Malta Food Handling Licence A common mistakes
Malta Food Handling Licence A · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Candidates state that a food handler must stay off work only when they have visible vomiting or diarrhoea, and say they can return as soon as symptoms stop.
Everyday experience teaches that 'sickness passes', so people apply the same logic to food work and forget that some pathogens are shed for days or weeks after recovery, and that some carriers never show symptoms at all.
What to do instead
Learn the exclusion rules as a short list: exclude for 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea; report and seek medical advice for typhoid/paratyphoid, E. coli O157 or other STEC, hepatitis A, and for infected wounds, skin lesions, ears, eyes or nose; a household contact of a case may also need exclusion. Learn that non-typhoidal Salmonella and Campylobacter usually need exclusion until 48 hours symptom-free, and that the person in charge must be told, not just colleagues.
Candidates answer temperature questions with a single 'safe temperature' figure (often 75°C for everything, or 'above 63°C' for all hot holding) rather than distinguishing cooking, hot holding, cooling and cold storage.
Revision notes compress numbers into one memorable value, and candidates do not separate the different control points where the legal or good-practice limits differ.
What to do instead
Build a four-row table and memorise it: cooking/pasteurising core temperature 75°C (or equivalent time-temperature combination such as 70°C for 2 minutes); hot holding at or above 63°C; cold storage at or below 5°C (freezer at or below −18°C); cooling from 63°C to 5°C within 90 minutes (or from 63°C to 20°C within 2 hours and then to 5°C). Practise by labelling each scenario with the correct row before choosing an answer.
Candidates treat the fridge as the safe default and say any food can be kept in it indefinitely, or state that a domestic fridge thermometer reading of 'cold' is sufficient evidence of control.
The fridge is the most familiar piece of equipment, so its limits are assumed rather than checked; candidates also confuse 'the fridge feels cold' with a verified, recorded temperature.
What to do instead
Learn that refrigeration slows but does not stop bacterial growth (Listeria monocytogenes multiplies at chill temperatures), that chilled food should be kept at or below 5°C and checked with a probe or an independent thermometer, and that the reading must be recorded. Know that the coldest part is usually the back/bottom, that the door shelves are warmest, and that overloading or leaving the door open defeats control.
Candidates describe handwashing as 'wash hands before handling food' without specifying when, for how long, or which steps, and omit handwashing after handling raw meat, after using the toilet, after handling waste, and after touching the face, phone or money.
Handwashing is treated as a slogan rather than a procedure, and candidates underestimate how many transfer points exist in a normal shift.
What to do instead
Learn the trigger list explicitly: before starting work, after using the toilet, after handling raw meat/poultry/eggs, after handling waste, after cleaning, after breaks, after touching the face, hair, phone or money, and after removing gloves. Learn the steps: wet, soap, lather and rub palms, backs, between fingers, thumbs and under nails for at least 20 seconds, rinse, dry with a disposable towel or hot-air dryer, and use the towel to turn off the tap. Learn that gloves are not a substitute for handwashing.
Candidates describe cross-contamination only as 'raw meat touching cooked food' and miss the indirect routes: chopping boards, knives, cloths, hands, fridge drip, reusable bags, and the same probe thermometer used without cleaning.
Textbook examples are visual and direct, so candidates recall the obvious contact route and do not generalise to surfaces and equipment.
What to do instead
Learn cross-contamination as a chain with four links (food-to-food, equipment-to-food, hand-to-food, pest-to-food) and give one example of each. Learn the controls: separate colour-coded boards and knives for raw and ready-to-eat food, separate storage areas in the fridge with raw food below ready-to-eat food, cleaning and disinfecting between tasks, and cleaning and disinfecting probes before and after use.
Candidates name only bacteria as hazards and answer 'bacteria' when the question asks for the cause of foodborne illness from rice, or from mouldy bread, or from a chemical incident.
Training material is dominated by bacterial examples, so candidates default to bacteria even when the scenario is a toxin, a virus, a mould or a chemical contaminant.
What to do instead
Learn the hazard categories with one named example each: bacteria (Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria, E. coli O157); bacterial toxins (Bacillus cereus in cooked rice, Staphylococcus aureus toxin from skin lesions); viruses (norovirus, hepatitis A); moulds and mycotoxins; parasites; chemicals (cleaning agents, pesticides, allergens, toxic metals from unlined containers); physical (glass, metal, bone, stones, pests, packaging). Read the scenario for the food vehicle before answering.
Candidates confuse 'cleaning' with 'disinfecting' and say that washing with detergent is enough to make a board or probe safe, or that a surface only needs disinfecting when it looks dirty.
In domestic settings detergent and water are treated as the end point, and visible cleanliness is assumed to equal microbiological safety.
What to do instead
Learn the two-stage principle: cleaning removes visible dirt and grease with detergent; disinfection reduces micro-organisms to a safe level with a chemical (for example chlorine-based sanitiser at the manufacturer's dilution and contact time) or heat. Learn that surfaces must be cleaned first and then disinfected, and that food-contact surfaces, probes and equipment must be both cleaned and disinfected after contact with raw food.
Candidates treat high-risk foods as synonymous with 'meat' and fail to identify cooked rice, pasta, cooked pulses, soft cheeses, pâté, smoked fish, shellfish, cooked sliced meats and prepared salads as high-risk.
The category is remembered through familiar examples rather than through the defining property (high moisture, high protein or carbohydrate, near-neutral pH, no further kill step), so non-meat examples are missed.
What to do instead
Learn the definition: high-risk foods are ready-to-eat, high in protein and/or moisture, and support growth of pathogens or toxin production. Learn the named examples, and learn the low-risk contrast (dry pasta and rice before cooking, bread, jam, honey, acidic foods, dry biscuits, canned unopened foods). Apply the definition to unfamiliar foods in the exam rather than recalling a list.
Candidates state that reheated food is safe once it is 'hot all the way through' and do not give the 82°C core temperature for reheating, or they say food can be reheated more than once.
The cooking figure (75°C) is over-applied, and the extra margin needed for reheating is not distinguished from initial cooking.
What to do instead
Learn that reheated food should reach 82°C at the core (or an equivalent time-temperature combination) and should be reheated only once; learn that cooling must be rapid and that leftovers should be cooled, covered and refrigerated within 90 minutes, not left on the counter. Learn the difference between the 75°C cooking figure and the 82°C reheating figure.
Candidates answer pest and waste questions with 'keep the kitchen clean' and omit the specific controls: proofing, waste segregation, closing bins, and the significance of pest sightings as evidence of a control failure.
Pest control is perceived as the manager's job and as a cleaning issue rather than a set of physical and procedural barriers.
What to do instead
Learn the controls by route: deny access (close doors and windows, fit screens, seal gaps and pipes, keep external areas clear), deny food and water (closed containers, clean surfaces, no standing water, bins with tight lids emptied regularly), deny shelter (no clutter, no cardboard storage), and monitor (check for droppings, gnaw marks, live or dead insects, and record sightings and any action taken). Learn that pests are a physical and microbiological hazard and that sightings must be reported to the person in charge.