Use Hygienic Practices for Food Safety key terms

The person or company legally responsible for running a food business and for making sure its activities meet food safety law, including the safety of everything it sells or serves.

Anyone who works with open or packaged food, or with surfaces and equipment that touch food, and whose personal behaviour can affect whether that food is safe to eat.

A legal defence in which the business proves it took all reasonable precautions and did everything it could to prevent a food safety problem from happening.

A documented set of procedures, controls and records that a business uses to identify food safety hazards and keep them under control every day.

The process of identifying every biological, chemical or physical hazard that could make food unsafe, and deciding how likely and how serious each one is.

A specific step in a food process where a control measure must be applied to prevent, remove or reduce a hazard to an acceptable level, such as a cooking or chilling step.

The habits a food handler follows to stay clean and healthy at work, including washing, clean clothing, tidy hair and keeping hands away from the face and body.

Cleaning hands with soap and warm running water, rubbing all surfaces including fingertips and thumbs, then drying thoroughly with a disposable towel or hot-air dryer.

Clean, washable garments such as aprons, hairnets, gloves and dedicated footwear worn at work to stop the body, hair or street clothes contaminating food.

A food handler's health status in relation to food safety, judged by whether they have symptoms or conditions that could pass illness to customers through food.

Keeping a food handler away from food duties, or away from the premises entirely, while they are ill or infectious so they cannot spread pathogens to food or other staff.

A medical condition that must be reported to the business owner or public health authority, typically including vomiting, diarrhoea, jaundice and infected wounds on the hands.

The process of allowing a food handler back to food duties only after symptoms have stopped and, where required, a doctor or public health officer has confirmed it is safe.

The presence in food of anything harmful, unwanted or foreign, whether a microorganism, a chemical, a physical object or an allergen that should not be there.

A living organism or its toxin that can cause illness in people who eat the food, such as bacteria, viruses, moulds, parasites or the poisons some bacteria produce.

A harmful substance that can get into food, for example cleaning chemicals, pesticides, unapproved additives, or allergens that are not declared on the label.

A hard or sharp foreign object in food that can injure a person who eats it, such as glass, metal fragments, stones, bone, plastic or packaging pieces.

A normally harmless food protein that triggers an immune reaction in some people; it must be accurately declared and kept separate from other foods to avoid harm.

The transfer of harmful microorganisms from raw food, dirty surfaces, hands or equipment to ready-to-eat food, often by direct contact or by drips and splashes.

The transfer of an allergen from a food containing it to another food that should not contain it, for example through shared utensils, boards or frying oil.

Any object that does not belong in a food, such as a plaster, hair, insect, piece of glass or fragment of equipment, which must be reported when found.

Illness caused by eating food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, toxins or chemicals, often producing nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain within hours or days.

Two or more people becoming ill from eating the same food or from the same food business, which must be investigated and reported to the authorities.

Keeping food at temperatures that stop or slow the growth of harmful bacteria, by holding hot food hot, cold food cold and limiting time in the danger zone.

The temperature range in which bacteria multiply fastest, usually between 5 degrees Celsius and 63 degrees Celsius, so food should spend as little time there as possible.

Bringing cooked food down to cold storage temperature quickly, usually within set time limits and using shallow containers, ice baths or blast chillers rather than room temperature.

Recording on food or its packaging the date by which it must be used or thrown away, so staff can apply the correct shelf life and remove food that is out of date.

A stock rotation rule in which older food is used before newer stock, helping to prevent food reaching its use-by date and being wasted or served unsafe.

The organised practice of arranging stored food so the oldest stock is used first, with deliveries checked and new items placed behind existing ones.

Removing visible dirt, grease and food debris from a surface using detergent and water, which prepares the surface for sanitising but does not by itself kill microorganisms.

Treating a cleaned surface with heat or a chemical sanitiser to reduce microorganisms to a level that is safe for food contact.

A cleaning product that lifts grease and dirt from a surface so it can be rinsed away; it does not disinfect, so it is used before a sanitiser.

A method where a surface is first cleaned with detergent and water, then treated with a sanitiser, and finally left to air-dry, used for food contact surfaces.

Cleaning tools and chopping boards marked with different colours for different uses, such as raw meat, salad or general surfaces, to reduce cross-contamination.

Measures that keep rodents, insects and birds out of food areas, including proofing buildings, keeping waste sealed, regular inspections and professional treatment where needed.

A written record of any pest seen, droppings found or bait station activity, used to trigger action and to show inspectors that the business monitors pest problems.

Maintaining accurate written or electronic evidence of checks and actions, such as temperature logs, cleaning schedules and training records, to demonstrate food safety controls are working.

The ability to follow a food item back to its supplier and forward to where it went, which allows quick withdrawal of unsafe products and helps with investigations.

Telling the right person promptly about a food safety problem such as a foreign body, illness complaint or control failure, so it can be investigated and corrected.