Cooking and Food Safety Measures Essay

Q1 – Identify potential food safety hazards when preparing, serving, clearing away and storing food and drink. People can get sick if the food they eat has harmful chemicals or microorganisms. This is called food-borne illness. The goal of food safety is to prevent the hazards that cause food-borne illness or injury. Most of the hazards in food are things you cannot see, smell, or taste. – Physical hazard: Hard or soft objects in food that can cause injury. For example, broken glass, jewellery, staples and fingernails. – Chemical hazard: Poisonous substances that occur naturally or are added during food handling. For example, cleaning products and pest control chemicals. – Biological hazard: Germs that cannot be seen without microscope. For example, parasites, viruses and bacteria. ( Preparing: – While preparing food, food workers must remove watches, rings, bracelets, and all other jewelry on the arms or hands. – Using the same cloth for cleaning surfaces used for both raw, i. e. meat and poultry, and ready to eat foods – Physical contamination e. g. flies, jewellery, broken glass and equipment in bad condition. ( Storing: – Store raw meats at the bottom of the fridge to prevent meat juice dropping on the other food – Eggs will be stored under refrigeration in order to reduce the growth of Salmonella – No cleaning materials should be stored where they may come into contact with open food. – Dried foods will be decanted into seal-able containers in order to protect from physical and chemical contamination ( Serving: – Serving Ready-to-eat food (e. g. sliced fruit, cooked pizza, bread) without additional washing or cooking to remove microorganisms. – Must use utensils such as tongs, scoops, deli papers, or single-use gloves to keep from touching ready-to-eat foods. – You place food and drink within easy reach of the individual – You serve food and drink with the appropriate utensils and in a hygienic manner ( Cleaning away: – Food-contact surfaces should be washed, rinsed, and sanitized after each use. – Scrape excess food into a rubbish bin – Leave dishes and cooking utensils to air-dry or wipe with clean dry cloth. – Rinse in clean hot water – Encourage individuals to wash their hands and clean themselves. Q2 – Explain the importance of implementing food safety measures when providing food and drink individuals. Every day people all over the world get sick from the food they eat. This sickness is called food-borne disease and is caused by dangerous microorganisms or chemicals. The importance of implementing food safety measures when handling food and drink is to keep children and young people safe from food-borne illnesses. Q3 – Explain why personal protective clothing should be used when handling food and drink. Personal protective clothing should be used to protect the wearer from specific hazards of a hazardous substance. – PPE includes gloves, respiratory protection, eye protection, and protective clothing. – You should always wear gloves to minimize the chance of bacteria entering the food from unclean hands. – Gloves must be changed each time you do a different task, e. g. preparing sandwiches then going into walk in cooler-touching different contaminated surfaces. – Aprons and chef jackets are a great way to prevent any of your clothing from contaminating the food. – Hairnets and hats are used to prevent hairs from entering food and drink. Q4 – Explain why surfaces, utensils and equipment must be cleaned before beginning a new task. Surfaces, utensils and equipment must be cleaned before beginning a new task to prevent cross-contamination. Cross-contamination is one of the most common causes of food poisoning. It happens when harmful bacteria are spread onto food from other food, surfaces, hands, utensils or equipment. Q5 – Explain the importance of clearing and disposing of food waste promptly and safely. Food waste must be disposed of on a regular basis. This helps to prevent cross contamination. Pests such as flies and insects love leftovers. There is also the added risk of attracting mice and rats. – Food waste and other refuse must not be allowed to left in food rooms, except so far as is unavoidable during the business operation. – It is good practice to remove all waste from the food room at the end of the day. – Food waste and other refuse must be deposited in closable containers. These containers must be of an appropriate construction, kept in sound condition, and where necessary be easy to clean and disinfect. – Adequate provision must be made for the removal and storage of food waste and other refuse. – Refuse stores must be designed and managed in such a way as to enable them to be kept clean, and to protect against access by pests, and against contamination of food, drinking water, equipment or premises. – Refuse should be removed frequently and, depending on the size and type of business more than one collection/removal per week may be required. – Storage facilities must be kept in a clean condition and the waste must be protected from rodents or birds. Q6 – Explain the importance of storing different types of food and drink safely. The importance of storing different types of food and drink safely is to avoid cross contamination and ensure a good rotation of stock. In the UK we end up throwing away 8. 3 million tonnes of food and drink every year and most of this could have been eaten. There are simple things you can do to reduce waste – to try to make sure you don’t buy or cook more food than you want to eat. Some food needs to be kept in the fridge to help stop bacteria from growing on it, such as food with a ‘use by’ date, cooked food and ready-to-eat food such as desserts and cooked meats. – Keep food covered to protect it from contamination from raw foods and physical objects – Always store â€Å"cooked† food above â€Å"raw† meat in the refrigerator this will eliminate the risk of contamination from bacteria and meat juice spillage to other foods. – Do not store food in open cans because when a can has been opened and the food is open to the air, the tin from the can might transfer more quickly to the can’s contents. – Do not overstock the refrigerator, as this will affect the airflow around the food. You can keep food safely in the freezer as long as it has stayed frozen the whole time; however, the taste and texture of food changes if it’s frozen for too long. It should be all right to freeze most raw or cooked foods. – Freeze it before the ‘use by’ date – Follow any freezing or thawing instructions on the label – Defrost it in the fridge so that it doesn’t get too warm. – Ensure food is thoroughly defrosted before cooking food Many types of food don’t need to be kept in the fridge to keep them safe to eat, for example dry foods such as rice, pasta and flour, many types of drinks, tinned foods, and unopened jars. But it’s still important to take care how you store them. – Try to keep food in sealed bags or containers. This helps to keep them fresh and stops anything falling into the food by accident. – Don’t store food or drinks near cleaning products or other chemicals. – Don’t store food on the floor, because this can encourage mice, ants and other pests. – Remember that some types of food might need to be kept in the fridge once you’ve opened them – follow any storage instructions on the label. Task 2 Q1 – Identify sources of information about food safety. – Food Safety Education – Food safety training – Research and development Q2 – Describe how to access and support about own role in maintaining food safety when providing food and drink for individuals. – Talking to teacher or leader of placement – Listen and take notes – Making posters. Bibliography ( Notes (http://www. who. int/foodsafety/publications/consumer/manual_keys. pdf ( http://web. princeton. edu/sites/ehs/hazardcommguide/3. htm (http://www. caerphilly. gov. uk/Pdf/Environment_Planning/HACCP-self-help-guidance-pack-for-caterers. pdf.