Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 27 views

    Holiday or Party Buffets

    Uploaded by

    juliana
    The document provides tips for safe food handling at holiday parties and buffets to prevent foodborne illness. Some key points are: 1) Always wash hands and keep areas and utensils clean. Cook foods to the proper internal temperatures and cool foods quickly. 2) Use shallow containers for food storage and serve smaller portions on several platters, replacing them every two hours. 3) Keep hot foods above 140°F and cold foods below 40°F to prevent bacterial growth. Common bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens can cause illness if foods are mishandled.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Holiday or Party Buffets

    Uploaded by

    juliana
    27 views2 pages
    The document provides tips for safe food handling at holiday parties and buffets to prevent foodborne illness. Some key points are: 1) Always wash hands and keep areas and utensils clean. Cook foods to the proper internal temperatures and cool foods quickly. 2) Use shallow containers for food storage and serve smaller portions on several platters, replacing them every two hours. 3) Keep hot foods above 140°F and cold foods below 40°F to prevent bacterial growth. Common bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens can cause illness if foods are mishandled.

    Original Description:

    Holiday or Party Buffets

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document provides tips for safe food handling at holiday parties and buffets to prevent foodborne illness. Some key points are: 1) Always wash hands and keep areas and utensils clean. Cook foods to the proper internal temperatures and cool foods quickly. 2) Use shallow containers for food storage and serve smaller portions on several platters, replacing them every two hours. 3) Keep hot foods above 140°F and cold foods below 40°F to prevent bacterial growth. Common bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens can cause illness if foods are mishandled.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    27 views2 pages

    Holiday or Party Buffets

    Uploaded by

    juliana
    The document provides tips for safe food handling at holiday parties and buffets to prevent foodborne illness. Some key points are: 1) Always wash hands and keep areas and utensils clean. Cook foods to the proper internal temperatures and cool foods quickly. 2) Use shallow containers for food storage and serve smaller portions on several platters, replacing them every two hours. 3) Keep hot foods above 140°F and cold foods below 40°F to prevent bacterial growth. Common bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens can cause illness if foods are mishandled.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Photo

    Photo
    United States Department of Agriculture
    Food Safety and Inspection Service

    USDA
    USDA
    Food Safety Information

    Holiday or Party Buffets


    A popular way to celebrate holidays or any party occasion is to invite friends and family to a buffet. However,
    this type of food service where foods are left out for long periods leave the door open for uninvited guests —
    bacteria that cause foodborne illness. Festive times for giving and sharing should not include sharing foodborne
    illness. Here are some tips from the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline to help you have a SAFE holiday party.

    Safe Food Handling Always wash your hands before and after handling food. Keep your
    kitchen, dishes and utensils clean also. Always serve food on clean plates
    — not those previously holding raw meat and poultry. Otherwise, bacteria
    which may have been present in raw meat juices can cross contaminate
    the food to be served.

    Cook Thoroughly If you are cooking foods ahead of time for your party, be sure to cook
    foods thoroughly to safe minimum internal temperatures.

    • Beef, veal, and lamb steaks, roasts, and chops may be cooked to
    145 °F.
    • All cuts of pork to 160 °F.
    • Ground beef, veal and lamb to 160 °F.
    • All poultry should reach a safe minimum internal temperature of
    165 °F.

    Use Shallow Containers Divide cooked foods into shallow containers to store in the refrigerator or
    freezer until serving. This encourages rapid, even cooling. Reheat hot
    foods to 165 °F. Arrange and serve food on several small platters rather
    than on one large platter. Keep the rest of the food hot in the oven (set at
    200 - 250 °F) or cold in the refrigerator until serving time. This way foods
    will be held at a safe temperature for a longer period of time. REPLACE
    empty platters rather than adding fresh food to a dish that already had
    food in it. Many people’s hands may have been taking food from the dish,
    which has also been sitting out at room temperature.

    The Two-Hour Rule Foods should not sit at room temperature for more than two hours. Keep
    track of how long foods have been sitting on the buffet table and discard
    anything there two hours or more.

    Keep Hot Foods HOT Hot foods should be held at 140 °F or warmer. On the buffet table you can
    keep hot foods hot with chafing dishes, slow cookers, and warming trays.
    And Cold Foods COLD
    Cold foods should be held at 40 °F or colder. Keep foods cold by nesting
    dishes in bowls of ice. Otherwise, use small serving trays and replace them.

    Foodborne Bacteria Bacteria are everywhere but a few types especially like to crash parties.
    Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens and Listeria monocytogenes
    frequent people’s hands and steam tables. And unlike microorganisms
    that cause food to spoil, harmful or pathogenic bacteria cannot be smelled
    or tasted. Prevention is safe food handling.

    The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline
    agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring
    that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products 1-888-MPHotline
    is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. (1-888-674-6854)
    Holiday or Party Buffets

    If illness occurs, however, contact a health professional and describe the


    symptoms.

    Staphylococcus aureus Staphylococcus (“staph”) bacteria are found on our skin, in infected cuts
    and pimples, and in our noses and throats. They are spread by improper
    food handling. Prevention includes washing hands and utensils before
    preparing and handling foods and not letting prepared foods —
    particularly cooked and cured meats and cheese and meat salads — sit
    at room temperature more than two hours. Thorough cooking destroys
    “staph” bacteria but staphylococcal enterotoxin is resistant to heat,
    refrigeration and freezing.

    Clostridium perfringens “Perfringens” is called the “cafeteria germ” because it may be found in
    foods served in quantity and left for long periods of time on inadequately
    maintained steam tables or at room temperature. Prevention is to divide
    large portions of cooked foods such as beef, turkey, gravy, dressing,
    stews and casseroles into smaller portions for serving and cooling. Keep
    cooked foods hot or cold, not lukewarm.

    Listeria monocytogenes Because Listeria bacteria multiply, although slowly, at refrigeration


    temperatures, these bacteria can be found in cold foods typically served
    on buffets. To avoid serving foods containing Listeria, follow “keep
    refrigerated” label directions and carefully observe “sell by” and “use by”
    dates on processed products, and thoroughly reheat frozen or
    refrigerated processed meat and poultry products before consumption.

    Food Safety Questions?

    Call the USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline Ask Karen!


    If you have a question The Hotline is open year-round FSIS’ automated response
    about meat, poultry, or Monday through Friday system can provide food safety
    egg products, call the from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. information 24/7
    USDA Meat and ET (English or
    Poultry Hotline Spanish). Recorded
    toll free at food safety messages
    1-888-MPHotline are available 24 hours
    (1-888-674-6854); a day. Check out the
    TTY: 1-800-256-7072. FSIS Web site at
    www.fsis.usda.gov.

    Send E-mail questions to [email protected]. AskKaren.gov

    FSIS encourages the reprint and distribution of this publication for food The USDA is an equal opportunity
    safety education purposes. However, USDA symbols or logos may not be provider and employer.
    used separately to imply endorsement of a commercial product or service. Revised March 2008

    You might also like