Food Safety, Hygiene and Sanitation
This domain tests whether you can keep food safe from delivery to service: temperature control, cross-contamination, personal hygiene, cleaning and the HACCP records that prove you did it.
Temperature control
- Danger zone: 5 °C to 63 °C, where bacteria multiply fastest.
- Chilled storage 1-5 °C; freezer −18 °C or colder; hot holding 63 °C or above.
- Reheat once to 74 °C or above, and never reheat twice.
- Cool cooked food quickly, within about two hours, before refrigerating; keep it covered and dated.
Cross-contamination
Separate raw and ready-to-eat foods in storage, on boards and with knives. Use colour-coded boards, store raw meat below cooked foods in the fridge, and never use the same cloth on a prep surface and on plates. Wash hands for at least 20 seconds after the toilet, after raw meat, after waste, and before touching ready-to-eat food.
HACCP in seven steps
Identify hazards, determine critical control points, set critical limits, monitor them, state corrective action, verify, and keep records. Cooking, chilling and hot holding are the usual critical control points in a restaurant. In Kenya the framework sits under the Public Health Act and the Food, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act, and food handlers must hold a current medical certificate.
Worked example. A buffet runs from 12:30 to 15:00. Reasoning: hold hot dishes above 63 °C in chafing dishes over water baths and probe every 30 minutes, logging the reading; hold cold salads below 5 °C on ice; replace serving utensils rather than topping up dishes with fresh food; discard anything beyond the safe time limit.
Traps
Judging temperature by touch; reusing a tasting spoon; drying hands on a cloth; assuming the danger zone applies only to meat; forgetting that cleaning removes dirt while sanitising kills bacteria - you need both.