Micro-organisms do not need to multiply in the food to do harm: often they move from one place to another. This is called cross-contamination. This lesson shows how to prevent it and how to receive and store goods properly.
Cross-contamination
It passes from raw foods (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, vegetables with soil) to ready-to-eat foods (salads, desserts, bread, cooked dishes). It can be:
- direct: the liquid from raw meat drips onto a dessert;
- indirect: through hands, knives, boards, cloths, worktops and equipment that were used for raw food and then for cooked food;
- through the air, by coughing, sneezing or splashes.
How to prevent it:
- Use different knives, boards and utensils for each type of food (for example, colour-coded), or wash and disinfect them between uses.
- Respect the establishment's separate areas and the one-way flow: work moves from dirty to clean and from raw to cooked, without going back.
- Wash your hands every time you change task.
- Do not reuse cloths from one food to another. Prefer disposable paper or cloths used for one purpose only.
- Wash and disinfect the worktop before moving on to another food.
Receiving goods
At delivery, before accepting, check:
- the temperature: the Code of Good Practice for Catering gives 0 to 5 °C for chilled food and below -18 °C for frozen food;
- the condition of the packaging: no tears, dents, swelling, moisture or signs of thawing;
- the labels and the dates;
- the cleanliness of the vehicle and of the delivery staff;
- the appearance and smell of the product, with no stains or signs of spoilage.
Annex II, Chapter IX, of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 says that the operator must not accept raw materials that are, or may be, contaminated to the point that the final product would be unfit for consumption. The temperature and any non-conformities are recorded. What is rejected is recorded.
Storage
- Put chilled and frozen goods away straight away. The cold chain must not be broken.
- In the fridge, raw food goes at the bottom, so that nothing drips onto ready-to-eat food, which goes on top.
- Use containers that are covered, clean and labelled (product and date). Keep the original label or copy the data needed to identify the product and the batch.
- First in, first out (FIFO): what arrived first is used first.
- Keep food off the floor and away from walls and from cleaning products. Dangerous substances are stored labelled, in separate and secure containers.
- Monitor and record the temperature of refrigeration equipment.
- Do not overload the fridge: the cold air must circulate.
Dates on labels
Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 provides for two types of date:
- "Use by" ("Consumir até"): on highly perishable foods. After this date the food is considered unsafe and must not be used, even if it looks fine.
- "Best before" ("Consumir de preferência antes de"): shows until when the product keeps its qualities. After it, the product may still be safe, but the establishment must follow its own rules.
Food prepared in the establishment and opened packages must carry a label with the date of preparation or opening and the use-by limit, defined by the self-checking plan.
Key points
- Raw kept apart from cooked, always.
- Receiving: temperature, packaging, label and dates.
- Raw at the bottom, ready-to-eat on top.
- FIFO and labelling.