Clean as You Go!
What is a Food Handler?.
A food handler is a person who, in the course of their normal routine work, come into contact with uncovered food not intended for their personal use.
Below are the 9 some of the most imparative tips and rules to practise at your home Kitchen or at the Commercial Kitchen.
1. Practice Good Personal Hygiene
Personal hygiene is a practice everyone should have. It is important to always wash your hands with soap and water before handling food to prepare.
2. Clean Utensils and Cooking Equipment.
All cooking equipment should be properly cleaned and sanitised before starting any preparation. This is specifically important for equipment that comes into direct contact with food. Such as cutting boards, knives, countertops, mixers, blenders etc.
3. Keep Foods That Need to be Kept Cold in the Fridge:
Raw meats, dairy and others need to be kept cold (4°C – 39°F) in order to prevent bacteria from growing before you can consume the food. Keeping foods cold also ensures that your food does not expire before the use-by dates.
4. Wash Fruits and Vegetables Before Use
Most fruits and vegetable are freshly purchased from the farm, store or market; these foods contain soil, insects and chemical residues in them, it is very important to rinse vegetables and fruit with water, salt or vinegar before storing them in the food rack.
5. Use Appropriate Kitchen Tools for Food Preparation 
There are various kinds of kitchen tools/utensils designed for different purposes, make sure you use the right tool at the right time. For instance, a meat chopping board can easily serve as a growth medium for bacteria and mould.
6. Cook Food to an appropriate Temperature.
Cooking food to the required temperature is an important food safety practice, as raw foods like egg and meat can easily result in Salmonella and E.coli infections if not properly cooked. Foods such as pork, chicken, beef and processed meats like sausage should be cooked longer until there are no traces of pink on the flesh and joints and bones of such meats because bacteria can easily survive the cooking process in these areas.
7. Always Use Clean Water to Prepare Food
Food hygiene is also an important practice to be carried out when washing, mixing and cooking food. Water has many ways of affecting our systems and our general health. Foods that are prepared with unsafe water can easily lead to vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach upsets, it is important to always use clean water to wash and cook food.
8. Clean the Kitchen and Mop the Floor After Each Food Preparation:
Keeping the kitchen clean can help keep flies, ants and cockroaches from coming in contact with your foods. Greasy areas help bacteria hide and cannot be eliminated without removing the grease. The stove or gas top should be properly wiped.
9. Keep Kitchen Towels, Sponges and Cleaning Cloths Clean and Replace Regularly
The kitchen and every tool or equipment in it should be washed and sanitised. Kitchen towels or sponges are very important items in the kitchen and are used on a daily basis to open hot lids, to remove foods from the microwave or oven, to bring down boiling soup from heat and to wipe off food or water from our wet hands. Often times while using these towels, they get wet in the process which means that microorganisms can harbour on these damp surfaces, so it will be very proper to wash and sanitise and properly.
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