Identify critical control points

A critical control point is defined as a point, step or procedure at which a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced examples of critical control points (CCP’s) may include, but not limited to:

• employee and environmental hygiene
• prevention of cross-contamination
• specific sanitation procedures
• cooking
• chilling

A critical list of items to review often would include:

• observe hand-washing practices
• observe food handling, potential cross-contamination and use of sanitizer solutions
• observe foods throughout preparation, holding and serving process
• review recipe procedure
• conduct a probe thermometer calibration, demonstration
• chart the time/temperature of a cool down and/or reheat of a potentially hazardous food (PHF)

Controlling critical items

• foods must be kept at proper temperature for appropriate periods of time
• proper heating and cooling methods must be used
• there must be proper management of potentially hazardous foods prepared ahead of time, especially foods in bulk
• you must prevent the movement of bacteria from one area to another (cross-contamination)
• you must practice proper and appropriate personal hygiene

A critical control point is a “kill” step in which bacteria are killed by cooking or the "control” step that prevents or slow their growth, such as proper chilled storage or hot holding

Some examples to kill or prevent bacteria:

• proper cooking, reheating and hot and cold stages
• proper chilling, chilled storage and chilled display
• proper receiving, thawing, mixing and other stages
• proper and specific sanitation procedures
• proper handling to prevent cross-contamination
• proper employee and environmental hygiene

Some examples of improper hot or cold storage:

• foods stored at improper temperature
• foods thawed art room temperature
• cooler and display units without thermometers
• poor cooling practices: overloading refer units
• foods cooled in large volumes and large containers
• inadequate reheating of foods
• hot display cases without thermometer
• storage of food in improperly labeled containers
• transport food at improper holding temperatures

Cross-contamination

• storage of raw foods with ready-to-eat foods
• employee practices leading to cross-contamination
• preparing raw foods at same time and in same work area with cooked foods
• using hands instead of utensils for raw foods that will not be further cooked
• failure to clean equipment properly
• failure to adequately protect food from contamination
• employees who are working with flu-like symptoms
• improper storage of refuse in food preparation areas

Other hazards:

• improper or inadequate cleaning and sanitation practices
• inadequate use of sanitizers
• poor food preparation and handling practices
• utensils or food contact surfaces made from improper or unimproved materials
• inadequate documentation and record keeping
• improper storage of chemicals or personal items

Avoid risks by performing and monitoring, the following critical items properly and consistent

• time and temperature
• cooking and cooling
• reheating and holding
• preparation ahead of time
• cross-contamination
• personal hygiene

Review operational practices that pose high risk

Critical items and food flow

Now, by focusing on critical items, you can zero in on the problems and practices that are the leading factors in food borne illness. Thus, you be able to quickly identify any potential problems. Once you identify the problems, you will be able to take the necessary steps to correct them.

You start by following a potential hazardous food through a typical flow process and identify the critical items in that sequence. For a food service establishment, a typical flow would include:

• menu planning
• recipe development
• purchasing and receiving
• storage
• reconstitution
• thawing
• handling and preparation
• cooking
• hot holding
• cooling and cold holding
• reheating
• serving or repacking
• cleaning
• hygiene of workers

Food flow consideration

Menu planning:

• Do certain menu items present particular food safety risks-raw oysters or fresh whole eggs, for example?
• If you are using this food items, what safety precautions and staff training must be built into your food safety system?
• What is the makeup of your customer base that requires special precautions; children, people who are elderly, pregnant, or immune compromised?
• What is the employee skill level and training required for the menu?
• Do you have a high employee turnover rate that may require menu considerations?

Recipe development

• Identify the recipe ingredients that require special attention
• For food safety, consider substitute ingredients, such as pasteurized eggs instead of fresh whole eggs
• Write recipes to include safe food handling procedures and temperatures
• Write procedural standards for advanced and/or large volume preparation, cooling and handling
• Write procedural standards for off-premise food handling, transporting, holding and reheating

Purchasing

• Purchase from approved sources
• Are delivery trucks refrigerated?
• What is the handling practice during transportation and receiving delivery?
• Can deliveries be scheduled so that they can be properly inspected and stored?
• Are products consistent?
• Are products safely packaged?

Receiving

• Is packaging clean and intact?
• Is there any off-odor or slickness on the product?
• Are employees trained in receiving/storage procedures?
• Check product temperature; refrigerate PHF’s immediately. Do not puncture sealed packaging; take temperature by placing thermometer between packages or underneath packing
• Check for cross-contamination of foods, such as poultry juices dripping on other products
• Are shellfish tags for mussels, oysters and clams dated, logged and saved for 90 days?
• Follow established company policies and procedures for rejecting products

Storage

• Do storage practices prevent cross-contamination? Store raw meats on lower shelf. Raw vegetables or uncooked menu items should be stored above raw potentially hazardous foods.
• Labe, date and use FIFO (FIRST IN FIRST OUT)
• Refrigerate meat and other PHF’s at 40 F or below
• Do employee personal hygiene practices prevent cross-contamination of food items

Preparing/cooking

• Wash hands
• Clean and sanitize utensils, cutting boards, and knives
• Preplan product needs and thaw foods under refrigeration
• What are the batch preparation procedures? Work on small units of food at one time, then refrigerate. Are ingredients pre-chilled for salad preparation?
• Wash vegetables in sanitized sink
• Cook all PHF menu items to recommend minimum temperatures
• Verify food temperatures with calibrated thermometer
• Use the proper tasting procedures, using a clean spoon or a clean sauce dish each time the product is tasted

Serving/holding

• Clean. Sanitized equipment to transfer food and hold products
• Use clean and sanitized utensils
• Set up stations and a product handling process to prevent cross-contamination
• Monitor employee personal hygiene practices
• hold hot food items at 140 F or higher
• hold cold food at 40 F or lower
• verify food temperatures with a thermometer
• keep food covered

Cooling

• Rapidly cool foods from 140 F to 70 F in less than two hours and from70 F to 40 F in four hours use ice bath. Use shallow pans with less than 3” of product, divide into smaller units, withhold water; add ice as part of liquid at the end to cool, down products and utensils
• prevent cross-contamination when using ice bath
• write cool-down procedures into recipes
• verify final temperature with a calibrated thermometer
• use clean and sanitized pans
• cover immediately after cooling to 40 F
• store on top or upper shelves or refrigerator
• label food items; include date and time
• do not stack pans; stacked pans cool as one large mass

Reheating

• heat rapidly to 165 F within two hours
• determine which equipment or methods work best for reheating
• verify final temperature with a calibrated thermometer
• maintain temperature of 140 F; verify with a calibrated thermometer
• never mix new product into old product
• do not reheat or serve leftover food more than once: a reheated product passes through the temperature danger zone three times

Food flow critical control points

At first there is a tendency to identify all control points as critical control points (CCP’s) when determining CCP's in a products flow, select the monitoring points at which a hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced. These should become the check points in your system, recipe or procedures. The following are examples of CCP’s in a food flow

Receiving

• meats must be received at 40 F or lower
• frozen foods must be received at 0 F
• fresh fish must be received at 40 F or lower
• fresh fish require a certificate of conformance from the supplier

Cooking

• poultry must be cooked to 165 F or higher
• ground beef must be cooked to 155 F or higher except ground poultry, which m must be cooked to 165 F or higher
• pork must be cooked to 155 F or higher

Hot-holding

• products must be held at 140 F or higher

Cooling

• cool from 140 F to 45 F in four hours (current code)
• cool from 140 F to 70 F in tow hours or less and from 70 F to 40 F in four hours or less (proposed new code)

Cold-holding

• product must be held at 40 F or lower

Reheating

• reheat to 165 F within two hours

Serving

• monitor employees hygiene
• monitor for cross-contamination