If you buy your meals and snacks in the school cafeteria, you may have noticed a busy area forbidden for us to enter. Inside that room, a workplace full of kitchen equipment and food ingredients. The aroma leaking out of the room would make anyone buy a snack or two. Working hard all day, serving so many students and employees, maintaining a clean and safe workplace becomes hard to balance.

In foodservice, good hygiene should be in mind at all times. Making sure that the products are fresh is a crucial thing to remember. Wearing clean uniforms, gloves, and hairnets should be done to prevent dirt particles from being transferred onto the food. Having a clean, sanitized working area makes the food fresher and safer to eat.

Simply wiping the surfaces and equipment with a damp towel could prevent cross-contamination, which is the transfer of bacteria from other contaminants from one surface to another.

For better learning and focus, school cafeterias must provide a nutritious menu. The higher the nutritional value, the better we can do at school. Foods like cola, chips, and candy are just a few examples of unhealthy snacks we must avoid. With their high levels of salt and sugar, our body will weaken, and our ability to do tasks will reduce.

There are a few people within the school that have certain allergies. It can be from food or dust particles. A student or employee suddenly having an allergy attack happens quite a few times in a school year. But being aware of food allergens like milk and wheat and simply sweeping the floor and wiping the windows can avoid this from happening.

From the other side of the kitchen, handling food with caution and ensuring that it is safe, should be the topmost goal of a school cafeteria.

Sources:

https://www.foodsafety.ca/blog/managing-food-safety-school-cafeterias