Green Food Safety Coach Blog Cleaning
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As it is the Festive Season I have done an article summarising some of the key things that we can do at home and at parties to not give food poisoning as an unintended present this year.
The list is based on the Food Safety Information Council’s main theme of Cook, Chill, Clean and Separate.
I was at a client’s business today doing an unscheduled housekeeping audit.
As you would expect I run my hand across the top of ovens and hoods etc to check that they have been propoerly cleaned as part of that. Today however I didn’t need to because I could see across the top of an oven (just, as I am average height) and was astounded by what I saw.
I could clearly see where the staff member had reached up and wiped the top surface but had only reached about 3/4 of the way across and then left it like that. You could clearly see where the reach of their arm had gone by the clean area.
If that wasn’t bad enough, you could easily reach the back of the oven top from the side, but it had not been done!!!
Cleaning is a serious issue and a vital control for food safety. It must be done properly every single time. Only going as far as you can reach, is simply not good enough.
Today is Foodie Friday and I thought a little sweet celebration of food may be in order.
A 2.3tonne tiramisu has been made in the last week by a group of 155 Swiss volunteers to claim back the title of the World’s Biggest Tiramisu according to the Guinness Book of Records.
They used 799 kilos of mascarpone cheese, 6,400 eggs, 350 litres of cream, 189 kilos of sugar, 300 litres of coffee, 35 kilos of cocoa, 66 kilos of liqueur and 64,000 biscuits. It was made in an ice skating rink , is eight cm high and 50m long, and took 14 hours to construct.
Friday’s green idea – keep the vents of all equipment, eg refrigeration units, clean and free of dust. This is not only essential to stop contamination in a food business but will help the environment because the air will not be reduced, allowing the equipment to run more efficiently. It will even save running costs – not bad for just a little effort regularly.
If you can see a crumb or bit of food after cleaning, then there is a risk of cross contamination from either food poisoning bacteria or food allergens. To ensure there is no cross contamination risk due to cleaning, the minimum standard is visibly clean. This means there is no visual trace of food of any type or size in both the places you can see and those you can’t (eg; underneath the shelf) after cleaning has been completed.
It is worth remembering that sanitising kills bacteria but has relatively little effect on the food allergens. Heat has a significant impact on bacteria but will not cause a food to be less allergenic. Therefore having a surface visibly clean is a vital allergen control.
