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Sanitation and Safety: Part 1

© Andrew A. Orr

First things first. Before you become absorbed in foods and cooking, let us focus on the kitchen as a work environment and open your eyes to its hazards. If you know how to practice sanitation and safety, the kitchen can be a safe, clean, tidy, and a healthful place to work. But if you are negligent, you may cause accidents to yourself or your coworkers, or you may bring suffering to victims of foodborne disease and disaster to the establishment where you work.

Sanitation means taking measures to keep food free of anything that might cause disease. Numerous health organizations state, local, and federal check the health standards and practices of food establishments. But the fact that these agencies exist and enforce regulations is not the real reason for paying special attention to sanitation and safety. For the true professional it is a matter of personal pride and integrity as well as legal and economic good sense. When you consider how many people's lives may be affected by the way you practice sanitation day in and day out, your own professional standards are going to be the same as the goals of the health agencies.

I can give you only a bare-bones discussion on sanitation and safety, but it should be enough to open your eyes and launch you safely as a cook. After completing this set of articles you should be able to: 1. Name four bacteria that are likely to contaminate foods and explain how they produce disease in people. 2. Explain how to keep bacteria out of the kitchen and how to prevent their spread from one food to another. 3. Understand the role of temperature in pre-venting food-borne disease, and keep foods at safe temperatures during preparation, holding, and storage. 4. Appreciate the importance of "successful cleaning," and clean equipment, utensils, and work surfaces properly. 5. Avoid food spoilage, nonfood poisons, and foreign substances in foods. 6. Work safely, avoiding cuts, burns, falls, and back injuries.

BACTERLA THAT CAUSE FOODBORNE DISEASE Bacteria cause most foodborne disease. Only a small amount comes from chemicals, parasites, or poisons. So sanitation is first of all a constant war against disease producing organisms.

Some bacteria are beneficial. If it were not for bacteria we would not have such foods as cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, wine, aged meats. It is not the beneficial bacteria we fight but the harmful bacteria. Some of these create poisonous substances, or toxins, in foods, which make people, sick if they are eaten. Other harmful bacteria attack the body directly.

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