SERVSAFE Notes

Providing Safe Food

1. Foodborne illness
2. Challenges to food safety (7)
3. Cost of foodborne illness (8)
4. Contaminants (3)
5. How food becomes unsafe (5)
6. Practices related to foodborne illness (4)
7. TCS FOOD (12)
a. Milk and Dairy Products
b. Shell Eggs
c. Meat: Beef, Pork, Lamb
d. Poultry
e. Fish
f. Shellfish/Crustaceans
g. Baked Potatoes
h. Heat treated plant foods (rice, beans, vegetables)
i. Tofu, soy protein
j. Sprouts, sprout seeds
k. Sliced melons, cut tomatoes, cut leafy greens
l. Untreated garlic oil mixture
8. High Risk populations
9. Government Agencies
a. FDA- inspects all food except poultry, meat, eggs
i. Food code, regulates food transported acrossed state lines
b. USDA-regulates travel and inspects meat, poultry, eggs
c. CDC and PHS- work with FDA and USDA in outbreaks of food borne illness
d. State and local authority- inspect operations, enforce regulations, permits, review HAACP
Forms of Contamination
1. Biological contamination
a. Microorganisms, pathogens (bacteria, virus, parasite (seafood, wild game), fungi (mushrooms,
yeasts, mold)
2. The Big Six
a. Salmonella Typhoid (feces, typhoid fever)
b. Salmonella nontyphoidal (farm animals)
c. Shigella (flies, feces)
d. E. Coli (intestine of cattle)
e. Norovirus
f. Hepatitis A
3. FAT TOM-
a. Foods-TCS,
b. Acidity-slightly acidic to neutral
c. Temperature (TDZ: 41-135F
d. Time
e. Oxygen
f. Moisture- aw=1 if water, more moisture, bacteria grows
4. Biological toxins
a. Plants, mushrooms, seafoods, toxins natural part of some fish
i. Ciguatera toxin-fish
5. Chemical Contaminants
a. Chemicals, pewter, copper, zinc, painted pottery
6. Deliberate Contamination of Food
a. ALERT
b. A-assure (safe vendors)
c. L-look (monitor)
d. E-employees (know who is in your facility
 e. R- reports (keep information)
f. T-Threat
7. Responding to a food borne-illness outbreak
a. Gathering info, notify authorities, segregating products, documenting info, id staff, cooperate with
authorities, review procedures
8. Food Allergens
a. Milk
b. Soy
c. Eggs
d. Wheat
e. Fish
f. Crustaceans
g. Nut
h. Tree nuts
The Safe Food Handler
1. How to wash hands, 20 seconds total, scrub hands and arms vigorously for 10-15 seconds
2. Wash hand after
a. Using restroom, touching body or clothing, coughing, sneezing, eating, drinking, smoking,
chewing gum, tobacco, handling soiled items, raw meat, seafood, poultry, taking out garbage
3. Single Use Glove
a. As soon as the gloves become dirty or torn, before beginning a diff task, after an interruption, after
handling raw meat, seafood, poultry, before handling RTE food, after 4 hours of continuous use
Flow of Food
1. Purchasing, receiving, storing, preparation, cooking, holding, cooling, reheating, service
2. Hazards in Flow of food
a. Cross contamination,
b. Time-temperature control
i. Thermometers
1. Bimetallic stemmed thermometer (dimple)
2. Thermocouples and thermistors
3. Types of probes
a. Immersion probe, surface probe, penetration probes, air probes
4. Infared laser thermometers
5. Max registering thermometerdish washer
6. Time tem indicator
ii. Temperatures for Food Deliveries
1. Cold TCS Food:
a. Receive at 41F or lower
2. Liver shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams, scallops:
a. Receive at an air temp of 45F and internal temp 50F
b. Cool to 41F
3. Shucked Shellfish
a. Receive at 45F, cool 41F
4. Milk
a. Receive at 45F or lower, cool to 41F
5. Shell eggs
a. Receive at an air temp of 45F
6. Hot TCS
a. Receive at 135F
7. Frozen food: should be frozen, look for fluids or water stains, ice crystals
c. Storing- RTE TCS food must be stored for only 7 days if it is held at 41F or lower
i. FIFO
d. Preventing Cross-contamination
i. Store items away from wall and at least 6 inches off the floor
ii. Storage order Top to bottom
 1. RTE-Seafood (145)--whole cuts of beef and pork (145)—Ground meat and
ground fish (155)—whole and ground poultry (165)
e. Preparation
i. Reconditioning-food being restored to a safe condition
ii. Thawing
1. Refrigeration, running water (70F), microwave, cooking
f. Prep Practices that have special requirements
i. Variance-document issued by your regulatory authority that allows a regulatory
requirement to be waived or changed
1. (packaging fresh juice, smoking food, using food additives, curing food, custom-
processing animals, packaging food using reduced oxygen packaging, sprouting
seeds or beans, offering live shellfish
g. Cooking Requirements for Specific Types of Food
i. 165F for 15 sec
1. Poultry, whole or ground, turkey, duck, stuffing, stuffed meats, previously
cooked TCS ingredients
ii. 155F for 15 sec
1. Ground meat, injected meat (brined ham), ratites (flightless birds), ground
seafood, shell eggs that will be hot held for service
iii. 145F for 15 sec
1. Seafood, steak/chops of pork, beef, veal, lamb, commercially raised game, shell
eggs that will be served immediately
iv. 145C for 4 minutes
1. Roasts of pork, beef, veal, and lamb (can have alternate cooking temps and
times)
v. 135F (no minimum time)
1. Fruit, vegetables, grains (rice, pasta) and legumes (beans, refried beans), hot
held for service
h. Operations that mainly serve high-risk population
i. Never serve these items: raw seed sprouts, raw or undercooked eggs, meat, or seafood,
unpasteurized milk or juice
i. Cooling and reheating food
i. First cool food from 135F to 70F within 2 hours, then cool it from 70F to 41F or lower in
the next 4 hours
ii. Reheat food that will be served immediately to any temp as long as cooked and cooled
correctly. You must heat TCS food for hot holding to an internal temp of 165F for 15
seconds
j. Holding Food without Temp control
i. High risk population, you cannot hold TCS food without temp control
ii. Cold Food
1. You can hold cold food without temp control for up to 6 hours if you meet these
conditions
a. Hold at 41F or lower before removing, label the food
b. Make sure the food temp does not exceed 70F
c. Sell, serve, or throw out food within 6 hours
iii. Hot Food
1. Hold hot food without temp control for up to 4 hours
a. Hold the food at 135F or higher before removing it, label it
b. Sell, serve, throw out the food within 4 hours
k. Serving Food
i. In TCS food store serving utensils in the food with the handle extened above the rim of
the container. If serving nonTCS food item you can place them on a clean and sanitized
food-contact surface
l. Selfserving Areas
i. Tyically raw unpackaged meat, poultry, and seafood cannot be offered for self-service,
however exception:
 1. Sushi or raw shellfish, Mongolian bbq (Ready to cook that will be cooked and
eaten immediately), raw, frozen, shell-on shrimp or lobster
m. Off site service
i. Label food with use-by date and time and reheating and service instructions
3. Food Safety Management Systems
a. Group of practices and procedures intended to prevent foodborne illness
i. Personal hygiene program, food safety training program, supplier selection and
specification, quality control and assurance programs, cleaning and sanitation program,
SOPs, facility design and equipment maintenance program, pest-control program
b. HACCP- hazard analysis critical control point program is a system based on identifying
significant biological, chemical, or physical hazards at specific points within a products flow.
Once ID, the hazards can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to safe levels
4. Safe Facilities and Pest Management
a. When choosing flooring, wall, ceiling materials, pick those that are smooth and durable (cleaning
easier)
b. Floors should have coving (curved, sealed edge between a floor and a wall)
i. Gets rid of sharp corners or gaps that hard to clean
c. Equipment selection
i. Foodservice equipment must meet certain standards if it will come in contact with food.
NSF international is an organization that creates these national standards, NSF,
accredited by the American National Standards Institute
ii. Require that equipment be nonabsorbent, smooth, and corrosion resistant
iii. Food equipment must be easy to clean, durable and resistant to damage
d. Floor-mounted equipment
i. Put floor mounted equipment on legs at least 6 in
ii. Put tabletop equipment on legs at least 4 in, or seal it to the countertop
e. Hand washing station in restrooms or directly next to them, in areas used for food prep, service,
and dishwashing
i. Requirements: hot and cold-running water, soap, dry hands, garbage container, signage
f. Utilities and building systems
i. Potable water- water that is drinkable
ii. The greatest challenge to water safety comes from cross connection-a physical link
between safe water and dirty water
iii. Backflow-reverse flow of contaminants through cross-connection into drinkable water
supply
1. Backsiphonage-sucks water back into drinkable water
a. Running faucet below the flood rim, running hose in a mop bucket
iv. Backflow prevention
1. Best way to prevent backflow is to avoid creating a cross-connection
a. Do not attach a hose to a faucet unless a backflow prevention device is
attached (vacuum breaker)
2. The only sure way to prevent backflow is to create an air gap
a. An air space that separates a water supply outlet from a potentially
contaminated source
v. Prep areas to be brighter light than other areas
vi. Lace garbage on a surface that is smooth, durable, and nonabsorbent (asphalt and
concrete)
g. Pest Prevention
i. Deny pests access to the operation
ii. Deny pests food, water, shelter
iii. Work with a licensed pest control operator
5. Cleaning and sanitizing
a. Cleaning and sanitizing
i. Cleaners must be stable, noncorrosive, safe to use (detergents, degreasers, delimers,
abrasive cleaners)
ii. Heat sanitizing
 1. Soak in hot water 171F for at least 30 secondas
b. Sanitizer effectiveness
i. Concentration, temperature, contact time, water hardness, and pH
ii. Chlorine
1. 100F and 75F greater than 7 sec
iii. Iodine
1. 68F greater than 30 seconds
iv. Quats
1. 75F greater than 30 seconds
c. How and when to clean and sanitize
i. Scrape or remove food, wash the surface, rinse the surface, sanitize the surface, allow
surface to airdry
d. When to clean and sanitize
i. After used, before working with different type of food, after handling diff raw TCS fruits
and veg, anytime interruption, after 4 hour
e. Dishwashing
i. Final sanitizing rinse must be at least 180F
f. Manual Dishwashing: 3-compartment sink
i. Clean and sanitize each sink and drain board
ii. Fill the first sink with detergent and water 110F
iii. Fill second sink with clean water (not necessary if spray)
iv. Fill the third sink with water and sanitizer with correct concentration
g. How to use
i. Scrape items before washing them
ii. Wash items in first sink
iii. Rinse items in second sink
iv. Sanitize in the third sink
v. Air dry
h. Cleaning and sanitizing in the operation
i. Wiping clothes
1. Wet cloths-used for wiping counters and equipment surfaces
ii. Dry cloths
1. Used to wipe food spills from tableware (must not be visibly dirty)