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Part of Eastern philosophy from Japan is based on five words that have become commonplace in manufacturing facilities. The Japanese words that make up the 5S methodology are seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke, and all should be evident in any kitchen embracing the new food safety culture. Here's how:

Sort: Kitchen spaces should only contain what is needed. Areas are often overloaded with items rarely if ever used. An example would be the broken cart missing a wheel or handle. Why are leftovers from special events saved only to be thrown away the following year?

Set: Mise en place - or everything should be in its proper place. This means organizing items in logical sequence or grouping and placing the most frequently used items nearest their doors. For example, frill tooth picks should be placed at table level in a containing minimizing picks from becoming lost in food.

Shine: This is the cleaning phase, and all areas should be clean at all times. Don't wait for slow periods to start cleaning. Remind any staff members who wipe things off the table and onto the floors that their "mothers don't work here." Disorganized and dirty work areas create waste by obscuring items that are needed and working areas become unsafe and slippery.

Standardize: Standardization is the covering, labeling and dating of produced product, so that FIFO (first in first out) stock rotation can be followed. Clips that can be attached to shelves indicate the space for the item and can also have par level information. I even require staff to initial their labels. This has reduced many mistakes and spoilage issues.

Sustain: The design created by the chef and their culinary support team work to keep systems in motion. Everyone needs to be trained on how and where to find stored items. Things that are found out of place must be returned to their designated home. The days of just putting things in where an opening exists has been proven to be costly in many cross-contamination scenarios.

Email me at [email protected] with any food safety questions or a topic you'd like me to write about. Or please post your comments below.

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Use 5S Methodology to Keep Your Kitchens Safe

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Part of Eastern philosophy from Japan is based on five words that have become commonplace in manufacturing facilities. The Japanese words that make up the 5S methodology are seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke, and all should be evident in any kitchen embracing the new food safety culture.

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Overview

Food poisoning, also called foodborne illness, is illness caused by eating contaminated food. Infectious organisms - including bacteria, viruses and parasites - or their toxins are the most common causes of food poisoning.

Infectious organisms or their toxins can contaminate food at any point of processing or production. Contamination can also occur at home if food is incorrectly handled or cooked.

Food poisoning symptoms, which can start within hours of eating contaminated food, often include nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Most often, food poisoning is mild and resolves without treatment. But some people need to go to the hospital.

Symptoms

Food poisoning symptoms vary with the source of contamination. Most types of food poisoning cause one or more of the following signs and symptoms:

Nausea

Vomiting

Watery or bloody diarrhea

Abdominal pain and cramps

Fever

Signs and symptoms may start within hours after eating the contaminated food, or they may begin days or even weeks later. Sickness caused by food poisoning generally lasts from a few hours to several days.

When to see a doctor

If you experience any of the following signs or symptoms, seek medical attention.

Frequent episodes of vomiting and inability to keep liquids down

Bloody vomit or stools

Diarrhea for more than three days

Extreme pain or severe abdominal cramping

An oral temperature higher than 100.4 F (38 C)

Signs or symptoms of dehydration - excessive thirst, dry mouth, little or no urination, severe weakness, dizziness, or lightheadedness

Neurological symptoms such as blurry vision, muscle weakness and tingling in the arms

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Causes

Contamination of food can happen at any point of production: growing, harvesting, processing, storing, shipping or preparing. Cross-contamination - the transfer of harmful organisms from one surface to another - is often the cause. This is especially troublesome for raw, ready-to-eat foods, such as salads or other produce. Because these foods aren't cooked, harmful organisms aren't destroyed before eating and can cause food poisoning.

Many bacterial, viral or parasitic agents cause food poisoning. The following table shows some of the possible contaminants, when you might start to feel symptoms and common ways the organism is spread.

Contaminant

Onset of symptoms

Foods affected and means of transmission

Risk factors

Whether you become ill after eating contaminated food depends on the organism, the amount of exposure, your age and your health. High-risk groups include:

Older adults. As you get older, your immune system may not respond as quickly and as effectively to infectious organisms as when you were younger.

Pregnant women. During pregnancy, changes in metabolism and circulation may increase the risk of food poisoning. Your reaction may be more severe during pregnancy. Rarely, your baby may get sick, too.

Infants and young children. Their immune systems haven't fully developed.

People with chronic disease. Having a chronic condition - such as diabetes, liver disease or AIDS - or receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer reduces your immune response.

Complications

The most common serious complication of food poisoning is dehydration - a severe loss of water and essential salts and minerals. If you're a healthy adult and drink enough to replace fluids you lose from vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration shouldn't be a problem.

Infants, older adults and people with suppressed immune systems or chronic illnesses may become severely dehydrated when they lose more fluids than they can replace. In that case, they may need to be hospitalized and receive intravenous fluids. In extreme cases, dehydration can be fatal.

Some types of food poisoning have potentially serious complications for certain people. These include:

Listeria infection. Complications of a listeria food poisoning may be most severe for an unborn baby. Early in pregnancy, a listeria infection may lead to miscarriage. Later in pregnancy, a listeria infection may lead to stillbirth, premature birth or a potentially fatal infection in the baby after birth - even if the mother was only mildly ill. Infants who survive a listeria infection may experience long-term neurological damage and delayed development.

Escherichia coli (E. coli). Certain E. coli strains can cause a serious complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. This syndrome damages the lining of the tiny blood vessels in the kidneys, sometimes leading to kidney failure. Older adults, children younger than 5 and people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of developing this complication. If you're in one of these risk categories, see your doctor at the first sign of profuse or bloody diarrhea.

Prevention

To prevent food poisoning at home:

Wash your hands, utensils and food surfaces often. Wash your hands well with warm, soapy water before and after handling or preparing food. Use hot, soapy water to wash utensils, cutting boards and other surfaces you use.

Keep raw foods separate from ready-to-eat foods. When shopping, preparing food or storing food, keep raw meat, poultry, fish and shellfish away from other foods. This prevents cross-contamination.

Cook foods to a safe temperature. The best way to tell if foods are cooked to a safe temperature is to use a food thermometer. You can kill harmful organisms in most foods by cooking them to the right temperature.

Cook ground beef to 160 F (71.1 C); steaks, roasts and chops, such as lamb, pork and veal, to at least 145 F (62.8 C). Cook chicken and turkey to 165 F (73.9 C). Make sure fish and shellfish are cooked thoroughly.

Refrigerate or freeze perishable foods promptly - within two hours of purchasing or preparing them. If the room temperature is above 90 F (32.2 C), refrigerate perishable foods within one hour.

Defrost food safely. Don't thaw food at room temperature. The safest way to thaw food is to defrost it in the refrigerator. If you microwave frozen food using the "defrost" or "50% power" setting, be sure to cook it immediately.

Throw it out when in doubt. If you aren't sure if a food has been prepared, served or stored safely, discard it. Food left at room temperature too long may contain bacteria or toxins that can't be destroyed by cooking. Don't taste food that you're unsure about - just throw it out. Even if it looks and smells fine, it may not be safe to eat.

Food poisoning is especially serious and potentially life-threatening for young children, pregnant women and their fetuses, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems. These individuals should take extra precautions by avoiding the following foods:

Raw or rare meat and poultry

Raw or undercooked fish or shellfish, including oysters, clams, mussels and scallops

Raw or undercooked eggs or foods that may contain them, such as cookie dough and homemade ice cream

Raw sprouts, such as alfalfa, bean, clover and radish sprouts

Unpasteurized juices and ciders

Unpasteurized milk and milk products

Soft cheeses, such as feta, Brie and Camembert; blue-veined cheese; and unpasteurized cheese

Refrigerated pates and meat spreads

Uncooked hot dogs, luncheon meats and deli meats

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Food poisoning, also called foodborne illness, is illness caused by eating contaminated food. Infectious organisms - including bacteria, viruses and parasites - or their toxins are the most common causes of food poisoning. Infectious organisms or their toxins can contaminate food at any point of processing or production.

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keep hot food hot
keep cold food cold

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Restaurant professionals know that bacteria responsible for food-borne illness can multiply by the thousands in very short period of time.

They also know that you cannot tell always tell that this has happened by the smell or the appearance of the food. Fresh chicken that was purchased in the morning and improperly stored can cause illness in the evening.

So, there is a golden rule, when it comes to the temperature in restaurant kitchens: Hot food hot and cold food cold.

This means that food that is hot or already cooked, needs to remain hot, and food that is cold, whether it is raw chicken or food that is eaten chilled, needs to stay cold. The question is, then, what is considered "cold" and what is considered "hot?"

What are the Safe Temperatures of Cold and Hot Foods?

Most pathogens that cause food-poisoning reproduce the fastest and thrive within a certain range. This range is between 41° F to 135° F (5° to 57° C). When a health inspector visits a restaurant kitchen and aims a digital thermometer at stored cold foods, they are checking to see that the food is colder than 41° F. If they are checking hot foods being held, they are checking to see if they are hotter than 135° F. In reality, this means restaurants try to go for below 40° F or to 140° or above, depending on the particular food.

When the temperature is below 41° F, the bacteria may not die, but they will not reproduce. Above 135° and many pathogens are destroyed. Even if they are not killed, they will, again, not reproduce. Between these two temperatures, however, is the danger zone, where bacteria enjoy conditions perfect for their life cycle. They will begin reproducing at an astonishing rate. Once present in high numbers, it is too late, the food is considered adulterated and not fit to serve.

The image below, provided by the USDA, gives a graphic representation of the safe temperature zones for holding foods, as well as some minimal cooking temperatures for meats, poultry, and other foods.

How Long is Too Long in the Danger Zone?

Generally, cut-off time for foods in the danger zone, after which they are considered hopelessly adulterated and cannot be used, is four hours. This period is cumulative, however.

This means that each time period during which food enters the danger zone is added to any other time period where the food is in the danger zone. If cold chicken, for example, is allowed to reach 50° F for ten minutes, is chilled back down, and then is allowed to warm up again for 30 minutes, it has spent 40 minutes in the danger zone. Most well-run kitchens do not flirt with the temps like this, if at all possible.

Although certain foods like chicken, meat, fish, and dairy are especially hospitable environments for dangerous pathogens, all foods must be kept at proper temperatures. It is easy for a busy kitchen to make mistakes in this area.

For example, soups might be transferred from a large pot to a steam-table to keep warm. What if a cook allows the soup to cool down in the pot, dipping into the danger zone, and then pours lukewarm soup into a hotel pan on a steam table? Steam tables are meant to keep warm food warm, not to heat cold foods up. The result, then, could be soup that inadvertently stays below 140 even though it was judiciously placed in a steam table. So, foods should be properly heated up before being transferred.

It would stand to reason that the same kind of thing goes for cold foods. You don't place warm chicken on ice, you place ice cold chicken on ice.

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What are Safe Temperatures for Foods in Restaurants?

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Restaurant professionals know that bacteria responsible for food-borne illness can multiply by the thousands in very short period of time. They also know that you cannot tell always tell that this has happened by the smell or the appearance of the food. Fresh chicken that was purchased in the mor

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Escoffier Online International Culinary Academy

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Being aware of the top 10 safety and sanitation tips for the kitchen is important. When working in a professional kitchen or while cooking in your home kitchen for your online culinary classes, take these tips into consideration every time. In no particular order here are Chef Fernando's top 10 kitchen safety tips.

1. Be sure all staff and managers are properly trained - shift managers, general managers and staff must have proper food safety knowledge because the health inspector will ask questions, and a restaurant can be fined for showing inadequate knowledge of safe food handling practices. There are several options available to have staff certified in food safety.

2. Wash your hands - One of the main culprits of foodborne illnesses is person-to-person contact resulting from dirty employee hands. Restaurant employees must regularly and thoroughly wash their hands in order to protect customers and the restaurant from a food poisoning outbreak.

3. Wash all produce - Fresh produce is not always cooked before serving, so washing by hand is the only way to remove any bacteria that may be on the surface.

4. Properly store refrigerated goods - Refrigerators must maintain a temperature at or below 40 degrees F to minimize bacterial growth. Also, refrigerated foods can only be stored for a certain amount of time before they start to go bad.

5. Cook foods to appropriate temperatures - In order to kill any bacteria present, foods must be cooked to a minimum internal temperature and sustain that temperature for at least 15 seconds.

6. Clean and sanitize all food contact surfaces - Counter tops, cutting boards, utensils, pots and pans and employee hands are all food contact surfaces that must be cleaned and sanitized before and after they touch food items.

7. Perform self inspections - Walking through your establishment once or twice a month will help you identify any potential food safety concerns. You can download a self health inspection form or ask your inspector for some of their forms, so you know exactly what areas pose the greatest risk.

8. Know your local health codes - State and county health departments are the direct enforcers of local, state and federal health regulations. When opening or operating a commercial kitchen, it is important to know the local health codes to avoid fines and prevent foodborne illness outbreaks.

9. Regularly check temperatures - Food either in commercial refrigeration or warming and holding equipment needs to be checked every two hours to assure that it is not in the food Danger Zone. It is sufficient to just check the equipment thermometer on refrigerated foods to assure that they are within safe levels. But for prepared foods, like soups and buffet items, it is necessary to check the food's internal temperature to assure that it is above 140 degrees F.

10. Check all incoming food shipments - Food can be contaminated anywhere along the supply chain, so it is important that food service operators purchase foods from approved sources and know when to accept or reject fresh meat, poultry and seafood.

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Being aware of the top 10 safety and sanitation tips for the kitchen is important. When working in a professional kitchen or while cooking in your home kitchen for your online culinary classes, take these tips into consideration every time. In no particular order here are Chef Fernando's top 10 kitchen safety tips.

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What Is Biological Contamination?

What do steak, bacon, really tasty vegetables, and fruits all have in common? The answer is they all have the potential for being contaminated with biological organisms. If you don't wash and cook them thoroughly, you're putting yourself at risk of potentially really serious infections. Let's find out what some of them are in this lesson.

What do we mean when we say biological contamination? More often than not, this term specifically denotes the contamination of food with microorganisms. Microorganisms are the living things we commonly need a microscope to see in detail. This means things like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.

You can argue that an insect found in food or even a rodent is a biological contaminant, and you'd definitely be right in many respects. However, biological contamination is more commonly seen specifically as microbiological contamination.

Biological Contaminant Sources

There are way too many microorganisms that can contaminate our food to go over them all, but you're about to get a good overview. Many, but not all, of these are transmitted via fecal contamination of our food. This feces may come from animals or humans.

For example, cow manure may contaminate milk. Human waste, such as that from sewage runoff, may contaminate crops. But human waste may contaminate our food without any sewage also. For example, if a restaurant employee doesn't wash their hands properly after going #2 and then handles the food you eat, you are being put at risk of an illness stemming from any microorganism in their gut.

However, some of the biological contaminants may be present in the meat or milk of an animal already, without any further need for fecal contamination, and if this product isn't properly cooked, you're setting yourself up for trouble. For instance, some parasites actually live inside the cells that make up the muscle of an animal. If you are lover of raw, rare, or even medium rare meat then you may be eating those parasites. Only by thoroughly cooking your food can you ensure that you kill all those microorganisms on or within the food you eat.

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biological contamination of food - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Biological Contamination of Food - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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What do steak, bacon, really tasty vegetables, and fruits all have in common? The answer is they all have the potential for being contaminated with biological organisms. If you don't wash and cook them thoroughly, you're putting yourself at risk of potentially really serious infections.

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One of the biggest challenges of running a busy restaurant is keeping the kitchen clean. With a multitude of activities happening all the time, from grease flying out of the fryolator, to parsley ground into the cutting boards, to mysterious items being found in the back of the reach-in cooler, regular cleaning can seem overwhelming if you don't have a system in place.

To help you maintain a hygienic commercial kitchen, here is a handy list that outlines how to keep your restaurant kitchen spic and span. Some jobs should be done several times a day, while others need to only be done weekly or monthly. Regular cleaning of your regular kitchen is essential for food safety and can help reduce food waste, lowering overall menu costs.

Brush grill between cooking red meat, poultry and fish

Wipe down the line and prep areas

Switch cutting boards

Change sanitizing water and cleaning rags

Empty trash bins

Clean the fryers

Brush the grill

Empty sanitizing buckets

Put all cleaning rags in dirty laundry

Put all aprons and chefs coats in laundry (not with cleaning rags)

Wash and sanitize all surfaces (cutting boards, reach-in, line, prep tables)

Empty steam table and clean

Wash meat and cheese slicer after each use

Cover all bins in reach-in cooler with plastic wrap

Wash floor mats

Sweep and mop the kitchen floor

Sweep walk-in refrigerator

Clean out grease traps

Change foil linings of grill, range, and flattops

Wash the can opener

Run hood filters through the dishwasher

Each of these duties can be rotated throughout the week so that every shift gets an equitable amount of side work.

Empty reach-in coolers and wash and sanitize them

Delime sinks and faucets

Clean coffee machine

Clean the ovens. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instruction on this particular job.

Sharpen knives (okay, not cleaning, per se, but needs to be done)

Oil cast iron cookware

Use drain cleaners on floor drains

As with the weekly cleaning list, these monthly jobs should be scheduled throughout the month, on different shifts, so that staff shares the burden of side work.

Wash behind the hotline (oven, stove, fryers) to cut down on grease build up, which is a major fire hazard

Clean freezers

Empty and sanitize the ice machine

Calibrate ovens

Calibrate thermometers

Sharpen the meat and cheese slicer

Wash walls and ceilings

Wipe down the dry storage area

Change any pest traps

Restock your first aid kit

Update your material safety data sheets, which outline how to safely use any chemicals in your restaurant.

There are also several important things to do each year, to make sure your kitchen is clean and safe. Most require the help of a professional. It's good to schedule them during slow seasons, or just before your busy season (if you have one) starts up. That way, if there are any issues or repairs needed, you won't lose too much business, if any.

Check fire suppression system

Check the fire extinguishers (this may need to be done twice a year, depending on where you live)

Clean the hoods twice a year. Use a professional company that specializes in hood cleaning rather than doing the job yourself (very messy and time-consuming).

Clean the pilot lights on any gas kitchen equipment (Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instruction).

Implementing each of these schedules will help your kitchen be safe for employees and customers. It will prevent possible food contamination and outbreaks (AKA PR nightmare) and help reduce food spoilage and waste, keeping profits high.

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Here Is How to Keep Your Restaurant Kitchen Clean With a Checklist

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One of the biggest challenges of running a busy restaurant is keeping the kitchen clean. With a multitude of activities happening all the time, from grease flying out of the fryolator, to parsley ground into the cutting boards, to mysterious items being found in the back of the reach-in cooler, regular cleaning can seem overwhelming if you don't have a system in place.

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PAPERS

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High risk: Equipment, working surface
low risk: without direct contact