Food Safety Compliance: Rules and Regulations

There is no official definition of food safety, mainly because the laws and guidelines should be followed depending on where and what sort of food service you provide. However, each restaurant should follow certain basic rules for food safety. HACCP has also been created to serve its customers and help companies in food facilities. HACCP is a globally recognized system of food management that addresses food safety and regulates potential biological, physical and chemical hazards. It can be simply defined as a system which was set up to recognize potential food safety issues and methods to control them and also to reduce diseases and contamination among the customers. If you go through the official website of HACCP, you will find out that it contains a long list of how to recognize risks and methods to regulate them. The HACCP website is informative and worth reading thoroughly if you have time, but it can be condensed to a much simpler format.

Some of the food safety rules and regulations one should follow before setting up a business are as follows:

Food and General Supply Storage:

Food, Spices and other edibles should always be kept away from the cleaning supplies. This implies that the cleaning machine should not be positioned closer to the kitchen area or the food preparation and storage region. Everybody should follow cross-contamination prevention practices before or while moving between the two areas.

Cleaning Processes Should Always Be Clear:

Cleaning processes and sanitizing rules for all food services include proper hand washing procedures, cleaning and sanitizing techniques for the kitchen, dining and food storage areas. Also, don’t forget about the region of waste disposal. An important element of operating a secure and tidy restaurant is proper disposal of waste and recycling. Dirty dumpsters attract pests, and many pests are hard and expensive to get rid of once they have gone in.

Raw Meats, Poultry, Seafood and Eggs Pose Potential Risk:

Items like raw meats, seafood, eggs and poultry should always be stored away from all other food items. All of these should have a separate preparation area with separate cuttings boards and washing stations and all should be color coded for easy and quick identification. This will help prevent cross contamination which is one of the major problems, every restaurant faces today.

Proper Dry Storage and Refrigeration:

Appropriate refrigeration and dry storage is crucial and everyone should follow the process rules. For proper storage and processing, product labels should always be verified.

Maintain Accurate Records:

Food safety compliance implies that you need to maintain accurate records of all you do. This includes food temperature logs, ordering histories, task checklists and corrective action logs when things don't go as scheduled. If your restaurant is ever audited or inspected, these things should help you in proving that you have taken care of every little detail.