Food Safety: Food Allergens

An aspect of food safety that is of a growing concern is food allergens. The most common food allergens include milk and dairy products, eggs and egg products, fish and shellfish, wheat, soy and soy products, peanuts, and tree nuts.

When people with allergies consume these products, reactions can include itching around the mouth; tightening in the throat; shortness of breath; hives; swelling; abdominal cramps, vomiting, or diarrhea; loss of consciousness; or even death.

When allergens are introduced into food prepared for people with allergies, this is called cross contact. This is not the same as cross contamination. Cross contamination refers contaminants that could be harmful to everyone (such as bacteria). Allergens are only harmful to those allergic to that specific allergen.

It is critical that cross contact not occur while preparing food for someone with allergies. Cross contact can occur the same way that cross contamination can—not washing utensil, not washing hands, not changing gloves, etc.

Food Safety: Resources

There are many great resources for food safety! A few are listed below. Most can be used for both professional and personal. And many include information beyond food safety.

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/, www.cdc.gov/outbreaknet, www.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks (The last one is great for searching for outbreaks by state, location [hospital, restaurant, etc.] and by etiology.)
  
• Federal Food Safety Information http://www.foodsafety.gov/
  
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) http://www.fda.gov/
  
• Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) http://www.fsis.usda.gov/

And don’t forget your professional associations such as the American Dietetic Association (http://www.eatright.org/) and the Dietary Managers Association (http://www.dmaonline.org/)!

Food Safety: Setting the Standard

One of the most important things a manager can do to ensure safe food is to set the standard. If it is not important enough for the manager to do it, it will not be important enough for the employees to do it.

If the manager takes the time to wash his/her hands every time he/she enters the kitchen, it sends a very strong message to the employees that they are to do this as well. Plus, it is a great way to determine if there is actually soap and disposable towels at the hand wash sink!

Although the manager’s “uniform” may differ from the employees, it is still important that it be clean and neat. The manager’s hair needs to be restrained whenever he/she is in the kitchen. Even if not working with food, the message sent is that restraining hair is important.

Not only does setting the standard, or “walking the talk,” help ensure food safety, it also helps in developing a good relationship with employees.

Food Safety: Use Reputable Suppliers

Nothing will improve the quality or the safety of the food as it enters your department. If you accept unsafe food, you cannot make it safe later.

There are some things that can be done during receiving to help ensure safe food is accepted into the facility. These include rejecting the following: food at unsafe temperatures, frozen foods that show signs of thawing and refreezing, foods with compromised packaging, or foods past their use-by or expiration dates.

In addition, it is necessary that the supplier can be trusted to first buy safe food from the farmer, manufacturer, or processor and ensure that the food is transported safely to the supplier. The supplier must then store the food safely and deliver it safely.

Food Safety: Practice Good Personal Hygiene

Good personal hygiene, especially hand washing, is critical to food safety!

The first step is to not contaminate the food. Contaminants include biological, chemical, and physical hazards.

The food received may be safe and free from biological contaminants. But, if an employee does not wash his/her hands after using the restroom and then works with food, he/she has contaminated the food and it is no longer safe.

The food received may be free of physical contaminants. But, if an employee does not restrain his/her hair, wears jewelry, wears a bandage without a glove, etc. and any of those items get in the food, the food has a physical contaminant. Many of the personal hygiene polices are an attempt to keep physical contaminants out of the food. An addition concern is that these physical contaminants frequently carry biological contaminants as well.

As discussed previously, poor hand washing is also a frequent contributor to cross-contamination.

Food Safety: Prevent Cross-contamination

Cross-contamination occurs when bacteria, viruses, or other contaminants from one food get into another food without the two foods touching. This happens when contaminants from one food contaminate a surface such as a cutting board, utensil, hand, glove, etc. If that surface is not cleaned and sanitized before another food is touches that surface, the second food becomes contaminated.

For example, if an employee is cutting fresh chicken and then uses the same cutting board and knife to cut lettuce without first washing and sanitizing the cutting board and knife, the bacteria from the chicken will go onto the board and knife and from there to the lettuce. The chicken is cooked, killing the bacteria. But the lettuce is not cooked, so the bacteria grow and people become sick.

If the employee does not wash his/her hands before cutting the lettuce, cross-contamination will occur. Sometimes employees think it is enough to wear gloves. It is not. If the employee puts on gloves without washing his/her hands, the gloves become contaminated in the process of putting on the gloves and the gloves then contaminate the lettuce.

Cleaning, sanitizing, and proper personal hygiene are critical to prevent cross-contamination.

Food Safety: Prevent Time-temperature Abuse

Bacteria need the proper temperature to grow and they need time to grow. If food handlers allow food to remain in these temperatures for too long, bacteria will grow to levels high enough to make customers sick.

Bacteria survive and grow between the temperatures of 41° F. and 135° F. This is called the temperature danger zone. Bacteria grow very rapidly between the temperatures of 70° F. and 125° F.

Bacteria also require sufficient time to grow to dangerous levels. Four hours or more in the temperature danger zone is enough time for bacteria to grow to levels to make people sick.

Of course, it is necessary that food be in the temperature danger zone when it is prepared and pass through the temperature danger zone during cooking, cooling, and reheating. The key is to minimize the time food is in the temperature danger zone.

Key points include:

• Do not leave food at room temperature.
• Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

Food Safety: Four Factors to Keep Food Safe

There are four primary factors that need to be practiced to keep food safe. These include:

• Prevent time-temperature abuse
• Prevent cross-contamination
• Practice good personal hygiene
• Buy food from reputable suppliers
  

Each of these will be discussed throughout the month.

Food Safety: September is National Food Safety Education Month

National Food Safety Education Month (NFSEM) was created by the National Restaurant Association in 1994. The purpose is to increase awareness about the importance of food safety education and training. A new theme is created each year. This year’s theme is “High-Risk Customers: Serve Your Fare with Extra Care.” Learning activities and posters are available free from the website, www.servsafe.com/nfsem.

The materials quickly communicate key concepts to employees. Since food safety is food safety, these would also make good in-service materials for healthcare food service workers. Also available on the website are the archived training materials from past years.

This month the blog topic is food safety. Please add your comments on what you have done in training your employees to prepare safe food!