Written by Assure Cloud – AssureCloud Team Consumers are in contact with food businesses in many ways – from fast-food and takeaways to convenience foods and formal dining. In each of these businesses, the potential exists to expose consumers to health and safety hazards – including bacteria and viruses, toxins, and even broken glass. Food safety training is vital to ensure that the safety of consumers is paramount – and enables employees to ensure that they comply with all processes and compliance requirements to manage the risks that are inherent to this type of business. The importance of food safety training Globally, 1 in 10 people become ill from eating contaminated foods every year.
Over 420 000 of those individuals die each year – highlighting the overall importance of food safety within each food business. By providing adequate – and ongoing – food safety training to every employee who handles food, businesses can ensure that everyone is aware of what they need to do, and how they need to do it, in order to uphold high standards of personal hygiene and cleanliness.
In this way, everything is done to ensure that customers are protected from health risks such as food poisoning or food allergies from cross-contamination. What food safety training entails It is important to note that food safety training is not a single event, but multiple, ongoing training events that contribute to a holistic understanding and competence in overall health and safety requirements when handling food.
- Employees need to have constant access to food safety training information, and businesses can get this support from companies – such as AssureCloud – who provide courses on everything from basic food safety and general hygiene requirements to traceability practices and food defence.
- These courses can be done online, at a public venue, or onsite – ensuring that all employees have access to food safety training no matter where they are.
Why food safety training needs to be done by accredited providers While there are many food safety training providers available, ensuring that training is done through an accredited provider offers peace of mind to the food business. It ensures that all elements of the training are legally compliant, and that, should any food safety incidents happen, they are managed in the correct way.
By ensuring that teams have initial – and continued – food safety training will ensure that up-to-date practices are adhered to. Through certified, traceable and measurable training, food safety performance can be managed and improved. This will result in a safer working environment for the employees, as well as a safer food environment for the customer.
Food safety is the responsibility of everyone Food safety training is central to the survival of any food business. Without the knowledge and processes that this training brings, food safety incidents could become endemic, and result in the close of the business – jeopardising the livelihoods of the employees and business owners alike.
Contents
Why is it important to practice food safety?
Overview – Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.
What is essential food safety training?
The EFST course includes the four essential pillars for safe food handling: how to avoid cross contamination, and how to cook, clean and chill safely. This book has been designed to provide a basic introduction to the program, which will be developed further in the training course.
What is one of the most important food safety practice?
Clean: Wash your hands and surfaces often. –
Germs that cause food poisoning can survive in many places and spread around your kitchen. for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm or cold water before, during, and after preparing food and before eating.
Always wash hands after handling uncooked meat, chicken and other poultry, seafood, flour, or eggs.
Wash your utensils, cutting boards, and countertops with hot, soapy water after preparing each food item. Rinse fresh under running water.
to ready-to-eat food unless you keep them separate.
When grocery shopping, keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and their juices away from other foods. Keep raw or marinating meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs separate from all other foods in the refrigerator. Store raw meat, poultry, and seafood in sealed containers or wrap them securely so the juices don’t leak onto other foods. Use one cutting board or plate for raw meat, poultry, and seafood and a separate cutting board or plate for produce, bread, and other foods that won’t be cooked. Raw chicken is ready to cook and doesn’t need to be washed first. Washing these foods can spread germs to other foods, the sink, and the counter and make you sick. If you choose to wash chicken, do so as safely as possible ().
Food is safely cooked when the internal temperature gets high enough to kill germs that can make you sick. The only way to tell if food is safely cooked is to use a food thermometer. You can’t tell if food is safely cooked by checking its color and texture (except for seafood). Use a food thermometer to ensure foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature. Learn how to in different food to get an accurate reading.
Whole cuts of beef, veal, lamb, and pork, including fresh ham: 145°F (then allow the meat to rest for 3 minutes before carving or eating) Fish with fins: 145°F or cook until the flesh is opaque and separates easily with a fork Ground meats, such as beef and pork: 160°F All poultry, including ground chicken and turkey: 165°F Leftovers and casseroles: 165°F
Check this chart for a, including shellfish and precooked ham. Microwave food thoroughly: Follow recommended cooking and standing times. Letting food sit for a few minutes after microwaving allows cold spots to absorb heat from hotter areas and cook more completely.
Know your, Check inside the door, owner’s manual, or manufacturer’s website. If your microwave is high wattage (800 watts or more), use the minimum cooking time recommended. If it is low wattage (300–500 watts), use the maximum cooking time recommended. When reheating, use a food thermometer to make sure that microwaved food reaches 165°F.
Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F.
Keep your refrigerator at 40°F or below and your freezer at 0°F or below, and know when to, If your refrigerator doesn’t have a built-in thermometer, keep an appliance thermometer inside it to check the temperature. Package warm or hot food into several clean, shallow containers and then refrigerate. It is okay to put small portions of hot food in the refrigerator since they will chill faster. Refrigerate perishable food (meat, seafood, dairy, cut fruit, some vegetables, and cooked leftovers) within 2 hours. If the food is exposed to temperatures above 90°F, like a hot car or picnic, refrigerate it within 1 hour. Thaw frozen food safely in the refrigerator, in, or in the microwave. Never thaw food on the counter because bacteria multiply quickly in the parts of the food that reach room temperature.
Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours (or 1 hour if exposed to temperatures above 90°F). : Four Simple Steps to Food Safety
What are the 4 essentials to food safety?
Keeping food safe is the key to preventing foodborne illnesses. The four basic rules for keeping food safe are: clean, separate, cook, chill. Wash hands and surfaces often. Wash hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.
- Wash cutting boards, utensils and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go to the next food.
- Don’t cross-contaminate.
- Eep raw meat, poultry, seafood and their juices apart from other food items in your grocery cart.
- Cook food to a safe temperature.
- Use a food thermometer: you can’t tell if food is cooked safely by how it looks.
Refrigerate promptly. Chill leftovers and takeout foods within 2 hours. Keep the fridge at 4 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit) or below.
Back door sales: Are they really worth it? Borax (boric acid) sold or represented as food Botulism in British Columbia: The risk of home-canned products Guidelines on deep fryers and frying oil Hand contact with food a major source of foodborne illness Handwashing is a must! Recommended storage times for food Temperature reading devices and food Water activity of sucrose (sugar) and NaCl (salt) solutions
F ood safety resources
Food storage & cooking danger zone thermometer | PDF image Food-cooling procedure thermometer | PDF image Food Safety – Government of Canada site with safety tips for all food types and information to protect those who are vulnerable to food poisoning, including facts on food allergies and recalls FoodSafe – FoodSafe training course information and food handling resources for professionals HealthLink BC – Reference documents on food safety and food poisoning
What is Haccp awareness training?
Unlimited Resits Customer Support Instant Access This online Level 1 HACCP Training course in Awareness is ideal for food workers who will be taking part in implementing a food safety management system based on HACCP principles. HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) is a management based system which aims to protect food throughout its progress from “farm to fork”.
Although created and managed by senior staff, it is put into practice and operated by workers who are controlling the systems on a day to day basis. Unless all involved understand what they must do and, importantly, why the essential tasks such as recording and monitoring are less likely to be achieved regularly and effectively.
HACCP is a complex subject, but this course aims to simplify the theory to enable everyone understands and therefore carry out their role in the HACCP system.
Work towards compliance with UK & EU Food Safety and Hygiene Legislation Meet the UK training requirements for food handlers Train online at your own pace with a full audio voiceover Assured by RoSPA & Accredited by CPD Translations across multiple languages available Certificate on successful completion Course duration: 60 minutes Unlimited resits at no cost
What is the important aspect of food safety?
How to cook and cool food safely – Preparing and cooking food properly and to the right temperature reduces the risk of food poisoning.
- Always cook minced meat, sausages and poultry all the way through until the juices run clear and there is no pink.
- Whole pieces of red meat, such as steak can be cooked to taste, and as long as it is properly heated and well browned on the outside to kill bacteria it can be rare inside.
- Never leave cooked meals at room temperature for longer than 2 hours.
- Keep food steaming hot until you serve it.
Cool leftovers quickly. This is to prevent any bacteria that have survived the cooking process from multiplying while your hot food cools down. The best way to do this is to cover any leftovers and put them in the fridge or freezer. Leftovers can generally be kept for 2 to 4 days in the fridge, or for up to several months in the freezer. Click or tap image to download infographic
What are the 7 principles of HACCP training?
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (Committee) reconvened a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Working Group in 1995. The primary goal was to review the Committee’s November 1992 HACCP document, comparing it to current HACCP guidance prepared by the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene.
Based upon its review, the Committee made the HACCP principles more concise; revised and added definitions; included sections on prerequisite programs, education and training, and implementation and maintenance of the HACCP plan; revised and provided a more detailed explanation of the application of HACCP principles; and provided an additional decision tree for identifying critical control points (CCPs).
The Committee again endorses HACCP as an effective and rational means of assuring food safety from harvest to consumption. Preventing problems from occurring is the paramount goal underlying any HACCP system. Seven basic principles are employed in the development of HACCP plans that meet the stated goal.
These principles include hazard analysis, CCP identification, establishing critical limits, monitoring procedures, corrective actions, verification procedures, and record-keeping and documentation. Under such systems, if a deviation occurs indicating that control has been lost, the deviation is detected and appropriate steps are taken to reestablish control in a timely manner to assure that potentially hazardous products do not reach the consumer.
In the application of HACCP, the use of microbiological testing is seldom an effective means of monitoring CCPs because of the time required to obtain results. In most instances, monitoring of CCPs can best be accomplished through the use of physical and chemical tests, and through visual observations.
- Microbiological criteria do, however, play a role in verifying that the overall HACCP system is working.
- The Committee believes that the HACCP principles should be standardized to provide uniformity in training and applying the HACCP system by industry and government.
- In accordance with the National Academy of Sciences recommendation, the HACCP system must be developed by each food establishment and tailored to its individual product, processing and distribution conditions.
In keeping with the Committee’s charge to provide recommendations to its sponsoring agencies regarding microbiological food safety issues, this document focuses on this area. The Committee recognizes that in order to assure food safety, properly designed HACCP systems must also consider chemical and physical hazards in addition to other biological hazards.
- For a successful HACCP program to be properly implemented, management must be committed to a HACCP approach.
- A commitment by management will indicate an awareness of the benefits and costs of HACCP and include education and training of employees.
- Benefits, in addition to enhanced assurance of food safety, are better use of resources and timely response to problems.
The Committee designed this document to guide the food industry and advise its sponsoring agencies in the implementation of HACCP systems.
What is the difference between HACCP and food safety program?
In a HACCP plan, the CCPs are always monitored. In an FSP, preventive controls are only monitored as appropriate to the nature of the preventive control and its role in the facility’s food safety system, and some preventive controls that are not applied at CCPs may not be monitored.
What are 3 benefits of good food hygiene?
The Benefits of Good Hygiene in the Food Industry
It is not just about how clean the premises arebut also how safe the food for consumption isFood Hygiene is the prevention of growth and the distraction of bacteria
Understanding Food Hygiene/Safety Food hygiene is more than cleanliness. It includes all practices involved in:
Protecting food from risk of contamination, including harmful bacteria, poisons and foreign bodies Preventing any bacteria present multiplying to an extent which would result in the illness of consumers or the early spoilage of the food Destroying any harmful bacteria in the food by thorough cooking or processing Discarding unfit or contaminated food
The Benefits of Good Hygiene in the Food Industry
Satisfied customers A good reputation Loyal customers Less food wastage and controlled running costs – higher profits A pleasant place of work High staff morale Lower staff turnover Compliance with food safety laws Better job security
Your Part in Food Safety
If you deal with food as part of your job, you are recognized as a food handler You are legally responsible to do everything possible to keep food safe Your part in food safety includes: Keeping yourself and your workplace clean Protecting food from anything that could lead to illness or harm
Your Part in Food Safety
Your part in food safety includes: Following good personal hygiene habits, such as washing your hands before handling food Staying alert to food safety hazards Following the rules for food safety in your workplace Working with care Telling your supervisor or manager about anything that you think could affect the safety of food
: The Benefits of Good Hygiene in the Food Industry
What is the full form of EFST training?
The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority Essential Food Safety Training Program Essential Food Safety Training (EFST) is a program developed by the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority. It requires all food handlers operating within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to gain a knowledge and understanding that will help to ensure food is handled safely throughout food chain.
- The EFST course includes the four essential pillars for safe food handling: how to avoid cross contamination, and how to cook, clean and chill safely.
- This book has been designed to provide a basic introduction to the program, which will be developed further in the training course.
- If you have specific questions about the safety of your products and processes, contact your local food inspector or ADAFSA-EFST team.
This book has been designed to provide a basic introduction to the most important food safety messages that will be covered within the EFST program. Click Here to preview the English version Click Here to preview the Arabic version Click Here to preview the Malibari version Approved Training Companies Frequently Asked Questions 2013 of EFST program Training Equivalency form request Approved training and examination provider login
What is CCP in food safety program?
Critical Control Point : A step at which control can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level.