Hospitality: Health and Safety

25/02/2020 Task 3: Maintain effective personal hygiene and follow hygienic work practices.

Before entering the classroom all jewelry such as watches, rings, bracelets, etc will be removed from hands and wrists as well as any nail polish. After this hair is tied up high or contained in an appropriate hair net to avoid hair landing in any food and becoming contaminated. This is done so that any metal, nails, or nail polish will not end up in food during preparation or cooking.

Upon entering the classroom or kitchen you must wash your hands to be sure that any bacteria from habits such as going to the bathroom, smoking, touching your face and nose, and sneezing is removed and your hands are dried thoroughly with a clean hand towel or paper towels. After doing this you must make sure you do not touch your hair, face, or nose during preparing or cooking of food, or if you do you must rewash your hands thoroughly before touching food again.

All cuts, scrapes, or skin conditions that can contaminate the food must be covered hygienically to be sure that no skin, blood, or bacteria enter the food and contaminate it making it unable to be served. These are covered with blue plasters and possible gloves if needed also. We do this to ensure that bacteria do not grow on our hands, inside cuts/scrapes or in the food. 

Personal habits such as nose-picking, scratching, playing with hair, and touching of mouth or noses must be strongly avoided in the cooking room as it may mean you are transferring bacteria from dirty parts of your body to the food you are preparing, cooking and serving for other people. If any of these habits are acted on during preparation, cooking, or serving of food you must instantly stop what you are doing and rewash your hands thoroughly and dry them with a clean hand towel or paper towels to make sure no bacteria is transferred.

A few important work practices to keep in mind that you may choose to do in the cooking room is to use clean disposable gloves, these are appropriate to use if you have a plaster or cut on your hand. When handling food, especially raw meat, using clean utensils such as tongs is recommended so you are not touching the meat with your hands unnecessarily. The hygienic way to wash and dry your hands before cooking is to use antibacterial soap and hot water to wash them and then drying them with either disposable paper towels or a clean hand towel. When cleaning your hands you should wash them for at least 20 but if you are someone who finds it hard to count at a good pace you can sing "Happy Birthday" in your head which is the exact same length of time.

Task 4: Prevent cross-contamination of food.

Students must be sure to clean and sanitize their work area with an approved disinfectant spray and a clean cloth before placing any equipment on the surfaces. They should then check all equipment they will be using, that they have been correctly and thoroughly washed with hot water and disinfectant dishwashing liquid and that there are no leftover pieces of food.

When using cleaning and sanitizing substances, the student should check the manufacturers' instructions on the bottle before using it to clean or sanitize anything. Using cleaning and sanitizing substances according to the instructions on the bottle means we reduce the risk of ruining any equipment, contaminating anything, and incorrectly using substances. The student should continue to either wipe down or sanitize their work area as well as rinsing or washing their equipment throughout their whole work period or shift to reduce any possibility of contamination to food being made.

Procedures such as regular checks and reorganizing stock should be followed to be sure that you are always stocking and cooking fresh produce that is not past their use-by dates.

Handling procedures that must be followed include the way food enters the premises, the way it is stored including the temperature, location, packaging. When food enters the premises the boxes must be correctly sealed and must come out of a place/truck that has been at the correct temperature. Food that has and must be frozen must be stored at a temperature of -18 degrees Celsius and a fridge temperature must be at 5 degrees Celsius or lower. Food in packaging or boxes that can be put into the cupboard must be kept at room temperature of 18 degrees Celsius. Handling procedures also come into action when you are cooking, preparing, or transporting food. When food is transferred from a kitchen, cupboard or fridge to a hot or cold holding cabinet it must be covered and at the correct temperature.  

• When cooking, hot foods should be at 75 degrees or above before serving.
• Cooled food or refrigerated food should be stored at 5 degrees or lower.
• Frozen food should be stored at -18 degrees or lower.

All rubbish during the work shift or work period must be removed and put into the designated bins with suitable lids on them as soon as you are not busy so that the rubbish does not inhabit bacteria near your food. Appropriate work procedures are undertaken to be sure no pests are able to leave, create, or spread bacteria in your workplace that will result in contamination of your food.

Steps that can be taken to prevent food contamination by pests are things such as laying traps, using fly nets, closing doors, and keeping things stored correctly in containers. 

The workplace should always follow workplace requirements for personal and workplace hygiene when working with food in relation to the workplace Food Control Plan and other policies or procedures, the Food Act 2014, and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

Task 5: Measure and record the internal temperature of high-risk food

As seen in image 1 a thermometer was used to check the temperature of the cooking chicken by being inserted into the thickest piece of meat. We see that the temperature is acceptable and it above the required temperate of 75 degrees celsius. 

In image 2 we see that the thermometer has been used to measure the temperature of raw chicken which has come out of the fridge. The thermometer has been put into the thickest part of the chicken and has come out with a temperature of 3.6 degrees celsius which is acceptable because the temperature needs to be between 2-4 degrees celsius.

When reheating food you must make sure the temperature hits 80 degrees celsius or higher to kill off any bacteria which may have grown during the time it has been stored. If the food has not reached the desired temperature you must cook or reheat it to get rid of the bacteria. When cooking and reheating if the temperature is not reached you must continue the process.