Question

4 Food and Beverage

AB213-2: Determine required sanitary and safety procedures in food and beverage operations.

In a university dining hall and based on FDA, OSHA, and HACCP standards, address the concerns the new chef has when viewing current operations at the dining hall.

Scenario: As the Chef enters the restaurant kitchen she sees the following situation: One preparation person with long hair is grabbing several heads of lettuce from the refrigerator and placing them on a cutting board immediately after the chicken prep person has finished deboning the chicken breasts for lunch. The chicken preparation person throws the knife into a bin of cutlery sitting in tepid soapy water. Then the oven doors are all open on one end of the kitchen while the baker goes to the pantry. There are unlabeled and uncapped drink mixes for the bar located on the shelf with the milk in the refrigerator. A vendor has just left several crates of eggs at the back door and no one seems to be aware of this. An abandoned prep station has an open carton of cream sitting near the burners where someone was obviously sautéing something, but has left the station and there seems to be an open can of oil sitting on top of the ignited burners.

The chef is immediately alarmed and starts to make notes while moving rapidly towards the most urgent issues to prevent someone getting hurt.

Help the chef and write a 2–3 page paper with correct grammar and spelling, and an additional title and references page in APA format with proper citation that addresses the following:

Checklist:

• Determine the sanitary and safety risks. Explain why.
• Identify the agency or standards that have been neglected in the scenario.
• As the chef, explain what steps you would take to correct this situation in the restaurant kitchen.

Answer 1

Safety and sanitary risks in the kitchen :

1. The preparation person is not wearing a hair restraint. This can result in hair breaking and landing in and contaminating food that is on the counters or in open containers. FDA hygiene practices (2-402.11 Effectiveness) require that food employees should wear hair restraints to keep their hair from touching exposed food.

2. Vegetable produce (lettuce) is placed on the cutting board used for cutting meat before it is washed for re-use. In this case any chicken bits left on the cutting board could transfer to the lettuce which is likely to be served uncooked, resulting in consumption of raw meat and leading to illnesses such as salmonella, E.coli. According to FDA, employees should thoroughly sanitise utensils that are used for multiple purposes in between use to ensure there is no contamination (2-103.11 Person in Charge.).

3. Knife was thrown by the chicken prep person into a bin of tepid water. This unsafe handling of a dangerous implement could have resulted in injury if the knife fell elsewhere or threw up the water into someone's face etc. OSHA (1910.132 General requirements) requires that knives and other sharp utensils should be handled safely.

4. Knife was thrown into a bin of cutlery. Knives and sharp implements should also be handled separately from regular cutlery as per OSHA (1910.132 General requirements) who advise that all knives should be placed in a container marked 'knives only' so that people can approach and use with care. Else, OSHA suggests that knives be washed immediately after use.

5. All over doors are left open as the baker goes to the pantry. This can cause an obstruction in the kitchen that could cause a trip or fall, as the baker could take awhile in the pantry and other workers might not be aware of the open doors. OSHA (1910.22(a)(1) General requirements) recommends that all working and walking areas be kept clear and orderly to avoid trips and falls.

6. Unlabelled and uncapped drink mixes are kept on the same shelf as milk in the refrigerator. This could lead to cross-contamination when items are taken out of/put back into the refrigerator. All foods in the refrigerator must be covered according to FDA standards (3-302.11 Packaged and Unpackaged Food - Separation, Packaging, and Segregation.) and segregated to ensure protection from cross-contamination.

7. Cartons of eggs are left at the back door and unattended/unnoticed. The eggs could start to decay if they are left outside unrefrigerated for an extended period of time. According to FDA (3-202.11 Temperature), raw eggs must be received in refrigerated equipment and these eggs should have been put into the refrigerator as soon as they were received, and delivery should have been tracked to ensure it is done.

8. Open can of cream left unattended after use. The can of cream could go bad if not refrigerated and cause illness when consumed, it could also get contaminated by other products as it is left open. FDA (3-305.14 Food Preparation) standard requires that all food be protected from environmental contamination and so the can should have been closed and put away as soon as it was used.

9. Open can of oil left on an ignited burner could overheat and cause a fire. According to OSHA (1910.39(c) Minimum elements of a fire prevention plan), appropriate care should be taken when working with oil, and it should not be heated beyond a certain point (as directed by the manufacturer). An open flame should also not be left unattended as it can lead to a fire hazard.

Chef should create a HACCP plan and incorporate the following :

- Create a HACCP member/team to ensure violations are noticed early on and caught

- Chef should conduct a hazard analysis to identify other areas that could be potential hazards and then establish corrective actions to those

For the items noticed above,

- Make hair restraints mandatory for all food workers

- Ensure proper cleaning process is followed for multiple use utensils,

- Have bins for different sharp implements

- Ensure no cross-contamination for products that are processed on multiple use utensils

- Keep all food products in the refrigerator covered at all times

- Oven doors and other kitchen equipment should not be left in any way that obstructs walkways and working

- Manage deliveries of perishables so that the items can be received and stored per regulation

- Require workers to ensure no open cans/cartons are left unattended. If perishables are being used, they should be stored as per standards after use.

- Ignited burners should not be left unattended, and oil should be kept away from all open flames.

References :

U.S. Food & Drug Administration (2017) Food Code 2017.

U.S. Food & Drug Administration (1997) HACCP Principles & Application Guidelines

United States Department of Labor. Occupational Safety & Health Administration