What is Food Safety?

Food Safety means following food safety procedures and routines to prevent food borne illness during the food preparation cycle. This cycle is broken into critical control points (known as CCP’s) to aid in the control of hygiene and the prevention of contamination.

Food borne illness and poisoning are a direct result eating contaminated food due to poor hygiene which occurs when contaminated food is ingested. This results in illness and sometimes death.

Food Safety ensures that throughout the entire food processing process (from ordering from suppliers until the food is served to customers), hazards are identified and either eliminated or controlled, this is known as the critical control process, as shown in the diagram above. This ensures that food items are kept:

• fresh,
• healthy, and
• hazard free for the consumer.

Food Safety is the responsibility of everybody involved in the process:

• The supplier of the ingredients – that the food delivered is kept at the correct temperature and not contaminated in transit.
• The store person/kitchen hand/chef – receiving and storing food safely and within the correct time frames and at the right temperatures.
• The chef preparing the meal – maintaining good personal and kitchen hygiene.
• The waiting staff serving the customer, and the safe removal of wasted food items.

Discussion

Consider the meal that you ate yesterday evening. Look at the flow of food from the time you purchased it until it landed on the table. Can you identify any gaps that you have in your food safety? Please share your observations in the comments.