hygiene and contamination

Hygiene:

Hygiene is the science that deals with sanitation and disinfection.

Apart of taste the main consideration of a guest is hygiene of the food outlet. Therefore all kitchen members must be well aware about the hygiene to provide safe food to the guests.

For easy understanding we can classify hygiene into three parts;

Personal hygiene:

1. A kitchen personnel must brush teeth and take bathe daily, nails must be trimmed.

2. Must wear clean uniform.

3.  Should not touch any part of the body while at work.

4. Must wash hands after going toilet.

5. Should not sneeze/cough over the food etc.

Environmental/surroundings:

1. The floor and walls should be washed and cleaned daily.

2. Fridge and dry storage must be kept in hygienic conditions.

3. Proper storage for the equipments and utensils.

4. Working station should be kept clean all the time.

5. Pest control must be done fortnightly or monthly basis etc.

Commodity/material:

1. Raw material before receiving must be checked for the quality.

2. Proper storage must be arranged separately for raw and cooked food.

3. FIFO/LIFO should be followed.

4. Temperature of the food must be controlled.

5. Food safety standards must be met etc.

Contamination:

Presence of anything, unwanted/undesired, in and over the food, which is, harmful to the human body is called contamination.

There are basically 3 types of contaminations such as;

Physical contamination:

Presence of foreign particles like glass, insects, metal, stones, human hair and wood chips etc.  

Chemical contamination:

Use of pesticides/insecticides, fertilizers in excess quantity,

 Cleaning agents used for cleaning utensil/equipments not washed carefully.

Microbiological contamination:

Presence and growth of food poisoning bacteria (pathogens) either by not storing properly or from the carriers like kitchen personnel and rodents.