Improving food safety management systems to prevent contamination is vital for all businesses. Properly managing the handling and storage of food products can reduce customers’ risk of being exposed to hazardous foods while eating out at a restaurant or consuming packaged goods in their homes.
Several factors contribute to increasing the overall food safety hazards present in any commercial food establishment, such as poor employee training, improper temperature control, use of equipment not designed for certain tasks, lack of handwashing facilities near production and preparation areas, dirty conditions throughout the facility from top to bottom, and failure to promptly eliminate potential pathogens through proper cleaning after each staging or processing period.
Foodborne diseases have become much more prevalent since Americans no longer spend most of their time preparing at least some of their own meals at home.
One way to help prevent airborne contamination is by making sure that food preparation areas are kept as clean and sanitary as possible. Having good ventilation also helps keep contaminants from spreading throughout the kitchen.
Proper handwashing procedures must be followed when preparing food, particularly after a break period, before entering any food production space, after handling raw meat or poultry, after handling garbage or other substances likely to cause cross-contamination with other foods during preparation (e.g., unclean hands touching clean dishes), and at the end of each shift.
Employees should wash their hands for a minimum of 20 seconds before donning gloves [or use disposable glove liners] and double-gloving if sanitation is questionable. Food workers should avoid touching their mouths and noses with bare hands while on the job, keeping fingernails trimmed to help prevent infections. Proper food storage helps maintain its quality and safety throughout the supply chain, from production until consumption by a consumer or at an event. Learn more about food safety management from SourceTrace Systems at https://www.sourcetrace.com/.
