Food handling
This section provides information and guidelines on best practices of food handling for businesses and to ensure that food produced within the premises is safe to eat.
How to ensure that food produced within the premises is safe to eat:
- Check suppliers. Examine their standards of hygiene and food handling practices. If they are unsatisfactory change supplier.
- When food goods are delivered, check its quality. If it shows any signs of deterioration or infestation by pests the goods should not be accepted. Foods which are delivered when the premises are closed or frozen food which is thawing when it is delivered should be rejected.
- Ensure that dry goods are stored in suitable well ventilated food stores. Items such as flour, sugar and lentils must be kept in containers with tight lids. Stock should be rotated so that the oldest items are used first.
- Examine canned goods for any damage such as leaking, blown or rusting and discard any which are suspect.
Bottles and other glass containers should also be checked for cracks and chips. Again, these should be discarded if any faults are found. - Separate areas or separate equipment (colour-coded knives, cutting boards, etc.) should be used to prepare
raw and cooked foods. - Where a tinned food product is only partly used, the remaining contents should be transferred to a lidded, plastic food container and date labelled before being stored in the fridge.
- Raw food should always be stored below cooked or ready-to-eat food in the fridge to avoid cross-contamination from spillage of juices.
- Expert opinion currently favours keeping shell eggs in the fridge to limit the growth of bacteria.
- Where food is removed from it's packaging to display, care should be taken to ensure that relevant details suchas batch code and durability mark (use-by or best-before date ) are kept so that, if necessary, products can be traced.
- Use a fridge thermometer to check the temperature of your fridge regularly. The coldest part of the fridge should be between 0-5 Celsius (32-41 Fahrenheit).
- You could use a probe thermometer to check if food being kept hot or cold before serving is at a safe temperature. Make sure you always clean the thermometer thoroughly every time you use it, and after putting it in the food.
- Put signs above wash basins and sinks in the food areas to indicate what they should be used for - washing hands, cleaning, washing food - and make sure that staff only use basins/sinks for their intended purpose.
- You can cool food more quickly be dividing it into smaller amounts and placing it in shallow dishes.
Also remember the Food Standards Agency's four C's:
Cleaning, Cooking, Chilling and Cross-Contamination
Last updated : 20/05/2009
