FOOD SAFETY COURSE

Why take a Food Safety Course?

    In all over the world, we have seen several serious food contaminations leading to illnesses. This bad situation could be easily avoided by following some simple and easy steps; that you will acquired after completion of this course. Food safety knowledge will help you protect the health of your customers and hence the reputation of your food premise.

Who should attend a Food Safety Course?

 Everyone should take the Food Safety Course, both staff and owners of food premises. Also customers should attend the course as there is a direct relation between food and their healthy.

GOALS:

• To educate participants with the knowledge and skills required to run and work in a safe food service establishment.
• To provide participants with a user-friendly education course in food safety & sanitation.
• To provide participants with requirements needed for HACCP.
• To build up self confidence for all employees, being qualified enough to work and deal with food premises. 
•  To encourage all employees expressing their skills; each in the section or department of his own area.
• To create inspection team; consists of a representative of each section or department will be responsible of area of its own.

Food safety and sanitation:

Food Safety& Sanitization integral to operating a successful food service. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in U S A estimates that because of food borne illness 76 million people fall ill, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans die annually. Because of these alarming statistics, many countries require certification of food managers which may include a written food safety exam.
    Generally all kinds of foods contains different numbers of bacteria, when these foods subjected to bad conditions which includes one or may be all of the followings; bad handling, inadequate or improper cooking or even wrong storage, these bacteria start to multiply to very huge numbers that leads to severe illnesses. 
     Food contamination is not only due to bacteria, but many others are responsible for food contamination like Parasites, viruses, toxins, chemicals, and physical( foreign bodies come in contact with foods) also can contaminate food; however the resulted diseases from these factors are less common than that caused by harmful bacteria but the severity of these disease need more clarification.
    There are common signs and symptoms for food poisoning; diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and sometimes vomiting occur within hours after eating contaminated food depending upon the causative agent of food poisoning.
    Depending on the causative organism, amount of exposure, sex, age, general health there are three high-risk groups:
*- Older adults.

The response of immune system for this group could not be quick and effective like younger people, so can't defend properly the diseases.
 *- Infants and young children. Here the immune system is not well developed.
*- People with chronic disease.  Diabetes, AIDS or cancer.
    If you face food poisoning:
·       Take rest and drink excess liquids.
·       As your stomach now is filled with millions of harmful bacteria, so no need to accelerate the elimination of these bacteria out of your body, so never never use anti-diarrhea therapy.
If you face one of the following symptoms, watery diarrhea which turns bloody within a day or so, or lying in one of the above three risky groups or under botulism poisoning, you should contact your physician immediately.

Personal hygiene:
      Good personal hygiene is a critical protective measure against food borne illness. In addition, customers will judge us by the quality of food we produce, and personnel who are serving them as the case in our units and party services. At every step in the flow of foods through the operation from receiving to final services, employees can contaminate food, by being contact their environment with hands, breath, coughing, sneezing, etc…; they spread bacteria and other microorganisms. It is a fact that poor personal hygiene is one of the most frequent factors that contribute to food borne outbreaks. By establishing a systematic approach to hiring, training, and supervising our employees, we will help to protect the safety of our food, as well as enhance the quality of the dining experience.   
    The majority of bacteria found in our body comes from the intestines; less than 0.01% of those, present on our skin; of these; the proportion on the hands would be roughly correlating to the proportion in skin surface.

Hand Hygiene:
        The main instrument in food handling is the hand. During working hours, the hand comes into contact with various food items, surfaces and parts of the human body, each carrying different bacteria that may be transmitted to the food by the hand.
Hand Bacteria:
       The majority of hand bacteria are harmless with regard to food poisoning, but nevertheless few of them may cause food poisoning, and/or food spoilage. Hands are more exposed to bacteria than other skin surfaces as they touch more dirt, but hands has sweat glands to keep the skin surface salty which is an unfriendly environment for bacteria. The bacteria of the hand can be divided into two groups:

1-    Resident Group:
 Bacteria that are able to grow on the skin are named resident bacteria as they have their residence there.
    The physical and chemical environment of the human skin allows only very few types of bacteria to grow effectively, where the function of the skin is to prevent bacteria from penetrating to the human body, this explain why the number of bacteria belonging to this group are very few.
          Members of the genus Micrococcus are normal inhabitants of the skin and are frequently isolated from hands. They are harmless with regard to food poisoning but may cause food spoilage.
   Members of the genus Staphylococcus are able to grow on the skin and are produce very toxic type of food poisoning.
   Some people carry, without any signs of disease numerous numbers of Staphylococci on their skins that may derive from their nose and throat and when one coughing or blowing the nose, bacteria are transmitted to the hand, where they may invade and settle in cracks and outer cuts of the hair and glands. Staphylococci are normally present in wounds and other injuries of the skin.
2-    Transit Group:
     Bacteria of this group are transferred from the surrounding i.e., food, equipments, installations etc.., to the skin, that are able to survive on the skin of the hands for a certain time period, but normally bacteria of this group are not able to grow on the skin. However if the hands are very soiled, bacteria may be able to multiply. Food remnants under the nails and at the nail roots will support growth of bacteria of this group.
    Transit bacteria are not able to grow directly on clean hands but they must come from the environment, therefore this group includes many different types of bacteria such as Coliforms, E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Clostridium perfringens, Bacillus cereus and Campylobacter jejuni. The most important sources are; coming from human's intestine content which may transmit to the hands after using toilets, untreated raw materials, dirty equipments, and dirty surfaces.
 Finally it could be concluded that both groups contain unwanted bacteria for the food processes, some present naturally on hands( resident bacteria) and the others come from the surrounding environment( transit bacteria); both of them cause either spoilage of the food or food poisoning.
   Therefore, the contact between food and hands should be reduced; this can be done by the following:
*- Removal of bacteria from hands by hand wash.
*- Enclosure off hand and thereby bacteria by using disposable gloves.

Hand Wash:
     By means of hot water and soap, some of the bacteria adhering to the hand may be removed. In general most of bacteria belonging to the transit group are easily removed, while those belonging to resident group are difficult to remove as they lodge in ducts and cracks in the deeper layers of the skin. As the great majority of the transit bacteria are removed a lot of safety occurred by performing an efficient hand wash.
Proper hand- cleaning techniques:
    Good hand hygiene techniques include hands washing with soap and water or using an alcohol- sanitizer.
Proper hand washing:
*- Wet hands with warm, running water and apply liquid or soap. Lather well.
*- Hands should be rub together with scrubbing all surfaces of the hands for at least 20 seconds.
*- Rinse well.
*- Dry hands with a clean or disposable towel.
*-Close the tap with towel not with your bare hands.
      Antibacterial soaps have become increasingly popular in recent years. These soaps may offer great regular soaps if you have an open cut or sore on your hand that could become infected or if your immune impaired. But in general, regular soap is fine.     The combination of scrubbing hands with soap and rinsing them with water loosens and remove bacteria from hands.

Proper use of an alcohol- based hand sanitizer:
      Alcohol- based hand sanitizers which don't require water have become increasingly popular in recent years. These soaps are actually more effective in hand washing but these products can result in less dryness and irritation than hand washing with water.
   To use an alcohol- based hand sanitizers:
*- Apply it to the palm of your hand. (Read the label for dosing instructions).
*- Rib hands together, covering all surfaces of hands, until they dry.
       If hands are visibly dirty, wash with soap and water rather than a sanitizer.

When should you clean your hands?
     It is the fact that you cannot keep your hands germ-free;  Always clean your hands:
*- Before eating.
*- After using toilets.
*- Before and after preparing food.
*- Before and after handling raw materials.
*- After touching animals or animals waste.
*- After coughing or sneezing into your hands.
*- Before and after treating wounds or cuts.
*- Before and after touching a sick or injured persons.
*- After handling garbage.
*- Before and when replacing gloves.

The dangers of poor hand hygiene:
    Despite the proven health benefits of good hand hygiene, many people just don't wash their hands as often as they should. It is easily confirmed by simply observing how many people leave public toilets without washing their hands.
     The American Society of Microbiology finds that up to one-third of people passing through major airports in
U S A doesn’t wash their hands after using the toilet. Also in the same way in U S A, the Centers for Disease Control
(C D C) estimates one in three people don't wash his hand after using the toilets.
     The problem goes beyond toilets; throughout the day, one accumulate bacteria on his hands from different sources; direct contact with people, contaminated surfaces, foods, animals etc…
  You can infect yourself by touching your eyes, and you can spread germs to others by touching them or by touching surfaces that they are also touched. The infectious diseases commonly spread through hand to hand contact; include common cold, influenza, gastrointestinal disorders (diarrhea).
   Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food- related diseases, such as Salmonella and E. coli.
Precautions:
 Our bodies are impermeable to harmful organisms where it's intact. Any opened cuts, should be protected by covering with waterproof dressing, in case of wounds that can't be covered, wearing gloves will be the better solution.
 For those peoples who work in Microbiological Laboratories, always wear gloves and eye and mouth protector.
Petri dishes& Media disposal:
   For Petri dishes contain only flora normally found on the skin. Follow instructions for Petri dishes disposal.
    If the bacteriological analysis results of any food spoilage and/or food poisoning pathogens; you should practice this protocol to get out these Petri- dishes:
*- Put the dishes tightly closed in autoclave able bags, close firmly, should be carefully transferred into Autoclave
*- Plates should be damaged by switch on Autoclave for at least 30 min. at 121°C.

Cross Contamination

Contamination or pollution is almost around all of us. We always contaminate ourselves without being aware what we did already. In this article we will know what Cross contamination means, to what extent is easy to occur, causes of cross contamination, easily ways to avoid cross contamination and in the end of the article there will be food safety course guide.

Cross contamination could be simply defined as bacterial transfer from place to another; this can be from person to person or object to object. Cross contamination in hospitals could make very serious problems due to viruses and bacteria transfer from rooms and/or person and spread throughout the hospital causing severe outbreaks. Food can be contaminated from other sources or utensils used for food preparation; in fact foods are susceptible to be cross contaminated throughout the entire preparation processes so food workers should be wishful enough to avoid the problem; these could be cutting board, knives, spoon etc….Another very important factor in spreading cross contamination are the gloves used by the workers. For bakery products; cross contamination can occur when gluten free products come in contact with non gluten free products. Also wheat flour is very risky where it can stay airborne for many hours in both bakery and at home and contaminate surfaces, utensils, and uncovered gluten-free food. 

Therefore we could dedicate that cross contamination could occurred everywhere and the harmful organisms can exhibit their bad effects tainting the healthy conditions of foods as well causing food poisoning.

There are more than phase for cross contamination; biological, chemical and physical.

Biological contamination is when harmful bacteria transferred from dirty objects to clean ones; chemical is when either liquid chemicals or residual attached to food products which mainly occurred throughout machine production, while physical contamination is when some foreign bodies come in contact with the food items; all these phases could cause severe problems or even serious outbreaks.

Although cross contamination is widely spread and present almost everywhere, but it seems to be easy to avoid it by follow some precautions, whether you're food handler or just end user you can avoid spreading harmful organisms.

*- Only use clean utensils and equipments when prepare foods.

*- All used utensils and equipments should be cleaned and sanitize before re use.

*- Prepare only one item at the time.

*- Avoid bringing raw food to be in contact with cooked foods.

*- Remember that the effective cleaning and sanitization reduce effectively the harmful bacteria responsible for Food poisoning.

*- Always remember that our hands are the only tools  from our bodies that come in contact with the food, so very risky tools that cause cross contamination which lead to sever illness.

*- Avoid talking, coughing or sneezing during food preparation (more than eighty percent of all known illnesses are spread from hand to mouth therefore wearing musk is better).

*- Always wash your hands with warm water and soap before, during and after food preparation.

    Remember that cross contamination causes many dangerous illnesses; therefore many countries asking food handlers to pass food safety courses before hiring them. Due to the increased risks in food safety, (WHO) provides all the necessary advices either for private sectors or governmental authorities to avoid the diseases.

Cupcake Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups flour.
• 1 1/2 cups sugar.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder.
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper.
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.
• 1 cup canola oil.
• 4-5 lightly beaten eggs.
• 3 medium carrots.
• 2 medium apples.
• 1 cup pecans.
• 51/2 ounce fresh, goat cheese.
• 41/2 ounces cream cheese.
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter.
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 1 cups powdered sugar.

METHOD:

1- Oven should be preheated up to 350°C with a rack in the center.

2- By using suitable large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, pepper, spices and the salt together; stir in the oil and the eggs then in carrots, pecans and apples.

3- Set the cupcake holders in muffin tins.

4- Spoon the batter into the cupcake paper cups about three quarters to the top.

5- Bake about 20-25 minutes.

6- Cool completely.