Food Safety – Cross Contamination

This is the first in a series of Food Safety blogs that we are writing, we’ll cover some of the most important aspects of Food Safety and provide you with some helpful advice to help your business, and your customers, stay safe.

Cross contamination is the term used to describe when harmful bacteria is moved from a source to a high risk area, such as ready to eat food. Food that is of high risk to cross-contamination are meat and dairy products, egg dishes, and high protein foods

We can greatly reduce the risks to health that are posed by bacteria and micro-organisms by:

  • Preventing cross-contamination
  • Cooking and reheating food adequately
  • Cooking and thawing food correctly
  • Cleaning disinfecting equipment and contact surfaces
  • Controlling food pests
  • Storing food correctly
  • Following good personal hygiene practices
  • Using appropriately designed equipment and premises
  • Following ‘food safety management’ procedures

Some of the most common causes of cross-contamination that we find are where both raw and ready to eat foods have been stored together, or where the same surfaces and utensils have been used without thoroughly washing them.

It is especially important to keep raw meat and fish away from ready to eat food, in particular salad, fruit and bread, as they will not be cooked before you eat them. Raw meat and fish contain harmful bacteria that is very easily spread to anything they touch, including other foods, worktops, chopping boards and knives.

The following steps should be taken to help prevent cross-contamination occurring:

  • All food handlers’ personal hygiene must be of the highest order, in particular hands should be washed thoroughly with soap and warm water and dried thoroughly as well at these times:
    • Before preparing food
    • After touching raw meat, this includes fish and poultry
    • After going to the toilet
    • After touching the bin
    • After touching animals
  • Utensils rather than hands should always be used to handle food, and it is best to have separate utensils for different foodstuffs
  • Always store raw food in a separate refrigerator to cooked food, if this is impossible, store raw food below cooked food, otherwise blood and fluids could drip onto cooked food and contaminate it
  • Food should always be kept covered or stored in airtight containers and handled as little as possible
  • Ensure that storage areas are well lit, clean, dry, cool, well ventilated and protected from infestation by pests
  • Food handlers should not work with food if they are suffering from an illness that could contaminate food, (i.e. diarrhoea, uncovered and infected wounds, sickness)
  • Separate colour coded chopping boards and knives should be used for raw and cooked foods, and different types of foodstuff
  • Safe rubbish disposal techniques should be practiced to prevent contamination being spread by food pests or the hands of food handlers, rubbish should not be allowed to accumulate
  • Animals of any type should not be allowed into the kitchen, especially pests, we’ll be writing a blog on how to deal with common kitchen pests, so keep an eye out for it.

As equipment is a common cause of cross-contamination, it is essential that every effort is made to reduce the risk. Colour coding is a fantastic way in which this can be done! You can buy equipment such as chopping boards and knives for food processing use in colour coded form from most quality catering suppliers. Whilst colour coding is not a legal requirement, it is certainly good practice, but care does need to be taken to ensure that it is made clear which colour is for what job and that the colour separation is strictly adhered to.

Remember, clean up as you go along, regularly change dish clothes and tea towels, because whilst they may look clean, they are the perfect place for bacteria to grow.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *