ServSafe Food Handler Concept Review

Overview

This chapter explains what a foodborne illness is, who gets sick most easily, and what kinds of hazards can make food unsafe. A foodborne illness is a disease carried or passed to people by food. When two or more people get the same illness after eating the same food, it is called an outbreak.

Common symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, fever, nausea, and stomach cramps. Some illnesses, such as Hepatitis A, can also cause jaundice, which means yellow skin and eyes. Older adults, young children, pregnant women, and people with weak immune systems get sick more easily and more seriously. Places such as nursing homes, hospitals, and day care centers serve these high-risk groups.

Hazards come in three kinds. Biological hazards are germs such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Chemical hazards are things like cleaners, sanitizers, and pesticides, and metal that moves from a galvanized container into acidic food. Physical hazards are objects such as metal shavings, glass, staples, and bones.

Food most often becomes unsafe through time-temperature abuse, cross-contamination, poor personal hygiene, and poor cleaning and sanitizing. Bacteria grow fastest in moist, low-acid TCS food, such as cooked rice, meat, and cut melons, when it sits in the danger zone. Viruses do not grow in food, but a tiny amount from a sick worker's hands can make people ill, and the FDA names six germs, the Big 6, that spread especially easily.

Overview

This chapter covers how food handlers keep germs from their own bodies out of food. The main topics are handwashing, gloves, nails and jewelry, work clothes, eating and drinking at work, and what to do when you are sick.

Handwashing is the most important habit. Wet your hands and arms with clean, warm running water, apply soap, scrub for at least 10 to 15 seconds, rinse, and dry with a single-use paper towel or a hand dryer. The whole process takes at least 20 seconds and is done only at a handwashing sink. Wash after using the restroom, touching your hair or face, handling raw meat, taking out garbage, handling chemicals, and eating, drinking, or smoking. Hand sanitizer can be used only after washing, never in place of it.

Ready-to-eat food must not be touched with bare hands, even right after washing; use single-use gloves, tongs, or deli tissue. Single-use gloves are thrown away and never washed or reused, and they are changed when dirty or torn, between tasks, and after raw meat before ready-to-eat food. Keep nails short and clean, and wear nail polish or artificial nails only with intact gloves. Cover a cut on the hand with a bandage and a glove. Wear a hair restraint, and on the hands and arms wear no jewelry except a plain band ring.

Tell your manager if you have vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, a sore throat with fever, or an infected cut, or if a doctor diagnoses one of the Big 6 illnesses. A worker with vomiting or diarrhea is excluded (kept out of the operation) and can usually return after 24 hours without symptoms. A sore throat with fever means restriction (kept away from open food) in most places, but exclusion where a high-risk group is served, such as a nursing home.

Overview

This chapter covers two ways food can be made unsafe by other food: cross-contamination, when germs move from one food or surface to another, and allergen cross-contact, when an allergen gets into food that should not have it. Both are prevented by keeping foods apart and by cleaning and sanitizing between tasks.

To prevent cross-contamination, store ready-to-eat food above raw meat, seafood, and poultry. The shelf order follows cooking temperature, from top to bottom: ready-to-eat food, seafood, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meat and ground fish, and poultry on the bottom. Use separate cutting boards and tools for raw and ready-to-eat food, or prepare them at different times and wash, rinse, and sanitize in between. Scoop ice with a clean scoop stored outside the ice, never with a glass.

The FDA lists nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. Signs of a reaction include hives, swelling of the lips, face, or throat, and trouble breathing. Trouble breathing and throat swelling can mean a severe reaction, so call 911 right away.

To prevent cross-contact, tell the kitchen about every allergy order and mark it clearly. Wash your hands, change gloves, and use cleaned and sanitized tools before making an allergy order. Do not cook allergy orders in fryer oil shared with allergens, because heat does not destroy allergens. If an allergen gets into a dish by mistake, throw it away and make a new one; picking it off is not enough.

Overview

This chapter is about keeping food out of the temperature range where germs grow fastest. You will learn which foods need extra care, how to use a thermometer, and the safe temperatures and times for receiving, storing, thawing, cooking, holding, cooling, and reheating food. Many test questions use these numbers, so they are worth learning well.

Germs grow fastest between 41°F and 135°F, which is called the temperature danger zone. Foods that need time and temperature control to stay safe are called TCS foods. They include meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, cooked rice and beans, baked potatoes, and cut melons, tomatoes, and leafy greens. To check temperatures, put the thermometer in the thickest part of the food. Clean and sanitize it before and after use, and calibrate it with the ice-point method so it reads 32°F in ice water.

Receive and hold cold TCS food at 41°F or lower, and hold hot TCS food at 135°F or higher. Thaw food in the refrigerator, under running drinkable water at 70°F or lower, in a microwave if you cook it right away, or as part of cooking. Never thaw food on the counter. Cook poultry and stuffing to 165°F, ground meat to 155°F for 17 seconds, fish and whole cuts like steaks and chops to 145°F for 15 seconds, and fruits and vegetables for hot holding to 135°F.

Cool hot food from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then to 41°F or lower within the next 4 hours, for 6 hours in all. Reheat food for hot holding to 165°F within 2 hours. Ready-to-eat TCS food kept at 41°F or lower can be stored for up to 7 days, and the day it was made counts as day 1. Food held with time as the control instead of temperature must be served or thrown out within 4 hours.

Overview

This chapter explains how to keep surfaces, dishes, and the whole building clean and safe. You will learn the difference between cleaning and sanitizing, when to do both, how to use a three-compartment sink, how to handle chemicals, and how to keep garbage and pests under control.

Cleaning removes food and dirt from a surface. Sanitizing reduces germs on a clean surface to safe levels. The order is clean, rinse, sanitize, and air-dry. Clean and sanitize a food-contact surface after you use it, before you work with a different type of food, after an interruption that may have contaminated it, and at least every 4 hours if it is in constant use.

At a three-compartment sink, scrape food off first. Then wash in detergent, rinse in clean water, sanitize, and let items air-dry. Never towel-dry sanitized items. Change the sanitizer when it is dirty or weak, and check it with a test kit. Keep wet wiping cloths in sanitizer solution between uses, and store clean dishes dry, off the floor, and upside down.

Store chemicals in a separate area, away from and never above food. Label any working container with the chemical's common name, never mix chemicals, and use the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) to learn about dangers and first aid. Remove garbage from prep areas often and keep containers covered. If you see signs of pests, such as droppings, gnaw marks, nests, or a strong oily smell, tell your manager. Only a licensed pest control operator should apply pesticides.