The Causes Of E. Coli Contamination And How To Prevent It With A Food Safety Management System

E. coli bacterium produces Vitamin K which helps the body break down and digest food

and normally lives inside your intestines and in the intestines of animals. However, there is a mutant strain, E.coli 0157 that can be passed from person to person and cause serious illness. How to prevent E. coli infection is something that everyone who handles food should understand. The following list outlines the obvious causes:

Bacterial contamination can occur when raw food comes into contact with high risk food such as meat, poultry, eggs, shellfish, milk and dairy products, cooked rice, pasta and any product made from these foods

Raw foods are contaminated by bacteria found in the natural environment

Pathogenic bacteria are transferred from raw food to high risk food at any stage of food handling by what we call 'vehicles of contamination'; this could be from unwashed hands, utensils or surfaces

Liquid or juices from raw food coming into contact with high risk food.

So how do you make sure that your establishment remains safe from E. coli contamination? The answer is so simple that it's easily missed. You must put systems and procedures in place that eliminate or drastically reduce the risks to your customers:

Implement a Food Safety Management System that defines the correct safe preparation, cooking and hot holding procedure for each dish you produce

Train your team to run and adhere to the system making sure everyone follows it without any exceptions

Ensure all your staff have at least Level 2 food handler training so that they'll have a basic understanding of cross contamination.

A quick guide to cooking, reheating and hot holding

Heat can kill E. coli , so experts recommend that people cook beef (especially ground beef) until it is cooked through and no longer pink. Choosing pasteurised juice or milk is another way to avoid possible infection. Some experts recommend washing and scrubbing vegetables before eating them. But others say E. coli is hard to remove once it has contaminated produce such as spinach, lettuce, or onions.

Most of this you would call common sense. The problem is that common sense isn't all that common, and as such it is often assumed that guidelines will be followed on a day to day basis. Maybe, but it doesn't mean that guidelines are always enforced. Here's our fundamental guide on cooking, reheating and hot holding that everyone in your kitchen should know:

Life saving cooking facts

Always make sure you cook to 75 degrees at the food's core for 2 minutes

Use a food probe to test temperature and make sure it's cleaned after each use

The safest restaurants 100% test every dish, every plate that's served

Life saving reheating facts

Reheating means cooking food again and to the correct temperature

The correct temperature is the same as cooking, its 75C or higher for 2 minutes

Remember that you can only reheat food once

Life saving hot holding facts

Food must be cooked or reheated correctly before hot holding

Food must be kept above 63C at all times

You must preheat hot holding equipment before use.

Running a commercial kitchen without a Food Safety Management System, without a working food temperature probe, and without well trained staff, is like driving a car around with all the airbags turned off and the seatbelt removed. Unless you stop E. coli contamination before it starts, you are placing your livelihood and customers in unnecessary jeopardy.

by:Paul Grantham

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