Maintain food safety in a kitchen environment
Overview
This standard covers the main skills and knowledge needed for preparing, cooking, and holding food safely, and focuses on the four main areas of control - cooking, cleaning, chilling and preventing cross- contamination, in addition to supplies being satisfactory. It provides staff with a broad understanding of reviewing hazards and hazard procedures as part of their day to day role in maintaining food safety. This standard is appropriate to staff that work in a professional kitchen and directly prepare, cook and hold food.
When you have completed this standard you will have demonstrated your understanding of and your ability to:
- Maintain food safety in a kitchen environment
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- Ensure surfaces and equipment are clean and in good condition
- Use clean and suitable cloths and equipment for wiping and cleaning between tasks
- Remove from use any surfaces and equipment that are damaged or have loose parts, and report them to the person responsible for food safety
- Dispose of waste promptly, hygienically and appropriately
- Identify, take appropriate action on and report to the appropriate person, any damage to walls, floors, ceilings, furniture and fittings
- Identify, take appropriate action on and report to the appropriate person, any signs of pests
- Comply with relevant legal and organisational requirements for personal hygiene and behaviour
- Check that food is undamaged, is at the appropriate temperature and within date on delivery
- Identify and retain any important labelling information
- Prepare food for storage and put it in the correct storage area as quickly as necessary to maintain its safety
- Ensure storage areas are clean, suitable and maintained at the correct temperature for the type of food
- Store food so that cross contamination is prevented
- Follow stock rotation procedures
- Dispose of food that is past its date in line with organisation and food safety regulations
- Check food before and during operations for any hazards, and follow the correct procedures for dealing with these
- Follow your organisation's procedures for items that may cause allergic reactions
- Prevent cross-contamination, such as between raw foods, foods already cooking/reheating and ready-to-eat foods
- Use methods, times, temperatures and checks to make sure food is safe following operations
- Keep necessary records up-to-date (e.g. for storage, preparation, cooking and holding)
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- The relevant legal and regulatory requirements for food safety, the importance of complying with them, the implications of non-compliance and the role of enforcement officers
- How to operate a food safety management system
- Why monitoring, record keeping and risk assessments are important, key stages in the procedure and the importance of knowing what to do when things go wrong
- Types of unsafe behaviour and personal hygiene that may impact on the safety of food and why it is important to avoid this type of behaviour when working with food
- The concept of hazards to food safety in catering operations, and the necessity of controlling these hazards in order to remove or keep risks to a safe level, what might happen if these hazards are not controlled and the types of hazards that you are likely to come across in a catering operations
- How you must control these hazards by cooking, chilling, cleaning and the avoidance of contamination / cross-contamination and why some hazards are more important than others in terms of food safety
- How to recognise conditions leading to food safety hazards during preparation and cooking, your role in spotting and dealing with hazards, and in reducing the risk of contamination and what to do if you find any
- The importance of identifying food hazards promptly, the potential impact on health if hazards are not spotted and dealt with promptly and the actions that should be taken in response to spotting a potential hazard, including the correct person to whom issues should be reported
- The types of contamination and cross-contamination of food and surfaces and how they can occur, vehicles of contamination including surfaces and how cross-contamination can occur between raw food, food in storage and preparation and food that is ready to eat, and how to avoid this
- The types of food poisoning, how food poisoning organisms can contaminate food, the factors which enable the growth of food poisoning organisms and the common symptoms of food poisoning
- The temperature danger zone, why it is important to store food in the correct storage area at the correct temperature, temperatures that different foods should be stored at and how to achieve this
- What procedures to follow when dealing with stock including deliveries, storage, date marking and stock rotation, why it is important to consistently follow them, why it is important to make sure food deliveries are undamaged, at the correct temperature and within date and how to do this
- Why it is important to prepare food for storage, including removing and disposing of outer packaging (while retaining any important labelling information)
- Why it is important that storage areas are clean and tidy, and what to do if they are not
- What types of food are raw and what types are ready-to-eat, why it is important to separate raw and ready-to-eat food and the methods for separation of raw foods, cooked foods and finished dishes
- Why stock rotation procedures are important, and why you must dispose of food past its date
- Why it is important to keep work areas and environment clean and tidy, and tools, utensils and equipment in good order, stored correctly and in a clean hygienic condition and how the methods and frequency of cleaning and maintenance of equipment, surfaces and environment affect food safety in the workplace
- Why surfaces and equipment must be clean, hygienic and suitable for the intended use before beginning a new task and how to ensure this
- Why it is important only to use clean and suitable clothes when cleaning between tasks, and how to ensure this is done
- The types of food and general waste which can occur in the workplace, why it’s important to clear and dispose of it promptly and how it should be safely handled in the workplace
- The main types of pests and infestation that may pose a risk to the safety of food, how they can occur, how to recognise them and the signs that they may be there and how to prevent them
- Why surfaces and equipment that are damaged or have loose parts can be hazardous to food safety, the types of damaged surfaces and equipment that can cause food safety hazards, and what to do about them and how damage to walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, food equipment and fittings can cause food safety hazards, and the type of damage you should look for
- Why and when it is necessary to defrost foods before cooking and how to do so safely and thoroughly
- Why you should use thorough cooking and reheating methods, the cooking / reheating methods, temperatures and times you must use for the food you work with and how to check that the food you work with is thoroughly cooked / safely reheated
- Why it is important to make sure food is at the correct temperature before and during holding, prior to serving it to the customer, and how to do so
- The types of cooked foods you may need to chill or freeze because they are not for immediate consumption and how to do so safely
- Why it is important to know that certain foods can cause allergic reactions and the procedures you should follow in your organisation to deal with these foods, including what you should do if a customer asks if a particular dish is free from a certain food allergen
Scope/range
1 Hazards / Sources of contamination
1.1 microbial
1.2 chemical
1.3 physical
1.4 allergenic
2 Vehicles of contamination2.1 hands2.2 cloths and equipment2.3 hand contact surfaces2.4 food contact surfaces2.5 contamination routes3 Personal hygiene and behaviour3.1 wearing protective clothing and headgear3.2 keeping direct handling of food should be kept
to a minimum> 3.3 following recommended procedures for washing>hands, including when to wash your hands (after going to the toilet, when going into food preparation, cooking and service areas, after touching raw food and waste, and before serving food)> 3.4 reporting cuts, boils, grazes and injuries3.5 treating and covering cuts, boils, skin infections>and grazes> 3.6 reporting illnesses and infections, particularly>stomach illnesses, before entering the production area> 3.7 having clean hair, skin, nails and clothing3.8 wearing jewellery only in line with organisational>procedures> 3.9 recording incidents3.10 avoid unsafe behaviours including: touching face,>nose or mouth; chewing gum; eating; smoking – when you are working with food> 4 Surfaces and equipment4.1 surfaces and utensils for preparing, cooking and>holding food> 4.2 surfaces and utensils used for displaying and>serving food> 4.3 appropriate cleaning equipment5 Storage areas5.1 ambient temperature5.2 refrigerator5.3 freezer6 Operations6.1 defrosting food6.2 preparing food, including washing and peeling6.3 cooking food6.4 reheating food6.5 holding food before serving> 6.6 cooling cooked food not for immediate>consumption> 6.7 freezing cooked food not for immediate>consumption