1. Chapter 2
Keeping Food Safe

2. What Is a Foodborne Illness?
All restaurant and foodservice operations must keep food safe. Every person in the operation must work toward this goal.
A foodborne illness is a disease transmitted to people by food.
A foodborne-illness outbreak is when two or more people get the same illness after eating the same food.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there will be 76 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year.
High-risk populations have a higher risk of getting a foodborne illness than others.
The immune system is the body’s defense against illness. When the system is weak, it cannot fight off illness as easily as a healthy system.
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3. Forms of Contamination
To prevent foodborne illness, it is important to recognize the hazards that can make food unsafe.
A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm.
In the preparation of food, hazards are divided into three categories: biological, chemical, and physical.
Contamination means that harmful things are present in food, making it unsafe to eat.
Food can become unsafe through:
Poor personal hygiene
Time-temperature abuse
Cross-contamination
Poor cleaning and sanitizing
Purchasing from unapproved suppliers
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4. Biological Contamination
Microorganisms are small, living organisms that can be seen only through a microscope.
The four types of pathogens that can contaminate food and cause foodborne illness are:
Viruses
Bacteria
Parasites
Fungi
Biological toxins, another form of biological contamination, are made by pathogens, or they come from a plant or an animal.
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5. Biological Contamination (cont.)
Pathogens need six conditions to grow. An easy way to remember these conditions is by remembering the phrase FAT TOM, for Food, Acidity, Temperature (FAT), Time, Oxygen, and Moisture (TOM).
Food that is most vulnerable for pathogen growth is food that needs time and temperature control for safety, or TCS food for short.
To control temperature, foodhandlers must keep TCS food out of the temperature danger zone.
Ready-to-eat food, or food that can be eaten without further preparation, washing, or cooking, also needs careful handling to prevent contamination.
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6. Biological Contamination (cont.)
Viruses are the leading cause of foodborne illness. Restaurant and foodservice managers must understand what viruses are and how they can make people sick.
Bacteria also cause many foodborne illnesses. Knowing what bacteria are and how they grow can help you to control them.
Parasites cannot grow in food. They must live in a host organism to grow.
A host is a person, animal, or plant on which another organism lives and feeds.
Fungi can cause illness, but usually they cause food to spoil. Fungi are found in air, soil, plants, water, and some food.
Mold that is visible to the human eye is actually a tangled mass of thousands of tiny mold plants.
Yeast can spoil food quickly. The signs of spoilage include the smell or taste of alcohol, white or pink discoloration, slime, and bubbles.
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7. Chemical Contamination
Chemicals contaminants come from everyday items that are found in restaurant and foodservice operations and may cause foodborne illnesses.
Store chemicals in a separate area away from food, utensils, and equipment used for food.
Foodservice chemicals can contaminate food if they are used or stored in the wrong ways. This includes cleaners, sanitizers, polishes, and machine lubricants.
To prevent toxic-metal poisoning, only use utensils and equipment, including kettles, pots, serving ware and pans, that are made for handling food.
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8. Physical Contamination
Physical contamination happens when objects get into food.
Contaminants can be naturally occurring, such as the bones in fish, or result from accidents and mistakes.
Common physical contaminants include:
Metal shavings from cans
Glass from broken lightbulbs
Fingernails, hair, and bandages
Jewelry
Fruit pits
Most physical contamination can be prevented by inspecting food closely, practicing good personal hygiene, and following preparation procedures.
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9. Food Defense
Restaurant and foodservice employees also must take steps to prevent people from purposely contaminating food.
One important way to prevent tampering is to control access to the operation’s food storage and preparation areas.
All employees in an operation, from buser to executive chef, should report anything that seems suspicious.
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10. Allergens
A food allergy is the body’s negative reaction to a food protein.
Employees should be aware of major allergens and the menu items that contain them.
When serving customers with food allergies, servers must be ready to answer customers’ questions about any menu item.
Servers should never take a guess about what a menu item contains. If they don’t know, they should ask someone who does.
Cross-contact occurs when allergens are transferred from food containing an allergen to the food served to the customer.
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11. U.S. Regulation of Food Safety
Most regulations that affect restaurant and foodservice operations in the United States are written at the state level, but federal, state, and local governments are all involved.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) writes the FDA Food Code, which recommends specific food safety regulations for the restaurant and foodservice industry.
An inspection is a formal review or examination conducted to see if an operation is following food safety laws.
Successful restaurant and foodservice managers understand local food safety requirements and design policies that address them.
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12. Section 2.1 Summary
A foodborne illness is a disease transmitted to people by food.
High-risk populations include people with weakened immune systems.
Pathogens need six conditions to grow. These conditions can be remembered by FAT TOM: food, acidity, temperature, time, oxygen, and moisture.
Those foods that need time and temperature control for safety are called TCS foods. Ready-to-eat food also needs careful handling to prevent contamination.
Biological contamination can be prevented by purchasing from approved, reputable suppliers, and then cooking and holding dishes correctly.
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13. Section 2.1 Summary (cont.)
To store chemicals properly, keep them in a separate area away from food, utensils, and equipment used for food.
A food defense system helps to prevent people from purposely contaminating food. One important way to prevent tampering is to make sure access to an operation’s food is controlled through use of uniforms and name tags.
The most common allergens include milk and dairy products, eggs and egg products, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy, peanuts, and tree nuts.
The restaurant and foodservice industry is monitored by many agencies. The FDA writes the FDA Food Code, and each state adopts the code as it sees fit. State and local health departments then enforce these laws.
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14. How Foodhandlers Can Contaminate Food
Good personal hygiene is a key factor in the prevention of foodborne illnesses. Successful managers make personal hygiene a priority.
Foodhandlers can contaminate food in a variety of situations.
Foodhandlers are not just the people who prepare food. Servers and even dishwashers are considered foodhandlers.
To prevent foodhandlers from contaminating food, managers must create personal hygiene policies. These policies must address personal cleanliness, clothing, hand care, and health.
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15. Personal Cleanliness and Work Attire
Personal cleanliness is an important part of personal hygiene. Pathogens can be found on hair and skin that aren’t kept clean.
All foodhandlers must bathe or shower before work and keep their hair clean.
Dirty clothing may carry pathogens that can cause foodborne illnesses.
To avoid spreading foodborne illnesses, foodhandlers should:
Always cover their hair.
Remove aprons and store them in the right place when leaving prep areas.
Wear clean clothing every day.
Remove jewelry from hands and arms before preparing food or when working around prep areas.
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16. Handwashing Foodhandlers must also wash their hands after:
Handwashing is the most important part of personal hygiene. Foodhandlers must wash their hands before they start work.
Foodhandlers must also wash their hands after:
Using the restroom
Handling raw meat, poultry, or seafood
Touching the hair, face, or body
Sneezing, coughing, or using a tissue
Eating, drinking, smoking, or chewing gum or tobacco
Handling chemicals that might affect food safety
Taking out garbage
Clearing tables or busing dirty dishes
Touching clothing or aprons
Handling money
Touching anything else that may contaminate hands
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17. Bare-Hand Contact/ Illness Work Requirements
Using bare hands to handle ready-to-eat food can increase the risk of contaminating it. Gloves, tongs, and deli tissue can help keep food safe by creating a barrier between hands and food.
Restaurant and foodservice operations have a responsibility to ensure that their employees do not spread foodborne illnesses.
Foodhandlers who are sick can spread pathogens to food. Depending on the illness, they might not be able to work with food until they recover.
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18. Section 2.2 Summary
Various personal behaviors of foodhandlers can contaminate food.
Handwashing is the most important part of personal hygiene. It must be done at the right times in the right way.
Personal cleanliness practices include bathing or showering before work, keeping hair clean, wearing clean clothes, removing jewelry from hands and arms, and keeping nails clean.
Proper work attire includes always covering hair, wearing clean clothes, removing aprons and storing them in the right place after leaving the prep area, and removing jewelry from hands and arms.
Using bare hands to handle ready-to-eat food can increase the risk of contaminating it.
Employees should not work with or around food when they have a sore throat with a fever.
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19. Cross-Contamination
The spread of pathogens from one surface or food to another is called cross-contamination.
The steps that an operation takes to buy, store, prepare, cook, and serve food is known as the flow of food.
All steps in the flow of food pose risks to food safety.
Understanding where contamination can happen in this flow and how to prevent it are critical tasks for restaurant and foodservice professionals.
The most basic way to prevent cross-contamination is to separate raw food and ready-to-eat food.
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20. Time-Temperature Abuse
Most foodborne illnesses happen because TCS food has been time-temperature abused.
Food is time-temperature abused any time it is cooked to the wrong internal temperature, held at the wrong temperature, or cooled or reheated incorrectly.
Food has been time-temperature abused when it remains at 41˚F to 135˚F. This is called the temperature danger zone because pathogens grow in this range.
The longer food stays in the temperature danger zone, the more time pathogens have to grow.
If food is held in this range for four or more hours, throw it out.
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21. Thermometers
Three types of thermometers are commonly used in operations—bimetallic stemmed, thermocouples, and thermistors.
A bimetallic stemmed thermometer can check temperatures from 0˚F to 220˚F. This makes it useful for checking both hot and cold types of food.
Thermocouples and thermistors are also common in restaurant and foodservice operations. They measure temperatures through a metal probe and display them digitally.
Infrared thermometers measure the temperatures of food and equipment surfaces. They do not need to touch a surface to check its temperature, so there is less chance for cross-contamination and damage to food.
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22. Purchasing
All the food used in a restaurant or foodservice operation should come from approved, reputable suppliers.
An approved food supplier is one that has been inspected by appropriate agencies and meets all applicable local, state, and federal laws.
Restaurant and foodservice purchasers must make sure that their suppliers use good food safety practices along the supply chain.
An operation’s supply chain can include growers, shippers, packers, manufacturers, distributors (trucking fleets and warehouses), and/or local markets.
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23. Receiving
To keep food safe during receiving, an operation needs to have enough trained staff available to receive, inspect, and store the food.
Use thermometers to check food temperatures during receiving.
The packaging of food and nonfood items should be intact and clean. Reject any items with packaging problems or with signs of pest damage or expired use-by dates.
Poor food quality is sometimes a sign of time-temperature abuse.
Shellfish can be received either shucked or live. Make sure that raw shucked shellfish are packaged in containers for one-time use only.
Eggs must be clean and unbroken when you receive them.
Milk and dairy products must be received at 41˚F or lower unless otherwise specified by law. They also must be pasteurized and meet FDA Grade A standards.
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24. Storage
Food can become unsafe if stored improperly. Store all TCS food at 41°F or lower, or at 135°F or higher.
Rotate food in storage to use the oldest inventory first using the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method.
Always store food to prevent cross-contamination. Store refrigerated raw meat, poultry, and seafood separately from ready-to-eat food.
Store raw meat, poultry, and seafood in coolers in top-to-bottom order based on the minimum internal cooking temperature of each food. Meat cooked to higher temperatures is always stored beneath meat cooked to lower temperatures.
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25. Preparation
Time-temperature abuse can happen during preparation. To avoid time-temperature abuse, remove from the refrigerator only as much food as can be prepared in a short period of time.
Prepare food in small batches so that ingredients don’t sit out for too long in the temperature danger zone.
Remember that freezing doesn’t kill pathogens. When frozen food is thawed and exposed to the temperature danger zone, any pathogens in the food will begin to grow.
To reduce pathogen growth, never thaw food at room temperature.
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26. Cooking
Cooking food to the correct temperature is critical for keeping it safe.
Every type of TCS food has a minimum internal temperature that it must reach.
Once food reaches its minimum internal temperature, make sure that it stays at that temperature for a specific amount of time.
Operations that primarily serve high-risk populations, such as nursing homes and day-care centers, cannot serve certain items, such as raw seed sprouts, raw or undercooked eggs, raw or undercooked meat, or seafood.
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27. Holding, Cooling, and Reheating
If cooked food isn’t served immediately, it must be kept out of the temperature danger zone by cooling it quickly, reheating it correctly, and/or holding it correctly.
To hold TCS food safely, hold hot food at 135°F or higher and hold cold food at 41°F or lower. Throw out any food that’s in the temperature danger zone.
Cool TCS food from 135°F to 41°F or lower within six hours. First, cool food from 135°F to 70°F within two hours. Then cool it to 41°F or lower in the next four hours.
If foodhandlers plan to reheat leftover or previously prepared TCS food so that it can be held for service, they must heat the food to an internal temperature of 165°F. The food needs to go from storage temperature to 165°F within two hours and then stay at that temperature for 15 seconds.
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28. Serving The kitchen staff must:
The biggest threat to food that is ready to be served is contamination.
The kitchen staff must:
Handle ready-to-eat food with tongs, deli sheets, or gloves.
Use separate utensils for each food item.
Store serving utensils in the food with the handle extended above the rim of the container to prevent people accidentally touching the food while they try to retrieve the utensil.
The service staff needs to be just as careful as the kitchen staff.
Any delay between preparation and service increases the threat to food safety. Food that will be served off-site has a greater risk of time-temperature abuse and contamination.
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29. Section 2.3 Summary
Cross-contamination can be prevented by making sure workstations, cutting boards, and utensils are clean and sanitized; not allowing ready-to-eat food to touch surfaces that have come in contact with raw meat, seafood, or poultry; preparing different kinds of foods at different times; and cleaning and sanitizing work surfaces and utensils between each product.
To prevent time-temperature abuse, minimize the amount of time that food spends in the temperature danger zone.
Three types of thermometers commonly used in operations are bimetallic stemmed thermometers, thermocouples, and thermistors.
An approved food source (supplier) is one that has been inspected and meets all applicable local, state, and federal laws.
All TCS food must be stored at 41°F or lower or at 135°F or higher.
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30. Section 2.3 Summary (cont.)
Hold hot TCS food at 135°F or higher, hold cold TCS food at 41°F or lower; cool TCS food from 135°F to 41°F or lower within six hours—135°F to 70°F within the first two hours, then to 41°F or lower in the next four hours.
Reheat TCS food for hot holding by heating it from storage temperature to an internal temperature of 165°F in less than two hours, and then making sure the food stays at that temperature for 15 seconds.
Kitchen staff should handle ready-to-eat food with tongs, deli sheets, or gloves; use separate utensils for each item; clean and sanitize after each serving task; and store serving utensils in the food with the handle extended above the rim of the container.
Food prepared and served off-site must be packed in insulated food containers and checked for internal food temperature regularly.
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31. The HACCP Plan
A food safety management system is a group of procedures and practices that work together to prevent foodborne illness.
A Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, or HACCP, system identifies major hazards at specific points within a food’s flow through the operation.
An effective HACCP system is based on a written plan that considers an operation’s menu, customers, equipment, processes, and operations. It is based on seven basic principles:
Conduct a hazard analysis.
Determine critical control points (CCPs).
Establish critical limits.
Establish monitoring procedures.
Identify corrective actions.
Verify that the system works.
Establish procedures for record keeping and documentation.
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32. HACCP Principles (cont.)
Principle 1: Conduct a Hazard Analysis:
First, look for the potential hazards in the food an operation serves. These hazards might be physical, chemical, or biological.
Principle 2: Determine Critical Control Points (CCPs):
Find the points in the process where the identified hazard(s) can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to safe levels. These are the critical control points (CCPs). Depending on the menu item, there may be more than one CCP.
Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits:
For each CCP you have identified, determine its critical limit. A critical limit is a requirement, such as a temperature requirement, that must be met to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a hazard.
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33. HACCP Principles (cont.)
Principle 4: Establish Monitoring Procedures:
Determine the best way for your operation to check to make sure critical limits are being met. Make sure the limits are consistently met.
Principle 5: Identify Corrective Actions:
If a critical limit hasn’t been met, you must take a corrective action—a step to fix the problem. Corrective actions should be determined in advance so everyone knows what to do when critical limits aren’t met.
Principle 6: Verify that the System Works:
Determine if the plan is working as intended. Evaluate it on a regular basis.
Principle 7: Establish Procedures for Record Keeping and Documentation:
Maintain the HACCP plan and keep all documentation created when developing it.
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34. Section 2.4 Summary The HACCP principles are as follows:
Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis.
Principle 2: Determine critical control points (CCPs).
Principle 3: Establish critical limits.
Principle 4: Establish monitoring procedures.
Principle 5: Identify corrective action.
Principle 6: Establish verification procedures.
Principle 7: Establish procedures for record keeping and documentation.
A HACCP system focuses on identifying specific points within a food item’s flow through the operation that are essential to prevent, eliminate, or reduce hazards to safe levels.
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