Chop Suey

During yesterday's practical, we ensured that we limited the chance of contamination by:

- Using different chopping boards.

We used green chopping board when we were cutting vegetables. We also used the red chopping board when we were cutting red meat which in our case was beef. We did this to prevent cross-contamination from the blood of the red meat into our vegetables.

- Using tongs and a tray when collecting the beef.

 When we were collecting our beef, we used tongs rather than our hand. This is to prevent bacteria from our hands contaminating into the beef.

- Using separate knives. 

We used separate knives to cut our ingredients. We also made sure that the knives we used are clean and free of food particles. We used the red-handled knife to cut our beef and use the green-handled knife to cut vegetables. This also prevents cross-contaminating from the blood of the beef into the vegetables.

- Washing vegetables

After collecting the vegetables, we ensured that we washed them before cutting or putting them into our food. We did this to wash away any bacteria from the vegetables we used.

- Clean and sanitised work area

Before starting our practical, we ensured that we wiped our workbench with anti-bacterial spray. By doing this, we are changing the ph level of our workbench higher than ph level 7 which is the optimal growth of bacteria. Changing the ph level higher than the optimal level for bacteria means that the environment for the bacteria was changed therefore killing them.

Ham Wraps

What high-risk food was used? How do you have to handle to keep safe

The high-risk food my team used was ham. To keep safe, we used tongs to separate them rather than using our hands and we also used different cutting boards to cut our ham.

Explain the health and safety procedures you put in place prior, during, and after. Give 2 examples for each.

Prior to the practical, my group made sure that I washed my hands and cleaned and sanitised my workplace. People with long hair tied their hair to prevent them from touching the food when handling them.
During the practical, we made sure that we used different boards and knives to prevent cross-contamination when cutting the vegetables and the ham. We also ensured that we appropriately handled our knives when using them, not waving it around, pointing them downwards when going back to our workplace after acquiring them.
After the practical, we ensured that we cleaned my workspace by using an anti-bacterial spray to kill off bacteria. We washed the dishes we used and stored them back to where we got them from.
How do you know that the process/strategies you put in place maintained the safety of your food?
By doing these strategies, I am making sure that I killed all the bacteria around my workplace and prevented cross-contamination.