Salmonella, E.coli, food allergies, dirty dining, Cross-Contamination, the list goes on. Food safety has become a major concern for everyone involved in the processing, manufacturing and preparation of the food for human consumption.  Your establishment reputation is critical to success, so food safety is not only vital, it is one of the most fundamental elements to success.

Food Safety Month is September, what better time to brush up on your HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) knowledge. Every county that implements HACCP follows seven principles.  Last week we covered principle one to three while this week we will finish off the two part series.

Principle four:

The fourth principle is creating a monitoring system for each critical control point. Implementing a monitoring system is essential to help ensure that the cooking process continues to operate safely and within the critical limits of each point. Procedures to help maintain your cooking process is simply following through on such things as taking the internal temperature of your food while cooking or keeping your kitchen utensils clean.

Principle Five:

This principle is an important one to pay attention to. The fifth principle is being able to establish corrective actions when the production has fallen off track or if it has become close to a critical limit that can cause the food to be tainted and unfit for human consumption. Correcting a problem during the production or cooking process can be far more effective rather than waiting until the process is finished.

Principle Six:

The sixth principle is establishing methods, procedures, tests and other evaluations that can be done in order to determine whether the production and cooking process has been completed as intended. These are called verification procedures.

Principle Seven:

Last but not least the final principle: Record Keeping. This principle outlines all the records that must be kept by the company. These records are used to demonstrate if HACCP was effectively used and to assist with official verification.  An example of this principle in action would be for the chef or employee responsible for a cooking log that contains the date, start time, end time and final internal temperature of the food you cooked.

That’s all folks! For more information of food safety check out our previous blogs HACCP! The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, Temperatures: The Danger Zone and Why Use Color Coded Knives?. Next week we will have a little fun with the end of #FoodSafetyMonth by celebrating #NationalPancakeDay! Til next time!