreads bacteria, that would otherwise be killed in the cooking process.
  8. Do not cook or otherwise prepare food if feeling unwell.

Hygienic accessories

To maintain the food and cooking hygiene, the use of following items may also be necessary [1]

  • Paper towel
  • Dish towel (tea towel)
  • Dish cloth
  • Dedicated/clean dish distributing ware and personal dishware
  • Napkins

Regulatory agencies

UK HACCP guidelines

The UK Food Standards Agency[2] publishes recommendations as part of its Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) programme. The relevant guidelines at http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/csctcooking.pdf state that:

"Cooking food until the CORE TEMPERATURE is 75 °C or above will ensure that harmful bacteria are destroyed.
However, lower cooking temperatures are acceptable provided that the CORE TEMPERATURE is maintained for a specified period of time as follows :

  • 60°C for a minimum of 45 minutes
  • 65°C for a minimum of 10 minutes
  • 70°C for a minimum of 2 minutes"

UK Department Of Health

Previous guidance from a leaflet produced by the UK Department Of Health “Handling Cooked Meats Safely A Ten Point Plan” also allowed for:

  • "75°C for a minimum of 30 seconds
  • 80°C for a minimum of 6 seconds"

as well as the above. Secondary references for the above may be found at:

Note that recommended cooking conditions are only appropriate if initial bacterial numbers in the uncooked food are small. Cooking does not replace poor hygiene.

US Agencies

In the United States, federal regulations governing food safety are fragmented and complicated, according to a February 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office.[3] There are 15 agencies sharing oversight responsibilities in the food safety system, although the two primary agencies are the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is responsible for the safety of meat, poultry, and processed egg products, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for virtually all other foods.

Codex Alimentaurius

In 2003, Codex Alimentarius published a document on this subject which serves one of guidelines to food safety [4].

Academic resources

Industrial resources

  • Internet Journal of Food Safety, ISSN: 1930-0670, International Association for Food Safety/Quality

See also

References

  1. ^ Food Standards Agency. "Safer food, better business for caterers" (PDF). Retrieved 24 November. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ http://www.food.gov.uk/
  3. ^ GAO-07-449T, Federal Oversight of Food Safety
  4. ^ Codex Alimentarius. "Codex Alimentarius and Food Hygiene" (PDF). Retrieved 15 October. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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