In the field of food safety and correct food handling, there are four recognized principles by which the food industry regulates how it relates to all aspects of food hygiene.
Together these principles work to cover all critical areas where food contamination occurs.
By observing these principles, we greatly minimize the hygiene risks involved in handling food and the consequent contamination of food.
The four golden rules of food hygiene are:
Buy food from a safe source.
Prevent bacteria from entering your food.
Avoid the multiplication (or development of growth) of bacteria in your food.
Destroys bacteria on food, utensils and work surfaces.
Rule No.1)
Buy food from a safe source.
Make sure you only buy food from well-known and reputable vendors. It is important to check that all food is within its expiration date and is kept in proper conditions in the store.
Service counters must be kept spotlessly clean, as should machines such as mincers, knives, and slicers.
Freezers, refrigerators, and coolers must display their temperatures and must be set to minus 5 degrees Celsius for refrigerated items and -18 degrees Celsius or below for frozen items.
All packaging must be original and not tampered with or counterfeited. This would indicate that the product does not have the original content and has been produced by a fraudulent company. Do not buy these products under any circumstances because they threaten your health.
All accredited retail businesses that sell food must display current licenses from all required regulatory authorities as required by law. Check with your local authority to find out what licenses a grocery store or supermarket must have to be open to the public in your area.
Rule No.2)
Prevent bacteria from entering your food
OK! This is the rhythm to tell you a little bit about bacteria and how they multiply.
All bacteria, when they have the right conditions begin to multiply. The conditions they need are,
a) a temperature above 10 degrees Celsius (some say 5 degrees).
b) A source of food. Bacteria break down all organic matter into sugars and use the basic food molecule, the monosaccharide glucose, for their metabolism.
Bacteria need only 20 minutes to adapt to a new food source. For example, suppose a bacterium was in a sugary food and suddenly found itself in fish, the transition that the bacterium would need to be able to digest the new food source is twenty minutes.
c) A source of water.
Upon acquiring the right conditions, the bacteria begin to reproduce at the rate of one division of the entire colony every 20 minutes. EG If you had 1000 bacteria on a piece of food to start with, you will have a million bacteria after 20 minutes. In the next 20 minutes, the number would increase to a trillion bacteria. After that, the numbers are just astronomical!
Preventing bacteria from entering food is primarily due to the prevention of cross contamination.
Cross contamination means contact of any food source with any form of contamination from another source. These could be other foods (raw or processed), packaging, garbage, contaminated water or air, dirty or sick humans, animal life, or dirty tools and surfaces.
In good professional kitchens there are different refrigerators for different functions. For example, there is a fridge for dairy, another for cold fresh vegetables and another for cooked food.
As homeowners we do not usually have this luxury, so it is advisable to cook food in the upper part of the fridge and raw materials in the lower part in closed containers. In this way the risk of contamination is considerably reduced.
Eggs, especially, should be kept in a closed container because they have a lot of bacteria on the outer covering.
Remember to wash your hands and arms up to the elbow before preparing food. Cut the salads first and then move on to the foods to be cooked, making sure to wash the board thoroughly before moving on to the different types of food.
Wash all surfaces before and after work with a good detergent. Put the cloths in the wash after each use. Always start with a clean cloth.
Rule No.3)
Avoid the multiplication of bacteria in your food.
As stated above, bacteria need the correct conditions to divide. For this they need A) the right temperature, B) Food and C) water.
It follows, then, that food should be stored at the lowest possible temperature to keep the bacteria inactive. Also, don’t let your food come into contact with water before cooking. By thawing food in water, we are giving bacteria an advantage.
Cook your food as soon as possible and after cooking keep it at a temperature of at least 70 degrees Celsius until serving.
If you must cool your food, do not put hot food in large containers in the refrigerator. Divide it into smaller containers and do not stack them in such a way that air cannot circulate around the containers. Once cold freeze if possible.
When defrosting food, do it in the fridge in a closed container. Remember, it’s better to plan a meal a couple of days in advance than to have to take a couple of days off sick in bed.
Once defrosted, cook food as soon as possible.
The best way to destroy all bacteria is to cook food in a pressure cooker. In this way, the combination of increased temperature and increased atmospheric pressure will completely sterilize the food.
Rule No. 4).
Destroys bacteria on food, utensils and work surfaces.
This rule speaks for itself. Don’t let them develop in your kitchen.
Cook food as quickly as possible. Foods that cannot be cooked should be frozen if they are not eaten within a short space of time.
Alternative forms of food preservation, such as dehydration, smoking, canning, sterilization, concentration, and pickling, are alternative ways to prevent the growth and destruction of bacteria in food.
The environment is also a source of food contamination, so you should wash your work surfaces after each use with hot water and detergent.
In professional kitchens, all work areas should be lined with stainless steel. In this way, the surface can be cleaned with special chemicals to remove grease and lime that have a caustic soda base or a phosphoric acid base. For safety, remember never to mix chemicals; especially acids and alkalis such as caustic soda and phosphoric acid.
Also, wash all utensils with very hot water and dish soap. The water should be so hot that you need gloves to tolerate the heat.
Store pots, pans, dishes, cutlery, and other utensils in a clean, dry place. Make sure they are dry before storing. Use a clean kitchen towel each time. Store them upside down. Keep all storage areas clean. Check regularly for signs of vermin.
Heat the dishes to 80 degrees Celsius before serving. This will prevent further contamination.
These are the four principles of good food hygiene. Follow them closely and the chances of you or your clients getting sick are substantially reduced.