Cross contamination is a major risk factor contributing to foodborne illness, but there are steps that you can take in your foodservice operation to mitigate the risk. In this blog, we cover the basics of cross contamination, the risks that result, and sources of cross-contamination so that you can understand the serious risk it presents. In the next blog, strategies to lower this risk will be covered.
Meet FoodHandler's Food Safety Leadership Team:
We are pleased to announce that our new food safety consultants—Dr. Jeannie Sneed and Dr. Cathy Strohbehn—will be writing blogs twice each month, on the first and fifteenth. Their goal is to make these blogs relevant, and to continue conversations about food safety among foodservice operators. We invite you to contact them to ask questions, share success stories, make suggestions for blog topics, or provide other thoughts you have about food safety. You can email them at foodsafety@foodhandler.com
Blog by Lori Stephens based on the new FDA Food Code release.
Blog by Lori Stephens, based directly on SafeBites webinar by Dr. Jeannie Sneed, PhD, February 2018
Food recalls in the national news have been grabbing some priority headlines lately. Actually, it’s a continuous public health issue involving some kind of contamination, mislabeling, undeclared food allergens, or tampering. Every month several foods are being recalled that we as food industry professionals may not always be aware of. Past lists have included food ingredients from China, peanut butter, meats, poultry, seafood, canned chili, produce such as spinach and tomatoes products.
According to the new food nutrition pyramid, we are to eat at a minimum, around 3 cups of dark green vegetables along with other servings of fruits and vegetables each week. That is becoming more difficult as outbreaks such as E. coli 0157:H7 creates bad news for the produce industry, not to mention the victims.
A refrigerator is one of the most important pieces of kitchen equipment for keeping foods safe. In a food service environment, our existence depends on the cooling equipment. The science of refrigeration has evolved from prehistoric times when man found his wild game would last longer packed in the coolness of a cave or packed in snow. Our ancestors harvested ice to keep food cold. Now, if the power goes off, we are instantly reminded of the refrigerator’s importance to our daily life, at home and certainly in a food service facility.
Ignoring handwashing as a priority is easy until faced with a crippling lawsuit. Your risk of transmitting a foodborne disease via a food workers hands will never be zero, but the good news is training your crew about handwashing is not complicated. Molding behavior to do it at the right time, using the correct method is the tough part. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says the single most effective way to stop the spread of infection is through handwashing. Last month’s article was on the physical equipment to help get better handwashing compliance. The most important part is the practice of the basic handwashing steps:
September is National Food Safety Education Month and the theme has a rhyme to it – “Keep Hands Clean with Good Hygiene”. Hand washing is one of the public’s best defenses against the spread of both common and rare, even life-threatening, diseases including those caused by food, and against gastrointestinal infections caused by such organisms as the Norovirus, which plagues the cruise ship industry and food service in general.
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