Food Safety Training Resources

Food Safety 101 for NH Food Employees

Transcript of video:

hello and welcome to the state of new hampshire food safety 101 my name is erica davis the supervisor of the health inspectors for the state of new hampshire and with me today is rob allen who is our training coordinator the following presentation will give you a brief overview of safe food handling we created this presentation in hopes that the accessibility would give owners and operators the opportunity to use this for training purposes for their food handlers so to get started it's crucial for food handlers to understand why food safety is so important and what part they play in keeping the food they prepare and serve safe for consumers the ultimate goal of food safety education is to prevent foodborne illness so what exactly is foodborne illness a foodborne illness is a disease caused by consuming contaminated food or beverage it is estimated that each year in the united states one in six americans or 48 million americans are victims of foodborne illness foodborne illnesses result in on average 128 000 hospitalizations and 3 000 deaths per year it is estimated that annual medical costs from foodborne illnesses are between 10 and 83 billion dollars each year a foodborne illness outbreak is defined as an occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from persons consuming a common food it is the shared responsibility of the food industry and regulators to ensure that food provided to consumers is safe new hampshire requires a food service license for all facilities providing food to the public and has adopted the 2017 fda food code as a basis for inspection foodborne illness causes personal distress death and economic burden the most at risk are the very young elderly and immunocompromised foodborne illness is preventable so let's start by talking about the big six foodborne illnesses thank you erica there are many types of foodborne illnesses however the most common ones that are transmissible from a food employee to food are the ones we are most concerned with these illnesses are referred to as the big six they are norovirus hepatitis a shigella e coli o157h7

salmonella typhi and non-typhoidal some foods associated with a foodborne illness such as e coli would be ground beef or we often think of chicken associated with salmonella so symptoms associated with these illnesses that should be monitored for are vomiting diarrhea jaundice and sore throat with a fever so how do we communicate information regarding food transmissible illnesses to our licensees and onto food handlers the employee health reporting form is a document that a person in charge is responsible for for providing to the food employee which explains the food transmissible illnesses and symptoms food employees are required to report to the person in charge information about their health and activities as it relates to diseases that are transmissible through food the health reporting form is signed by the food employee that they understand food transmissible illnesses in the process for reporting them and that it is kept on file if an employee has symptoms and or is diagnosed with an illness they may be restricted or excluded from their duties to mitigate the risk of spreading a food transmissible illness if an employee has to be restricted their duties are limited and they may not work with exposed food clean equipment utensils linens or unwrapped single service or single-use article if an employee has to be excluded that means they are not permitted to be on the premises of the food establishment now that we have reviewed the big six the health reporting form and restriction and exclusion i'd like to talk about salmonella typhi and hepatitis a in more detail seminar typhy diseases commonly referred to as typhoid fever are spread through sewage contamination of food or water and through person-to-person contact typhoid carriers can sometimes exhibit few or no symptoms people who have recovered can still shed the bacteria you can get typhoid fever by consuming food or drink that have been touched by a person who is shedding the salmonella typhi in their feces and who have not washed their hands properly after going to the bathroom mary mellon a domestic servant in new york who worked for multiple employers from 1900 to 1907. each time she left an employer there was an outbreak of salmonella associated with the household mary was connected to 51 cases and three deaths this is where the name typhoid mary came from hepatitis a hep a is a highly contagious short-term liver infection caused by the hep a virus hepa is found in the feces and blood of people who are infected the virus can be spread through contaminated food or drink much like salmonella and person to person contact contamination of food can occur at any point during growing processing harvesting handling and even after cooking there are vaccines available to prevent hep a and b in perspective new hampshire diagnoses approximately five cases of pepe per year but in 2019 there was a spike in cases from february through september there was an average of five cases per week back to you erica at this point you may be wondering what can i do as a food handler to prevent foodborne illness first don't go to work if you're sick if you have any symptoms such as fever vomiting diarrhea or jaundice please stay home remind yourself that you along with the health department and the rules and codes we follow are all part of a safety net necessary to keep your customers safe did you know that the new hampshire food protection section receives roughly 340 complaints each year in 2020 53 of those complaints were illness complaints and 179 were sanitation complaints per our state rule were required to follow up on all complaints illness complaints within 24 hours and sanitation complaints within 72 hours during an illness or outbreak investigation we look to identify the organisms of concern and we look for the environmental risk factors that may have contributed to the illness or outbreak we also rely on our partners in the lab to assist us in determining whether a foodborne illness in different people are linked for example the lab can isolate the dna of an e coli illness in new hampshire and see if it matches another equality illness in another state or with another illness in our own state so what are the risk factors we can control and how can you as a food handler help to mitigate those risks there are five major risk factors that have been identified by outbreak data as a food handler you can promote food safety by following procedures that mitigate these five risk factors these five risk factors will be the focus throughout the remainder of this presentation the first risk factor we'll talk about is poor personal hygiene good hygienic practices play an important role in food safety proper hand washing is the single most effective way to manage the spread of bacteria however there are other hygienic practices to consider scientific evidence supports the fact that hand washing alone is not adequate enough to control the spread of bacteria hand sanitizer should never be used in place of hand washing bare hand contact is a common violation cited during an inspection not having bare hand contact of ready t foods is an important measure to prevent foodborne illness prevent your hands from contaminating food by wearing gloves when handling ready-to-eat foods or by using a utensil such as tongs spatulas spoons or deli paper one exception to the bare hand contact would be when handling otherwise ready tea foods prior to cooking all parts of the food to an internal temperature of 145 degrees fahrenheit an example of this would be pizza toppings dedicated for use to pizza only and not used for salads or sandwiches now that we have talked about not reporting to work sick and protecting the food from contamination from your hands let's talk about the food itself do you know what the difference is between a tcs and a non-tcs food gcs means time temperature controlled for safety this means without the use of time or temperature a food can support the growth of micro organisms or allow toxins to form these are things that can make you sick for example deli meats or clam chowder whereas a non-tcs food does not require time or temperature to keep them safe think shelf stable or items you keep in your cabinets like sugar bread or cereal number two on our risk factor list is improper holding and there are many ways we can abuse our tcs foods let's discuss temperature abuse during the processes of farring cooling cooking hot holding cold holding and reheating foods can contribute towards temperature abuse creating an unsafe product to be consumed by the public so what can food employees do to keep it all safe maintaining temperature control is critical to mitigating potential bacteria growth foods need to be maintained out of the danger zone which is where bacteria can rapidly multiply cold foods shall be kept below 41 degrees fahrenheit and hot foods above 135 degrees fahrenheit at all times safely farring foods improperly farming foods can give surviving bacteria the opportunity to multiply to harmful numbers and or produce toxins so how can you thaw foods properly in the cooler 41 degrees or below fully submerged under running cold water or it can be thought as part of the cooking process fact freezing prevents microbial growth but does not usually destroy all microorganisms now that we have talked about how to hold and thaw food safely let's get to our next risk factor inadequate cooking we cook different foods to different temperatures to kill the organisms that may be present in the food there are steps we need to take after the food is cooked to maintain its safety as it travels through the temperature danger zone making sure that at the end we have a safe labeled and dated product the following chart provides cooking temperatures that are required to kill organisms associated with a specific type of food for example 145 degrees we typically are concerned with fish and seafood 155 degrees for burgers and 165 degrees for poultry chicken turkey etc after cooking we need to cool foods properly excessive cooling time has been consistently identified as one of the leading contributing factors to foodborne illness rapid cooling must be achieved within six hours total the biggest drop in temperature must occur in the first two hours from 135 degrees fahrenheit to 70 degrees fahrenheit then from 70 degrees fahrenheit to 41 degrees fahrenheit or below within 4 hours this averages out to approximately 31 degrees an hour what methods can be used to cool foods properly placing foods in shallow pans using an ice bath separating the food into smaller portions using equipment such as chill sticks or blast chillers and constant stirring or irrigation of the product reheating for hot holding much like cooling foods with ex within a certain time frame foods have to be reheated for hot holding in a steam table within a certain time frame to prevent bacteria growth foods must be reheated from cold to 165 degrees fahrenheit within two hours reheating food quickly limits the amount of time in the danger zone where bacteria can multiply let's talk about the importance of date marking why is it so important to date foods and why is it required any ready t food that is time temperature controlled for safety made on the premise and held for more than 24 hours must be dated not to exceed seven days

many commercially made products are exempt from date marking and manufacturers date can be used

the primary organism of concern with date marking is listeria the next risk factor is contaminated equipment and protection from contamination the following best practices procedures help us reduce the risk of contamination including from chemicals and contamination of food from each other during storage and preparation

so let's look at proper food storage storing foods in a specific order helps to reduce the risk of potential cross-contamination foods shall be protected from contamination by separating raw animal foods during storage preparation holding and display from other raw ready to eat foods such as sushi fish or fresh vegetables cooked ready-to-eat foods separating types of raw animal foods from each other such as beef fish lamb pork and poultry during storage holding in display and what are some ways we can do that we can use separate equipment arrange each type of food and equipment so that cross-contamination of one type with another is prevented and preparing each type of food at different times are in separate areas in addition to that we need to con protect our food from contamination from equipment so cleaning and sanitizing of equipment at proper frequency food equipment has to be cleaned to the site and to the touch

glove usage gloves are considered equipment so if you're improperly using your gloves that can cause a [Music] risk of potential cross-contamination and as we've alluded to cross-contamination protecting protection from contamination let's talk about sanitizing food contact surfaces after they've been cleaned contact services must be sanitized by one of the following methods hot water rinse at 160 degrees fahrenheit or above or chemical solutions of chlorine at 50 to 100 parts per million or quaternary ammonium at 200 to 400 parts per million little pop quiz how do you verify hot water temperature of a final rinse of a santa for sanitizing in a ware washing machine how do you verify chemical solutions parts per million for sanitizers so for verification of hot water temperatures on a final rinse you're required by food code now to have either stickers that you can put on something that when you run them through the dishwasher it's basically wax it melts the wax and then tells you [Music] what the temperature achieved was in the in the wear washing machine or you can purchase call it a dish puck but it's basically a device that you run through the wear washing machine with a digital readout and it will tell you the final rinse temperature of the hot water in the wear washing machine and for chemical sanitizers as you all probably know you can use your chlorine test strips or your quad test strips to test your sanitizers in the three basin or your wear washing machine just a reminder on how to clean and sanitize you want to scrape or remove the bulk food particles from the surface wash with soap and water rinse and then sanitize and then allow the surface to air dry so an example of clean to the site and touch as you can see in the pictures here there's a on the left side as a can opener that is not clean to the site and to the touch and on the right side is a can opener that in fairness is brand new but that's what would look like if it was clean to the site and to the touch

so if you have equipment that looks like the can opener on the on the left side here then you need to do some cleaning and sanitizing and now for the last risk factor this risk factor revolves around food from unsafe sources so food from unsafe sources to be in compliance with food law food has to be obtained from an approved source that has been monitored and inspected for safety food prepared in a private home may not be used or offered for human consumption in a food establishment so for example jane doe baked brownies at her home for use with brownie sundaes at her retail ice cream shop jane doe would have to make those brownies in her retail ice cream shop to be able to use them she cannot make them at home and bring them to her ice cream shop and then use them much like a retail store or a restaurant could not rely on farmer joe to bring them salsa that was made in his private residence this wraps up the overview of foodborne illness and the risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness as the regulatory authority in new hampshire our goal is to partner with the industry and provide the information food service employees need to serve safe food and prevent foodborne illness we'll leave you with a couple of inspection facts and information

the most common violations inspectors see in the field are products not being held at 41 degrees or below a cold holding violation whether it's due to equipment failure or four practices this is the most commonly marked violation the most under misunderstood procedure we violate is cooling a product that's actively cooling needs to drop 31 degrees per hour to make cooling make the cooling parameters and a walk-in cooler and other refrigeration units are meant to keep foods cold and not to cool hot foods so the method methods for cooling are extremely important cooling logs can be helpful can be a helpful tool in maintaining the proper time frames

the other common misconception when it comes to food is ready to eat products for example breads a bread product is a ready-to-eat food whether you're planning to toast it grill it or just serve it it is ready to eat and may not be touched with bare hands we hope you found this presentation informative for more information regarding licensing or to view inspection results or file a complaint we encourage you to visit our webpage under the publications tab on our webpage you can also print helpful posters guidance documents and emergency response information thank you for taking the time to do your part in serving safe food

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