Eating food
Sneezing or coughing into your hands
Before or when changing gloves
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. Keep your hands clean.
Aprons
Wearing an apron isn’t nearly as obvious as ritual handwashing may be, but it is definitely important. The clothes you are wearing are likely to have come into contact with all sorts of potential contagions throughout the day. If the food you are working with happens to come into contact with your clothing, then you can consider it contaminated. An easy way to deal with this is by wearing an apron like the one pictured in Figure 2-1.
Photo by David Pluimer
FIGURE 2-1: A standard kitchen apron.
Before putting on your apron, make sure it is clean and hasn’t been used prior to you putting it on. Not only will the apron keep you clean when working with food, but it will also protect your food against unintended contamination.
Hair restraints
You know this has happened to you before. You went out to lunch, and took a bite of your mac and cheese only to be startled by a sudden flossing sensation. Hair in food isn’t sanitary and it isn’t appetizing. A proper hair restraint will save you and your family from the unintended gross-out of finding a hair in your sausage. A simple hair net, baseball cap, or sock hat will work. If you have long hair, pulling it back and putting it up will be critical as well.
Food-safe gloves
Since working in food service, I’ve grown accustomed to using food-safe gloves for almost everything I do with food, regardless of whether it’s at work or at home. Food-safe gloves are an extra barrier of protection. They aren’t as necessary when handling food that must be cooked before it can be eaten. They are, however, an absolute necessity if you are handling food that is ready to eat, like salamis and whole-muscle charcuterie, which I discuss later in this book. Figure 2-2 shows some food-safe gloves.
Photo by David Pluimer
FIGURE 2-2: Stay safe with food-safe gloves.
Gloves meant for food handling can be plastic or latex, and they can be powder lined or powder free. The powder makes it easier to slip the gloves on if your hands are still slightly damp from you washing them before putting them on.
Before You Get Started
Before you start handling food, you need to make sure that your work area and tools are all cleaned and sanitized. In a commercial setting, this is called a pre-op, which is short for pre-operational. At this point you will need to fill a small bowl or bucket with soapy water and another bucket with sanitizer, which can be a blend of bleach and water. You also need a separate clean towel to use with each bucket.
Once your cleaner and sanitizer buckets are ready to go, clean down each work surface with the soapy water and then wipe it down with the sanitizer.
Once you have cleaned and sanitized each surface, clean and sanitize all of the tools and equipment you intend to use. These include knives, cutting boards, bowls, and any other object or device that will come in contact with food. Last but not least, you will want to visually inspect any device you will be using, like your grinder or stuffer, to make sure there aren’t any food particles that you missed the last time it was cleaned and put away.
One way to avoid missing any of these details is to put together a prep list, like the one shown in Figure 2-3. You can print this list and have it in the kitchen for when you get started, and then simply check off the items as you clean and sanitize them.
Once you’ve checked everything off your list, you’re ready to get started.
Mark LaFay
FIGURE 2-3: ‘Clean and Sanitize’ prep list.
Protecting Against Pathogens of Concern
Proper procedures for hygiene and workspace sanitation, if done correctly, will prevent you from contaminating the meats that you are working with. However, you also need to be aware of pathogens that are commonly found in the different animal species that you may be working with. Over the last several decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have done a lot of work with farmers, food processors, food scientists, and research organizations like universities, to improve and enhance food safety guidelines to help reduce foodborne illnesses. That said, food safety ultimately requires proper handling of food once you bring it home.
Common interventions to control or kill bacteria
Numerous types of bacteria are found in all living creatures, and can cause food spoilage or even severe illness. The chances of you coming into contact with these naughty bacteria will be much lower if you have a basic understanding of how to control the growth of bacteria and how to properly kill them through interventions while you’re processing meat. Common interventions include
Salting
Adding nitrites and nitrates
Acidifying to lower pH
Drying to lower water activity (aw)
Raw sausages that require a cooking step before consumption require very little intervention because heat treating by cooking, when done correctly, will kill all bacteria.
The FSIS has published a document known as Appendix A — Compliance Guidelines For Meeting Lethality Performance Standards For Certain Meat And Poultry Products. This document contains guidelines that are used by most, if not all, food processors in America. The table from the appendix is shown in Figure 2-4 and lists the temperature, and associated amount of time that a product must be held at that temperature, required to be lethal to all bacteria.
Source: FSIS
FIGURE 2-4: Time and temperature table from FSIS Appendix A.
Temperature