Food Safety Practices

How to prevent food from being contaminated.

1. Separate them

Separate raw foods from cooked foods and store them at refrigeration temperature. You should also separate raw meat, fish and eggs in shell as well as vegetables.

Refrigerate food quickly because cold temperatures keep most harmful bacteria from multiplying. If you accidentally break an egg, don’t keep it in the fridge to be used later.

2. Wrap and cover

Cooked foods should be protected from external contamination by wrapping or covering it. Plastic or metal Tupperware and a bowl with a lid are fine.

Cooked foods should not be stored at room temperature or higher) unless they are consumed very quickly (maximum within 30 minutes). They should be stored at low temperatures and then re-heated before consumption.

Alternatively cooked products to be consumed warm can be stored at more than 60°C.

It is very dangerous to store cooked foods at 40°C, as many caterers do, because this temperature allows bacteria to grow very quickly.

3. Defrost tips

Defrost frozen foods at refrigeration temperatures and not at room temperature as some pathogenic bacteria in food can double even at low temperatures. The more bacteria there is, the greater the chance you could become sick.

 4. Wash hands and utensils

Wash your hands before preparing food and always use clean utensils such as cutting boards, plates, knives, kitchen scissors, forks, spoons and containers.

 5. Don’t cross-contaminate

Do not use tools or utensils used to prepare raw foods such as meat, fish, and vegetables, to prepare cooked foods.

This allows a risk of cross-contamination of a cooked product, which favours bacterial growth as it is without its own competitive flora.

When handling raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs, keep these foods and their juices away from ready-to-eat foods.

 6. Shelf life

Eat food during their shelf-life, that is before the “use by” date or the “best before” date. Never buy too much food with a long shelf-life and never buy food too close to its “use by” date.

 7. Raw food

Cook raw meat and raw fish at proper temperatures (minimum 70°C for meat). Boil raw milk and that include your goat or cow’s milk that is delivered to your home.

 8. Wash before eating

Wash fruit and vegetables before eating. If you cannot peel them, disinfect with chlorinated products.

 9. Proper disposal

Waste disposal of meat, vegetables and raw fish must be carried out immediately in the appropriate containers both in the kitchens of restaurants and domestic kitchens. Even left-over cooked products that are no longer used must be disposed of quickly to prevent bacteria growing.


10. Four key words
                                                                      
The four key words for food safety — clean, separate, cook and chill.

Source: http://www.nst.com.my

@ Safety Information...ThinkSafe,WorkSafe