Safe Food Preparation 101: How to Combat Foodborne Illness

Foodborne illnesses affect 1 in 6 people each year in the United States. Severe cases can lead to hospitalization and even death. If your restaurant is the cause of someone’s foodborne illness, there can be some hefty consequences.
Some guests may not report their illnesses but choose not to return, costing you business. More commonly, a sick guest will leave a negative review, leading to poor brand perception and fewer customers. Others may file a complaint with the health department, which could eventually result in your business being shut down.
While this is a scary prospect, it’s important to know that you and your staff can practice safe food handling and preparation tactics to help prevent the risk of foodborne illnesses.
These practices start when you purchase and receive food.
It’s important to select reputable suppliers. This means that they meet the requirements of local, state, and federal laws. Suppliers should be able to provide inspection reports.
When the food is delivered, you should still inspect everything and reject anything suspicious. For example, anything that is frozen should be frozen solid upon arrival. Ice crystals or water stains can indicate that the food may have thawed during transit.
After you have received food, you want to ensure it is properly stored. Fridge and freezer thermometers ensure these appliances maintain the correct storage temperature for your food. For example, refrigerated foods should always be kept below 40°F.
You should also place new foods at the back of storage shelves. This is known as First In, First out, or FIFO. You want the older food to be used first, so it should always be at the front of the shelf. It was the first food in the kitchen, it should be the first used.
Cross contamination is a risk during food storage, as some foods may have liquids that drip from the packaging. To help prevent cross contamination, the best storage order, from top to bottom, is ready-to-eat foods, seafood, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meat, ending with all of your poultry on the bottom shelf.
When it’s time to prepare the food, you want to focus on cleanliness and hygiene practices, cross contamination prevention, and fully cooking the food.
Cleanliness encompasses both your equipment, such as cutting boards and mixers, and your surfaces. Both should be properly sanitized before use.
Safe hygiene practices are also necessary to prevent foodborne illnesses. You should wash your hands regularly, for twenty seconds, with soap and water.
You should always wash your hands before and after handling raw meat, after touching the garbage, after using the restroom, and after sneezing or coughing.
Hair and beard restraints should be worn by food handlers to reduce the risk of contaminating food with hair.
Soiled clothing can spread germs, so you should always wear clean aprons and uniforms.
Jewelry can also harbor germs and has the potential to fall into food. Always remove jewelry prior to handling food.
Once you begin preparing food, cross contamination becomes a significant concern. When raw foods, such as uncooked chicken, come into contact with preparation surfaces, pathogens can be left behind to contaminate other foods.
One of the best ways to prevent cross contamination between different foods is by designating specific cutting boards to specific food groups. For example, use a yellow cutting board for raw poultry and a green one for fruits and vegetables.
You should also use separate plates and utensils for raw and cooked foods.
Preventing cross-contamination is also important for food allergens. There are nine common allergens - milk, wheat, peanuts, soy, fish, tree nuts, eggs, crustacean shellfish, and sesame. Color coded utensils and cutting boards, thorough cleaning and sanitizing of cookware, and effective hand hygiene can also help prevent the transfer of these allergens to allergy-free foods.
When it comes time to cook the food, you’ll need to ensure that the food reaches the proper internal temperature. For example, chicken needs to be cooked to 165°F while beef steak only needs to reach 145°F minimum internal temperature before it is safe to eat.
It’s important to follow all safe food handling and preparation practices. There are several different microorganisms that cause foodborne illnesses, but they are not all destroyed the same way. For example, fully cooking ground beef can kill E. coli, but Hepatitis A and Norovirus can survive cooking, making washing your hands the best defense against these pathogens.
You should also stay up to date on any food recalls issued by suppliers or the health department.
Food safety is a necessary part of running any kitchen, but it can feel overwhelming. If you have questions about food safety practices, reach out to the experts at Imperial Dade. Our team of food service experts can help provide training and recommendations for food safe products.