Level 2 BTEC Health and Social Care
Nutrition P5
It's very important to prepare food safely, to help stop harmful bacteria from spreading and growing.
Your hands can easily spread bacteria and germs around the kitchen and onto food.
It is important to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water.
before starting to prepare food
- After touching raw meat, including poultry
- After using the toilet
- After touching the bin
- After contact with animals
Dry your hands properly because if they are wet they will spread bacteria easily.
Personal Hygiene
- Catering staff must wear the uniform at all times when working in the kitchen
- Jewellery and watches must not be worn because of the danger of e.g. beads may fall in to the food.
- Outdoor clothing should not be worn under the uniform
- Shoes must be kept clean and in good repair and should cover the foot adequately.
- Uniforms provided must on no account be worn to and from work, ...
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Dry your hands properly because if they are wet they will spread bacteria easily.
Personal Hygiene
- Catering staff must wear the uniform at all times when working in the kitchen
- Jewellery and watches must not be worn because of the danger of e.g. beads may fall in to the food.
- Outdoor clothing should not be worn under the uniform
- Shoes must be kept clean and in good repair and should cover the foot adequately.
- Uniforms provided must on no account be worn to and from work, although it is the responsibility of the staff to carry the uniform home for the purposes of laundering
- Catering staff must practice good personal hygiene at all times. Hands must be washed regularly throughout the day and whenever there is a risk of cross-contamination
- Nails must be kept short and no nail varnish or false nails must be worn
- No food is to be eaten while preparing or cooking food.
- Cover wounds/cuts/spots with suitable waterproof dressings or blue coloured plasters
Before preparing the food, it’s necessary to make sure that your work surface, utensils and chopping boards are clean before and after you use them.
If work surface, utensils and chopping boards have been touched by raw meat, poultry or eggs, you'll need to wash them thoroughly, to prevent cross contamination.
Don't forget to regularly change dish cloths and paper towels. They may seen clean but many harmful bacteria can be growing on them.
Colour coded chopping boards help eliminate cross contamination during food preparation and is widely practised.
It's vital to keep raw meat away from cooked food, such as salad, fruit and bread. This is because these types of food won't be cooked before you eat them, so any bacteria that get onto the food won't be killed.
To help stop bacteria from spreading, remember these things:
• Don't let raw meat touch other foods.
• Never prepare cooked foods using the same chopping board or knife that you used to prepared raw meat unless they have been washed thoroughly.
• Always wash your hands carefully after touching raw meat or fish and before you touch anything else.
• Always cover raw meat and store them on the bottom shelf of the fridge, so the bacteria doesn't drip on other foods .
• Don’t wash raw meat before cooking it. Washing doesn't get rid of harmful bacteria – the only way to do this is by cooking the food thoroughly. Washing the meat can spread more bacteria through the splashes and residue
Store foods according to the instructions on a packet, e.g. if it says ‘once opened, consume within three days’ don't keep for any longer
Refrigerate fresh food within two hours of purchase or preparation. Fridges must be kept at less than 5ºC
Freeze frozen food as quickly as possible after purchase. Freezers must be kept less than -18ºC
Defrost frozen food in the fridge
Cook food according to the instructions on the packet
Use a food thermometer or a clean skewer to check that food is thoroughly cooked.
If the food has been cooked in advance, cover it and keep it above 63ºC until it’s time to eat.
If food has been micro-waved, stir it from time to time to make sure it cooks evenly.
5ºC to 63ºC is the Temperature Danger Zone! Most bacteria thrive in the TDZ so store food below 5ºC and above 63ºC
Storage in refrigerators
Temperature inside your fridge should be below 5C. This will in most cases prevent the growth of bacteria, and surely slow it down so they will not multiply to unsafe numbers.
Do not over-crowd fridge, this will not allow the air to circulate properly and the fridge will then not function efficiently.
Always keep raw food on the lower shelves and the cooked food above, this way any ‘drips’ cannot contaminate ready to eat food.
Never put hot food into the fridge. This will cause the temperature of the fridge to rise, and the refrigerated food already in there will begin to warm up.
Cover food well, to prevent it from becoming contaminated and it will also prevent it from drying out so that the quality will be maintained.
Recommended storage time: