Food safe classes are as important for those in the business of preparing food
for people for example a Chef preparing food for customers in a restaurant, as it is important for an individual just preparing food for personal consumption, for the family or for guest. Without proper handling of food and hygiene, germs and bacteria can multiply easily and quickly on food items thereby causing food related illnesses and even life threatening food poisoning.
One of the major causes of food related illnesses and diseases is from poor hygiene when handling of food item by the Preparer. It is imperative to always wash hands thoroughly before handling food items when and while preparing them. Often times while preparing food there might be a distraction which might make you hold something which is not sanitized and you might go ahead preparing the food without washing your hands again. This little mistake might contaminate the food you are preparing causing harm to the consumer, hence it is very important to always be very conscious of the fact that you need to wash your hands before handling any food item.
Also, avoid using towels or napkins for cleaning surfaces but if you must use them make sure you wash them and dry them properly and regularly because they easily harbor bacteria and germs. It is better to clean with disposable wipes which also have anti-bacterial solutions in them.
Food items like fruits should also be washed properly before eating or using them to prepare food.
Another very important food handling procedure you will learn in a food safe class is preservation of food items and how to handling different food items. Each and every type of food item has a particular temperature that they need to be stored at. For example, meat should be stored in a lower temperature than a vegetable product and raw meat should not be stored with cooked meat and should also be separated from the packaged food item. While cooking, you should not use the same chopping board for raw food and cooked food, not even the same chopping board for raw meat and raw fish. The food should also be cooked properly, in order to be sure you can use a thermometer to measure the temperature if need be. Cooked food should be allowed to cool for a considerable amount of time before storing them in the refrigerator.
One more cause of food related illness that food safe classes educate its participants is the expiring date of packaged food items. It is can be tricky at times when reading the expiring dates on food items. For example, some manufactures will use words like: best before “date”, sell by “date”, and use by “date”. Best before; means that the food item should be consumed before the stated date. Sell by; means the food item should be sold by the stated that though it is not mandatory. Use by; means that the food item should be used before or on that stated date. It is important to take note of expiring dates on food item before buying them because some shopping outlet make more money from selling food item that have almost expired.