Food Safety for Temporary Food Establishments Environmental Health Field Services Kent County Thomas Collins Bldg, Suite 5 540 South DuPont Hwy Dover, DE 19901 Phone: 302-744-1220 Fax: 302-739-1957 14 Steps to Safe and Sanitary Food Service Events Church suppers, street fairs, civic celebrations and other similar events call for food service outlets to be set up out-of-doors or in locations where keeping foods safe and sanitary becomes a real challenge. This 14-step guide will help you keep your temporary event free of risk of foodborne illness. 1 Permits - To operate a Temporary Food Establishment you must obtain a permit from the Environmental Health Field Services (EHFS) office in the county in which the event will be held. Permits allow operation for 1 - 14 consecutive days at a single event. To apply for a permit, fill out an application and submit it to your county EHFS office (see cover of brochure). In the event of a foodborne illness, it will help if you can show you ran your event “by the book.” 2 Booth - Design your booth with food safety in mind. The ideal booth will have an overhead covering, be entirely enclosed, except for the serving window, and have only one door or flap for entry. Clear plastic or light colored screening on side walls will aid visibility. Only food workers may be permitted inside the food preparation area; animals must be excluded. The more your food is exposed to the outside, the greater the likelihood of contamination. 3 Menu - Keep your menu simple, and keep potentially hazardous foods (meats, eggs, dairy products, potato salad, cut fruits and vegetables, etc.) to a minimum. Avoid using precooked foods or leftovers. Cook to order, so as to avoid the potential for bacterial contamination. Use only foods from approved sources, avoiding foods that have been prepared at home. Complete control over your food, from source to service, is the key to safe, sanitary food service. 4 Cooking - Use a food thermometer to check on cooking and cold holding temperatures of potentially hazardous foods. Hamburgers and other ground meats must be cooked to 155° Fahrenheit for 15 seconds; cook poultry to 165°F; and eggs, pork and solid meats to 145°F for 15 seconds. Most illness from temporary events can be traced back to lapses in temperature control. 5 Re-heating - Heat foods to above 165°F within two hours. Do not attempt to reheat foods in crock pots, steam tables or other hot holding devices, or over chafing dishes with solid fuel. Slow-cooking mechanisms may activate bacteria and never reach killing temperatures. 6 Cooling and Cold Storage - Foods that require refrigeration must be cooled to 41°F as quickly as possible and held at that temperature until ready to serve. To cool foods down quickly, use an ice water bath (60% ice to 40% water), stirring the product frequently, or place the food in shallow pans no more than 4 inches deep and refrigerate. Pans should not be stored one atop the other and lids should be off or ajar until the food is completely cooled. Check the tem-perature periodically to see if the food is cooling properly. Allowing hazardous foods to remain unrefrigerated for too long has been the cause of many episodes of food poisoning. 7 Transportation - If food needs to be transported from one location to another, keep it well covered and provide adequate temperature controls. Use refrigerated trucks or insulated containers to keep hot foods hot (above 140°F) and cold foods cold (below 41°F). Neglecting transportation can undo all the good of your other measures to prevent contamination. 8 Hand Washing - Provision must be made for an adequate hand washing facility. In a pinch, a large urn full of water, a soap dispenser, a roll of paper towels and a bucket to collect waste water may do the trick. The use of disposable gloves can provide an additional barrier to contamination, but gloves are no substitute for hand washing. Frequent and thorough hand washing remains the first line of defense in preventing foodborne disease. 9 Health & Hygiene - Only healthy workers should prepare and serve food. Any who show symptoms of a disease—stomach cramps, nausea, fever, open sores or infected cuts on the hands should not be allowed in the food booth. Workers should wear clean outer garments and should not smoke in the booth. Sick or unclean personnel are frequently the cause of foodborne disease outbreaks. Smoking, besides being unhealthful and aesthetically unappealing in food preparation, contributes to the contamination of worker’s hands. 10 Food Handling - Avoid hand contact with raw, ready-to-serve foods and food contact surfaces. Use disposable gloves, tongs, napkins, or other tools to handle food. Touching food with bare hands may transfer disease-causing bacteria and viruses to the food. 11 Dish Washing - Use disposable utensils for food service. Keep your hands away from food contact surfaces, and never reuse disposable ware. Wash equipment and utensils in a 4-step sanitizing process: washing in hot, soapy water; rinsing in hot water; chemical sanitizing; and air drying. Clean utensils provide protection against the transfer of harmful germs. 12 Ice Ice used to cool cans and bottles should not be used in cup beverages and should be stored separately. Use a scoop to dispense ice, never the hands. Ice can become contaminated with bacteria and viruses and may cause foodborne illness. 13 Wiping Cloths - Rinse and store your wiping cloths in a bucket of sanitizer (for example, 1 capful of bleach in 2 gallons of water). Change the solution every 2 hours. Well sanitized work surfaces prevent cross contamination and discourage flies. 14 Insect Control & Wastes - Keep foods covered to protect them from insects. Store pesticides away from food. When you apply pesticides, follow the label directions, avoiding contamination of the food, equipment or other food contact surfaces. Place garbage and paper wastes in a refuse container with a tight-fitting lid. Dispose of waste water in a sewer or public toilet. Flies and other insects are carriers of foodborne diseases. The chemicals used to kill them can be toxic to humans. The Top Five Risk Factors of Foodborne Illness From past experience the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list these five risk factors as the ones most likely to lead to foodborne illness. Check through the list to make sure your operation has covered these common occurrences: Food from Unsafe Source Serving raw shellfish or raw milk that is contaminated, or using contaminated raw eggs in sauces and dressings, has often led to outbreaks of foodborne disease. It is always safer to use pasteurized products. Inadequate Cooking Foodborne illness can be caused by not cooking all foods of animal origin to the temperatures needed to destroy disease-causing bacteria. Improper Cold and Hot Holding Perishable foods held in the Danger Zone between 41°F and 140°F for more than a total of 4 hours allow disease-causing bacteria to grow. Keep hot food hot, keep cold foods cold, keep all food out of the Danger Zone. Poor Personal Hygiene and Ill Personnel Poor handwashing habits and foodhandlers working while ill are implicated in 1 out of every 4 food poisonings. Contaminated Equipment Illnesses may result if bacteria from utensils, work surfaces and equipment which were not adequately cleaned and sanitized after use come in contact with ready-to-eat or improperly handled foods. Remember: When in doubt, throw it out! Doc. No. 35-05-20/08/04/13