4 Tips for Food Businesses to Avoid Food Contamination

Food is the most important component of a food business as the purpose of a restaurant or food retail is to offer food to customers. As food is the most important asset it is important that food safety is a priority. The food contamination can do some serious damage to the reputation and profit of a business. A food business needs to make sure that the safety of the products is ensured. A business needs to set some safety rules so that the food products they are serving are not compromised.

Serving contaminated food can ruin the reputation of a food business so it is critical that you take extra care of the food you are storing, cooking and serving.

Here are a few tips that can help the business in making sure that the food they serve is delicious and safe.

1. Make a Rule of Washing Hands:

To ensure food safety the food businesses need to make some rules. The managers need to make sure that the safety rules are strictly followed because even a small mistake can do serious harm. Handling food with dirty hands will transfer the germs from hands to the food products. If the staff handling the food is not aware of the importance of washing hands then you will end up serving contaminated food. Educate the staff about the importance of washing hands and dangerous of avoiding the safety tip so that you do not compromise food safety.

2. Avoid Food Contamination with Clean Surfaces:

All the surfaces in the kitchen need to be spotless. Even a small spill can lead to food contamination as it will be the source of spreading germs and bacteria. If a small part of the kitchen surface is not clean then it will spread the germs to other surfaces. The cutting boards, utensils, appliances need to be cleaned regularly.

3. Create Different Zones:

In a kitchen, different food ingredients are used and if you do not keep then separate then you will end up contaminating the food products. Cross-contamination is a serious food safety issue. The raw meat should never be stored in the same area as fresh fruits and vegetables. The poultry should also be kept in a separate area. It is important to keep these products separate during shopping, delivering and cooking.

4. Storing and Cooking at the Right Temperature:

If the food storage conditions are not perfect they can lead to food contamination. Food products are perishable and they need to be stored in a controlled environment so that they stay fresh. There are refrigeration appliances like cold rooms, commercial blast chiller, etc. that makes sure that the food is stored in perfect condition.

Apart from the storage temperature, it is important to be aware of safe cooking temperatures. Serving undercooked food can lead to foodborne illnesses and food contamination. The cooking staff should have a thermometer to check if the food especially the meat is cooked enough for safe consumption or not.

Avoiding food contamination should be on top of food businesses’ priority list as food contamination can ruin the reputation that will be hard to earn again.