Food Preparation
Preparation is the step in the flow of food where time-temperature abuse and cross-contamination can easily affect food safety.
General Preparation Guidelines
During the preparation step, staff must start with cleaned and sanitized equipment, tools, and surfaces to control cross-contamination, and be aware of time-temperature abuse.
Retrieving and Restoring Food
To keep foods out of the TDZ, only take out as much of a food or ingredient as you can prep in a short time. Return cold prepped foods to the cooler as soon as possible or cook prepared foods as soon after prepping as possible.
Additives
If using food or color additives, only use approved additives. Never use more than what’s allowed by law, and never use them to modify a food’s appearance. Never sell produce treated with sulfites before receiving, and never add sulfites to produce that will be eaten raw.
Presentation
Never modify a food’s appearance, mislead, or misinform customers. Appearance, color, and quality should be true, and food additives, color additives, colored wrapping, or lights shouldn’t be used to misrepresent a food. Foods must also be served as described. Never have something like “Baked Cod” on the menu and serve a different fish.
When Food Has Become Unsafe
RTE foods that have become unsafe must be discarded when they have been handled by a sick, restricted, or excluded employee; contaminated by dirty hands or bodily fluids (sneezing); or when time-temperature requirements have been exceeded. Some foods can be reconditioned, like hot foods that can be reheated (if they haven’t been in the TDZ for more than two hours).
Thawing
Thawing can cause time-temperature abuse. Never thaw at room temperature. Thaw foods:
- in the cooler
- under cold (potable) running water at 70°F or lower in a clean prep sink (never letting the food’s temperature rise above 41°F for over four hours)
- in the microwave if it will be immediately cooked after
- as part of the food’s cooking
ROP (Reduced-Oxygen Packaged) fish should be frozen until ready to use. Remove fish from packaging before thawing in the cooler, and before or immediately after thawing under cold running water. If packaging your own ROP fish, it must be frozen before, during, and after packaging, and include a label stating it must remain frozen until used.
Preparation of Specific Foods
When handling ice, or preparing produce, eggs, or salads containing TCS food ingredients, food handlers must take extra precaution.
Produce
Never prepare produce on or near surfaces used to prepare raw meat, seafood, or poultry. Wash produce in running water slightly warmer than the produce, between leaves and ribs, and wash with ozone if permitted by your local regulatory authority. If soaking, never mix items or batches from different deliveries. Cut/sliced produce must be stored at 41°F. Raw seed sprouts shouldn’t be used if your primary customers are high-risk populations.
Eggs
Eggs cracked into a large bowl/container (pooled, if your local regulatory authority allows) must be cooked soon after mixing, or stored at 41°F or lower. Clean and sanitize the bowl/container after use for eggs or egg mixtures. Pasteurized eggs should be used in dishes that require little to no cooking, like dressings, sauces, or mousse, and when you primarily serve high-risk populations.
Salads Containing TCS Food
Mixed salads like chicken, tuna, egg, pasta, and potato salads are RTE foods, leaving them vulnerable to pathogens. They are common foodborne illness culprits. Only use leftover TCS ingredients (chicken, pasta, potatoes, etc.) that were cooked, held, cooled, and stored properly. Never use leftover TCS foods that are over 7 days old, and always check the use-by dates of stored TCS foods before using.
Ice
Ice can be easily contaminated. Always make ice from safe water. Never use ice that was used to cool food as an ingredient. Always use clean and sanitized scoops, and store them outside the machine in a clean, covered holder with the handle pointing up and out. Never hold or carry ice in a container that’s held raw proteins or chemicals. Never scoop ice with hands or a glass.
Special Preparation Requirements
Some preparations require a variance (document issued by your local regulatory authority once you’ve submitted a thorough HACCP plan). Smoking foods, packaging fresh juice for on-site sale, using additives, curing, custom processing/dressing large game, ROP and MOP foods, sprouting seeds/beans, or having a live shellfish display tank all require a variance.
Cooking Food Safely
Minimum internal cooking temperatures reduce pathogens to safe levels and certain foods require certain temperatures. Cooking reduces pathogens, but not spores or toxins, so proper handling is important in those cases.
Temperature
Customers should be informed of the danger of lower cooking temperatures, if requested, because minimum internal temperatures exist to reduce specific pathogens. Foods must also be held at certain temperatures to avoid time-temperature abuse. Remember high-risk populations when cooking foods.
How to Measure
To check a food has reached its minimum internal temperature, choose the correct thermometer, insert it properly and into the thickest part of the food, and take readings in at least two spots, noting the temperature is holding for the correct length of time.
Specific Temperature Requirements
These cooking requirements must be adhered to:
- All poultry, stuffing made with fish, meat, or poultry, stuffed meat, stuffed seafood, stuffed poultry, stuffed pasta, and any dish containing leftover TCS ingredients need to cook to 165°F for <1 second.
- All ground meats, including game, injected meat, mechanically tenderized meat, ratites (ostrich/emu), ground seafood, and shell eggs being hot held need to cook to 155°F for 17 seconds.
- Whole seafood, steaks/chops including commercially raised game, and shell eggs that will be immediately served need to cook to 145°F for 15 seconds.
- Roasts need to cook to 145°F for 4 minutes, or alternative times and temperatures depending on the roast type and oven used.
- Fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, and foods made from plants that will be hot held for service (buffet) must cook to 135°F for no minimum time.
TCS Food and Microwave Cooking
Microwave cooked meat, seafood, poultry, and eggs should cook to 165°F, be covered to prevent drying, and rotated and stirred halfway through to promote even cooking. Covered food must stand for at least 2 minutes after to even the temperature, and should be checked in two spots with the proper thermometer.
Partial Cooking
Partially cooking, or parcooking, just before service must be done properly. Never parcook for longer than 60 minutes. Cool immediately after. Freeze or refrigerate after cooling, label it, and hold at 41°F or lower. Reheat the food to its specific minimum internal temperature before serving. Cool again if food isn’t served immediately or being held for service. You must have approved written procedures (per your local regulatory authority) for how parcooked food will be prepped and stored.
Consumer Advisories
Customers may request meat, eggs, or seafood be cooked lower than their minimum internal temperature. If your menu states “to order,” you must provide a footnote stating the risks associated with raw or undercooked ingredients.
Cooling and Reheating Food
The cooling and reheating steps in the flow of food introduce time-temperature issues if not done correctly. There are specific methods to ensure thawing foods move through the TDZ as quickly as possible.
Temperature Requirements
The TDZ encourages pathogen growth, but pathogens grow even faster between 70°F and 125°F. Foods passing through that range must do so quickly.
- Cooling food should move from 135°F or higher down to 70°F in 2 hours.
- Then cool from 70°F down to 41°F or lower in an additional 4 hours.
- If food is not cooled to 70°F in the first 2 hours, it has to be reheated and cooled again.
- A food’s total cooling time cannot exceed 6 hours.
Cooling Food
Some factors affect how fast foods will cool down.
Important Factors
The thicker the food, the more slowly it will cool. The larger the container of food, the more slowly it will cool. Large containers should be divided into smaller, shallow pans to increase the food’s surface area. Stainless steel containers pull heat away from food faster than plastic.
Cooling Methods
Never cool large containers of hot food in the cooler. Instead, use one of the following safe methods.
- An ice bath: once food is moved into smaller containers, lower them into a prep sink basin or large pot of ice water and stir the food frequently.
- A blast chiller: if you have one, it circulates cold air around large containers of food.
- An ice paddle: is filled with water and frozen so foods can be stirred. This combined with an ice bath is an even faster way to cool.
- Ice or cold water as an ingredient: works if soups or stews are made with less water than called for and the cold water or ice can be added to cool it.
Storage to Cool Further
Foods being cooled should be loosely covered, or left uncovered if there’s no chance contaminants will get into it (by storing it above things like raw meat, seafood, and poultry).
Reheating Food
Foods being served immediately can be reheated to any temperature as long as it was cooked and cooled properly. Foods being reheated for hot holding (buffet) must be heated to an internal temperature of 165°F for 15 seconds within 2 hours of removing from storage. Commercially processed packaged RTE foods (like mozzarella sticks or fried vegetables) should be reheated to at least 135°F.