Supply Chain Safety

Training of employees is critical. It must be simple and effective, and must teach employees how to prepare and serve food in a safe manner. In addition, the manager needs to ensure that employees actually use the techniques they have been taught.

Some key personal hygiene practices include proper hand washing at appropriate times; using gloves when handling ready-to-eat foods, while recognizing that gloves do not negate the need to wash hands; limiting jewelry during food preparation to a plain wedding band; wearing clean clothing; wearing hair restraints; washing and sanitizing the thermometer prior to taking a temperature reading; restricting sick employees; and proper cleaning and sanitizing of equipment.

Receiving and Storage Processes Critical

Food service operations should purchase food from approved sources. A small operation can do this by using a reputable distributor that uses a quality and food safety assurance process. Large food service organizations have their own quality and food safety processes.

Receiving and storing processes are critical for food service operations, since mistakes made during this process can prove costly. Products, especially those that are refrigerated and frozen, should be received and stored rapidly to avoid temperature abuse. A number of critical checks must be accomplished during this process. These include ensuring the truck’s cleanliness, confirming that the correct items are received, looking for damage to any of the cases, and ensuring that the food was maintained at the proper temperature during transport.

Most distributors will work with the food service operation to schedule deliveries that avoid busy periods in the operations schedule. This allows for prompt storage of food upon receipt. During the receiving process, items should be marked with a use by date to ensure proper rotation of inventory.

Time, Temperature Controls

Time and temperature controls provide effective strategies to control the presence of microorganisms in food. As a result, food service operations can be classified as one of three major processes—food preparation without a cooking step, preparation for same day of service, and complex food preparation.

This classification is determined by how many times the food product passes through the danger zone of 41ºF to 140ºF (see Figure 1, left). Since temperature monitoring is a critical part of the control process, all food service establishments must implement a procedure to properly calibrate their thermometers.

Food preparation without a cooking step includes foods that do not pass completely through the danger zone. If the product is not immediately served after preparation, it must be rapidly chilled to a temperature below 40ºF. The processing steps typically are receive, store, prepare, chill, hold, and serve.

A large number of raw and ready-to-eat products are consumed cold, including salads, raw oysters, sashimi, deli meats, pasteurized milk, and cheese. Because there is no heating step to kill microorganisms in these food items, food service operations need to prevent the growth of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. In addition, they need to take precautions to prevent cross contamination with equipment or other foods, as well as the contamination of the food by employees. These products should be purchased from approved suppliers to guarantee their safety and quality.

When same-day-of-service foods are prepared, they pass through the temperature danger zone once. The food is typically cooked, which involves rapid heating, and is then held hot until serving. The cooking step destroys any pathogenic microorganisms, and the hot holding step prevents spore-forming pathogens from germinating and growing. The typical processing steps are receive, store, prepare, cook, hot hold, and serve.

Complex food preparation includes foods that pass through the temperature danger zone two or more times. In this scenario, the typical processing steps include receive, store, prepare, cook, cool, reheat, hot hold, and serve.