Level 2 Award in Food Safety Every chefs for Supper must ensure that the food they produce is safe to eat. There will be food safety hazards but they can be controlled in your kitchen if you understand how food becomes contaminated and how to prevent this from happening. This guide, exclusively for Supper chefs, outlines the key fundamentals required to pass the Level 2 Award in Food safety. This should be used in conjunction with your own learnings and is by no means a comprehensive revision guide. Our documents are provided to help and support you throughout your time with Supper. We have teamed up with a food safety consultancy business to provide you with 24/7 assistance if you need any help or have any questions relating to food safety. We will be providing you with ongoing training, refresher courses and the opportunity to gain further qualifications to ensure we set the very highest standards in food safety. At Supper we want you to enjoy your cooking and have both satisfaction as well as monetary rewards for this. Food safety however is a very serious topic and should be respected by all of our chefs. Course notes The role of Environmental Health Officers (EHO) EHO s are part of the local council and they are responsible for ensuring that all production of food is done so in a safe way. They have the power to: 1. Serve improvement notices this measure will be to advise you on improvements you need to make and suggestions for improving your score. If you are served with any improvement notices, please contact our food safety consultants who will be able to advise you accordingly on what action, if any, to take. 2. Serve prohibition notices more severe than improvement notices, they can tell you to stop using, producing or supplying something if they are not satisfied that it is done in a safe way. This could have detrimental effects on what dishes you can cook in your kitchen and therefore the number of orders you receive. 3. Seize unfit food any food they deem unfit for human consumption can be seized from your kitchen with no compensation given. 4. Close down your kitchen they have the power to enforce you to stop cooking for Supper with immediate effect. This can be for a period of time or indefinitely and this would mean a serious breach of our company s policy that we would have to investigate seriously. 5. Prosecution In severe cases, EHO s can prosecute you and the business which will result in court summons and fines that are not covered under our insurance policy.
Common food hazards A food hazard is anything in food that could cause harm to the consumer. 1. Physical hazards These include jewellery, hair, broken glass, dust, shell or bone or parts of machinery. They can cause choking, broken teeth or cuts inside the mouth as well as the obvious feeling of disgust on finding something in their food that shouldn t be present. 2. Chemical hazards These include cleaning chemicals, pesticides, poisonous plants and mushrooms and bait used to kill pests. These can not only an unpleasant taste to your dishes but long-term damage and sickness. 3. Microbial hazards These include bacteria, viruses, moulds and yeasts. These can cause severe food-poisoning and foodborne diseases and can come from the food itself, contamination with other food types or from contact with a human. We explore this more under the section Food-poisoning. 4. Allergenic hazards The most common allergies include milk, nuts, eggs, fish, mustard, sesame seeds, gluten and celery. You must be able to identify all ingredients that are used in your dishes so we can advise customers accordingly. Symptoms of food allergy range from mild flushing of the skin to collapse and unconsciousness. Anaphylaxis is a severe reaction resulting in breathing difficulties, dizziness, swelling of the throat and is potentially life-threatening. Food poisoning Food-poisoning occurs when a food becomes contaminated. Contamination describes when something harmful finds its way into food. Contaminated food can look, smell and taste normal but it can make you very ill. Bacteria is the most common way of getting food-poisoning. They are found everywhere and typical sources include: Raw food such as meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, fruit and vegetables; People, on our skin, in our ears, nose and hair; in the air; on equipment and surfaces that have not been cleaned properly; on soil on vegetables; in pest animals, birds and insects; in water if untreated; and in food waste. In the right conditions bacteria multiply through binary fission. This is where each bacterium divides in two over a certain time period therefore doubling in quantity. Under optimum conditions, bacteria will double in quantity every 20 minutes which means 1 bacterium could multiply to millions in just a few hours. Bacteria need 4 conditions to multiply: 1. Time as mentioned they can double in as little as 20 minutes. Therefore hot food must only be kept at the wrong temperature for a maximum of 2 hours before becoming unsafe and cold food kept for a maximum of 4 hours before becoming unsafe.
2. Warmth - Bacteria multiply between 5 O C and 63 O C. This is known as the danger zone and the ideal temperature within this range is 37 O C. 3. Moisture like all other forms of life, bacteria needs water to live and multiply. 4. Nutrients bacteria needs a host such as a food or a human in order to multiply. When one or more of these conditions is not favourable for bacteria, the majority will die. However some bacteria survive by forming spores which are best described as a hard shell around the bacteria to protect them from the adverse conditions until these conditions improve and the bacteria can multiply again. These cannot be killed by heating and the formation of these is the reason we cannot simply keep re-heating food as a way of killing bacteria. Important temperatures to remember Temperature Relevance -18 O C Keeps bacteria dormant and the maximum temperature your freezer should be kept at. Note that the bacteria are not killed, just dormant. 0 O C Freezing point of water 5 O C Temperature where bacteria can begin to multiply. 8 O C The maximum temperature your refrigerator can be kept at, however our company policy states a maximum temperature of 5 O C 37 O C Body temperature and the optimum temperature for bacteria growth 63 O C Maximum temperature where bacteria multiply. Hot food must be stored at or above this temperature. 75 O C Food at this temperature for 30 seconds will kill all pathogenic bacteria 82 O C An instant reading of food at this temperature will kill all pathogenic bacteria. This is the temperature of your dishwasher 100 O C Water boiling temperature There is a direct relationship between time and temperature when killing bacteria. Bacteria will start being killed at 70 O C and the time it takes to kill them decreases the hotter the food is, up to 82 O C where it is killed instantly. There are 2 key types of bacteria and the distinction is key. There is bacteria that multiplies in or on food and this is what we know as food-poisoning but there is also bacteria that multiply in the human body once the food has been consumed. This is called a food-borne disease and the differences are as follows: Food poisoning Food-borne disease Multiplication In or on food In people Time before symptoms appear Short usually hours after consumption Long usually days after consumption and in some Typical symptoms Less severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, fever cases up to 70 days More severe- kidney failure, flu, nausea, rashes
Examples of food poisoning Salmonella common source is animal guts, pests and sewage and found on raw or undercooked poultry, eggs or milk. Onset period is 12-36 hours from consumption with typical symptoms of fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Bacillus Cereus common source of cereal, soil and dust found within rice and other cereals. Onset period is 1-5 hours after consumption and symptoms are typically abdominal pain and vomiting. Examples of food-borne diseases E.Coli common source is sewage, animal guts or untreated water. It is common in minced beef and other raw meat, raw milk or untreated water. Onset time is 1-6 days after consumption and can lead to kidney damage, fever and diarrhoea. Norovirus common source is sewage and contaminated water found in shellfish, salad and raw vegetables. Onset period is 1-2 days after consumption and leads to nausea, fever and abdominal pain. Anyone can contract food-poisoning or a food-borne disease but 4 groups of people are most at risk: 1. Very young children and babies 2. Elderly people 3. People who are already suffering an illness or recovering from illness 4. Pregnant women and nursing mothers There are high-risk and low-risk foods when it comes to bacteria and danger to humans. High-risk foods are: cold cooked meat or fish; ready-meals containing a sauce; egg products; cold cooked rice and salad; dairy-based products. If not kept out of the danger zone, high-risk food will provide all the conditions needed for bacteria to multiply and because high-risk food is food that is ready to eat, the risk of food-poisoning is high. An example that may not at first be intuitive is cooked chicken and raw chicken. Cooked chicken is a high risk food and raw chicken is a low risk food. Even though raw chicken contains the bacteria that causes food-poisoning it is low risk because it still needs to be cooked before being consumed and therefore bacteria can be killed. Cooked chicken is high risk because it is ready to eat. Therefore any bacteria still present is going to be consumed without the opportunity to be killed by cooking. Raw foods and ready-to-eat foods should be kept apart at all times. Mixing the two is called crosscontamination. Mixing raw and ready-to-eat foods can occur directly or indirectly. For example physically putting raw chicken and cooked chicken in the same bowl. It can also be indirectly through a third party such as a chopping board, knife or your hands. Ways to avoid cross-contamination 1. Keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart at all times 2. Keep all food covered during storage to avoid any contact with another food 3. Clean and disinfect any surfaces that come into contact with food 4. Use different implements and chopping boards for different food types eg. Coloured chopping boards and knives
5. Use disposable paper towels rather than cloths 6. Wash your hands properly after handling raw food 7. Maintain your own high standard of personal hygiene 8. Ensure your food waste is disposed efficiently and correctly. All high risk foods are proteins and animal produce because of the moisture and food environment that is required to bacteria multiplication. Items without moisture are low risk such as chocolate, bread etc. Top tip! When looking at food packaging notice whether it has a used by date or a best before date. All high risk foods have a used by date and low risk foods have a best before date. Food spoilage Food is spoiled when it is unfit to eat. This is caused by: 1. Decomposition 2. Pest infestation 3. Physical damage (freezer burn for example) 4. Chemical contamination If in doubt, treat it as spoiled. A spoiled food will either look, smell, feel or taste wrong. The food should be labelled as unfit and quarantined while awaiting disposal. Ideally any spoiled food should be disposed of immediately. Your responsibilities As a chef for Supper you are known to Environmental Health as a Food Handler. It is your responsibility to: Keep yourself clean Keep your kitchen and workplace clean Protect food from contamination Follow good personal hygiene practices Wear appropriate clothing Tell the company immediately if you have certain illnesses or symptoms Follow the company policies for time and temperature control Keep all records required by both the company and Environmental Health Identify and report and food hazards