Food Safety Now

A food safety and quality manual should outline the structure of the food safety and quality management system for a food production or processing organisation. It will also provide a central point to identify all the associated procedures, policies and forms. The manual should:

be made available to all relevant staff either electronically as a read-only file or in paper form;

integrate fully with the HACCP food safety plan and associated documentation;

define how the organisational structure and associated personal responsibilities have been developed to ensure food safety and compliance with defined product quality and process criteria;

have an issue date;

issue number and be formally authorised i.e. signed off;

describe how the manual will be updated if there is a need to change a statement in the manual and who is authorised to undertake the amendment and also authorise the changes before re-issue;

reference the scope of the food safety and quality management system i.e. how much of the business is addressed by the manual; and

reference any quality or food safety management system standards that the manual has been designed to comply with e.g. BRC Global Standard, ISO 9000, ISO 22000 and any sections of the system standard that are not applicable and why the organisation feels that they are not applicable.

Training programmes must be in place and be effective to ensure that all staff understand their part in food safety and quality management and the parts of the manual that are applicable to their work responsibilities

Author: Louise Manning

Cooks who are new to the kitchen are usually far more concerned with making sure their recipes turn out right than with making sure they follow all food safety rules. In their desperation to make sure their cake, sauce or roast turns out right, they can create a bacterial danger zone that will leave their diners fondly remembering a time when their intestines didn’t feel like they were tied in knots. A few food safety tips can help prevent such disasters.

Wash, wash, wash: Make sure that all tools and food contact surfaces are washed thoroughly with soap and water after each and every step in the cooking process. Keep a spray bottle filled with a mix of 1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water to sterilize countertops.

Watch your temperatures: Make sure that cold food is kept cold and hot food is kept hot. When you have a large quantity of hot food, such as a pot of soup, that you want to store, put the pot in a sink half-filled with ice and water. Stir the soup frequently until the temperature has dropped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, then package and store.

Careful with chemicals: Never, EVER keep cleaning chemicals on or near food contact surfaces. Bumping a spray bottle the wrong way can cause it to discharge small amounts of cleaning solution, perhaps in the direction of your food.

Watch out for wood: Wood cutting boards are attractive, and they’re the best for your knife blades. However, cutting meat on a traditional wood cutting board makes tiny crevices into which bacteria can nestle, becoming difficult or impossible to remove during washing. Save the wooden board for your salad greens.

Most cities’ health departments offer courses in food safety for home cooks. They are usually one or two days, at most, and can be of tremendous worth. If your city doesn’t offer one, check online. There are abundant resources from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Author: Andrew Krause

Consumers who know the basics of food safety may say one thing and do another, according to Janet B. Anderson, MS, RD. Anderson is Director of the Food Safety Institute at Utah State University. She videotaped 122 participants as they prepared food. Each received a bag of groceries, a recipe, and completed a survey after fixing the recipe.

The results are reported in “What Consumers Say They Do . . . What They Actually Do: A Comparison.” Sixty per cent of the participants said they washed their hands before preparing food. Reality: 52 % washed their hands. Seventy-five per cent of the participants said not washing hands after handling raw eggs was dangerous. Reality: 60% failed to wash their hands. Anderson’s study contains more eye-opening statistics.

The lesson here is that we often know things but don’t do them. Though you know food safety basics, you may not follow them because you are thinking of other things or in a hurry. Post this list in your kitchen and follow these tips. Make sure your kids follow them too.

* After handling food wash your hands with hot soapy water for two minutes.

* Wash your hands after blowing your nose, touching your face, changing dirty diapers, touching pets, and going to the bathroom.

* Dry your hands on paper towels.

* Do not eat, smoke, or chew gum while preparing food.

* Wear rubber gloves if your fingers are chapped, cracked, or cut.

* Use separate cutting boards for produce and meat.

* Wash the cutting board well after each use.

* Clean counter tops with a weak bleach solution.

* Launder dishcloths, sponges, dish towels and hand towels daily.

* Make sure your refrigerator is set between 32 and 40 degrees.

* Thaw food in the refrigerator or cold water, not on the counter.

* Refrigerate hot food immediately.

* Do not baste food with marinade that has been used on raw meat.

* Use a thermometer to check the inner temperature of food. Hamburger should be cooked until it reaches 160 degrees.

* When grilling, use separate plates for raw and cooked food.

* Clean your microwave — walls, ceiling, rotating plate — regularly.

* Follow slow cooker instructions to the letter.

For more food safety tips see the USDA publication, “Food Safety and Security: What Consumers Need to Know.”

RESOURCES

“Cooking for Groups: A Volunteer’s Guide to Food Safety,” Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/pubs/cfg6.htm

“Hand Washing: A Simple Way to Prevent Infection,” www.mayoclinic.com

State of Wisconsin, Department of Health & Family Services. “Food Handling & Housekeeping,” dhfs.wisconsin.gov/hometips/dhp/food.htm

University of Wisconsin (Madison), Department of Food Science. “Food Safety in Your Home,” www.foodsafetyinyourhome.org/5_Steps_to_safety.html

Copoyright 2007 by Harriet Hodgson

Author: Harriet Hodgson

Home safety is a hot topic, with innumerable TV shows, books and DVDs available to teach you how to keep yourself and your family safe from everything from burglars to house fires. One thing that gets overlooked, though, is food home safety. Poor attention to food safety and lack of knowledge about it contribute to food-borne illnesses, which cause more hospitalizations every year than other home dangers combined.

One simple thing you can do is to check your refrigerator. Most kitchen stores and mega stores sell refrigerator/freezer thermometers, which will allow you to check the actual temperature inside the appliances, ensuring that they are functioning properly. Be sure and move the thermometer around, checking inside the crisper drawers and on the door shelves. If airflow is blocked, the drawers could become too warm, meaning food could spoil.

Also, never, ever put hot food into your refrigerator. It will cause the temperature within the refrigerator to rise steeply, and other foods in the refrigerator can spoil in the time it takes for equilibrium to be restored. Use an ice bath to bring the temperature of hot foods down before putting them in cold storage.

In the freezer, make sure you don’t let ice build up on racks, walls and vents. Most modern freezers are frostless, but in times of heavy use they can need some help.

All around the kitchen, let sterilization be your watchword. A simple solution of one tablespoon of bleach to one gallon of water is all you need to kill bad bugs on kitchen surfaces, and you can even make such a mixture in your sink and dip your small kitchen items in it to keep them spotless and germ-free.

Practicing food safety around the home isn’t hard at all to do, but it does require constant attention. Every time you cook, take a few extra minutes to make sure your workspace is well-cleaned both before and after the process. You won’t regret it!

Author: Andrew Krause

Organic food has long been a primary choice for many people but in the past several years, this type of food has been given far more attention. As you are about to discover, organic food offers tremendous benefit. Although typically a little higher priced than inorganic food, the advantages are worth the investment. If looking for a healthier diet, a way to lose weight, improve health, and feel better overall, then perhaps organic food would be an excellent alternative.

Organic food is food grown without the use of any chemicals. Typically, a garden is grown using pesticides, fungicides, and other harsh chemicals but with organic food, everything is natural. The same is true for organic meat. Rather than the animals being shot up with mediation and steroids, the animals are fed a healthy grain diet, while raised in large open spaces. As you can see, organic food means clean food that has not been contaminated.

One of the first things that people notice when switching to organic food is the taste, which is much better than inorganic foods. For instance, if you were to taste a tomato grown completely organic versus one grown inorganically, you would notice a much firmer skin, juicier inside, and sweeter taste. No matter what type of food, all organic food has a much better flavor since it has not been altered with chemicals.

The most obvious advantage to choosing organic food is the safety factor. With pesticides and other chemicals being sprayed on inorganic food, even when the food is washed, some of the chemicals are consumed. The bottom line is that 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides are potentially cancer-causing agents. Therefore, choosing inorganic is a much better option in that these harmful chemicals are not entering the body.

Finally, if you plan to grow organic food, you will be doing your family a huge favor while also helping the environment. Since you would not use chemicals, any water runoff is clean. Additionally, soil is not being contaminated by the harsh chemicals. That means you can enjoy delicious food that is healthy while also doing something great for the environment.

Author: Grant Segall

When the food we consume has traceable amounts of radiation it is called irradiated food. Food irradiation is a technique to subject cooked and uncooked foods such as raw meats and fresh fruits and vegetables to some predetermined levels of ionized radiation for specific time periods.

The principal objective of food irradiation is to increase the preservation time of the foods by inactivating and/or killing the food-borne parasites. It is a technique similar to pasteurization, which is done to preserve milk.

Meat at slaughterhouses is subjected to radiation, which eliminates disease-producing bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter, etc which are culprits for millions of infections that eventually result in millions of hospitalizations and thousands of casualties every year.

The ready-to-eat meat stuff such as sausages, hamburgers and hotdogs are subjected to irradiation to remove species of Listeria. Even livestock feeds are not exempted either because these are often found contaminated with bacterial species of Salmonella.

Food irradiation brings in a variety of changes in the foods; harmful bacteria are destroyed (the DNA transcription and translation processes are impaired and there is no multiplication of bacteria). Irradiation also kills insects, fungal spores and many food-borne parasites. Irradiation slows natural ripening of fruits and this increases their respective shell life.

The companies that supply irradiated food strongly say they are safe, but radiobiologists are questioning and researching on the safety of such foods on human health. However, as of now they do not have convincing conclusions to say they are unsafe; this makes consumers doubtful to use them. One day we may know until then stay tuned.

Author: Tom Chuong

When you think of safety, what is the first thing that comes to mind? A helmet? Goggles? Well, safety equipment is very important, but there is much more. Safety is more than an ideal or a way of thinking. It is a daily set of standards and routines that must be followed.

The costs of non-compliance to safety are obvious. Accidents lead to injuries which lead to absence, down time and even fines. It simply pays to be safe. And not just on the job. Injuries on the commute, lunch break or even home still have an effect on your production.

The best way to instill good safety habits is too remind your employees constantly. Hold safety meetings on a regular basis. Keep track of how long you have been accident free. Hang posters and banners throughout your facility with safety slogans. Include messages in paychecks. Hand out safety promotional items like helmet and cone shaped stress balls, Think Safety chocolate bars, safety tips calendars and pocket planners and tool kits with your own custom safety message.

Customize your safety program for your company. If you are in electronics, have regular classes on acceptable safety practices. Educate on proper handling of hazardous chemicals if you deal in an industry that involves liquids and solvents. For everyone, a lesson in proper lifting and transport of packages, freight and containers is a must. And don’t forget about housekeeping. Spills should be reported and neat work areas should be maintained at all times to prevent trips and falls or other accidents.

Back to safety equipment. Hard hats, eye protection and noise reduction should never be ignored as surefire ways to prevent injury. Especially visitors to your plant. The last thing you need is a law suite.

And finally, remember that safety is a 24 hour commitment. Your employees can get injured on or off the job. You may not be responsible for anyone’s actions off the clock, but if they are injured; they won’t be on the clock for a while.

Author: Michael Lerner

Dog owners are now hesitant to feed their dogs with processed or commercial dog food due to recent reports and news about food contamination on commercial dog food causing illnesses and premature deaths of dogs. This is really scary that is why more and more pet owners are turning to healthy homemade dog food recipe to make sure they are feeding their dogs with healthy dog food.

It is a growing concern now to most pet owners that commercial dog food contains preservatives, harmful chemicals and made from poor-quality meat that could result to various diseases. News of rampant recalls of this due to numerous reports of kidney failures on animals leading to deaths has alarmed most pet owners to be cautious in feeding their pets with this type of food. This is the answer to avoid food poisoning and diseases.

Healthy homemade dog food recipe do not contain harmful chemicals or additives that will put your dog’s health at risk. Your dog will benefit more and will be healthier if you switch from commercial dog food to healthy homemade recipe. You are sure that you are feeding your dog with fresh, high quality and healthy recipe.

Before switching from commercial dog food to healthy homemade dog food recipe, it is recommended that you consult you vet to know the nutritional needs of your beloved canine friend and to discuss your new diet plans.

If you find it hard to create a healthy homemade recipe, you can research the internet for healthy recipes or ask help from the experts on how to make healthy recipe for your dog. Putting a little extra time for the safety and health of your dog is not a waste of time; after all you love your pet and want to spend more years of companionship with your canine friend.

Author: Gerry Restrivera