Cleaning & Sanitizing Practices to prevent cross-contamination, NFSM Wk. 3

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September is National Food Safety Month and the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) is covering an aspect each week of this year’s theme, “Be Safe, Don’t Cross-Contaminate.” Week three’s topic is cleaning and sanitizing practices that will prevent cross-contamination.

“No matter how carefully food is cooked, without a clean and sanitized environment, pathogens can be quickly transferred to both cooked and uncooked food,” said Pam St. Pierre, LRA VP of Member Services.

To prevent cross-contamination from surfaces, the correct cleaning and sanitized procedures must be followed. Here’s the 411 on what you need to know to prevent cross-contamination from surface areas:

September is National Food Safety Month. Whether at home
or in a restaurant kitchen, these practices can reduce
food borne illnesses.

Food-contact surfaces must be both cleaned and sanitized correctly. Cleaning means removing food and other direct from a surface, and sanitation reduces pathogens on a surface to safe levels.

• Scrape or remove food bits from surface

• Wash the surface

• Rinse the surface

• Sanitize the surface

• Allow the surface to air-dry

All food-contact surfaces must be cleaned and sanitized after they are used; before food handlers start working with a different type of food; any time food handlers are interrupted during a task and the items being used may have been contaminated; and after four hours if items are in constant use.

During the first week of National Food Safety Month, the focus was on personal hygiene. The second week’s focus was on preventing cross-contamination through hand washing.

The National Restaurant Association and the LRA partner throughout the year to raise awareness of the importance of food safety to the restaurant industry and our diners. Through ServSafe, a nationally-approved and recognized, good standard curriculum for food safety and sanitation, the LRA has trained thousands of restaurant and foodservice employees.

To register for a ServSafe course, click here. Classes are offered across Louisiana.