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Conference for Food Protection Biennial Meeting Summary
eBooks
The
14th meeting of the Conference for Food Protection (CFP) concluded Wednesday, April 16, 2008, following six days of meetings regarding the future of
food safety. The Conference also included a special workshop on the future of fresh produce safety . The decisions and recommendations
from this Conference are likely to impact FDA Model Food Code as well as food safety procedures in a variety of industries.
As part of our commitment to Food Safety, as well as our continued support of CFP, Chemstar Corporation commissioned Lydia Strayer, Director of
Regulatory Affairs, to observe the conference and special workshop, and summarize some of the important decisions in the two attached eBooks
titled:
Fresh Produce Safety eBook
2008 Conference for Food Protection Summary
eBook
We hope you find these documents useful and informative in your operations.
Preparing for a
Disaster
With
lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes of
recent years, many businesses have spent significant time trying to
reduce their vulnerability to whatever disaster might come their way.
The
official
hurricane season extends from June 1 through November 30 each year.
Companies in areas vulnerable to hurricanes and tornados are often the
first to
formulate an extensive disaster plan.
Fires, loss of potable water, and power outages can happen anywhere.
Interruption of electrical power is likely the most common crisis
encountered.
Food facilities may suffer more than most businesses because of their
inventory of perishable products. It is therefore very important to be
prepared
and plan ahead.
The Conference for Food Protection's Emergency Preparedness and Response Committee has revised their previous Emergency Guidance
document to formulate the
Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments, recently approved at the 2008 Conference. Individual establishments can use this
document to develop procedures that meet the needs of their specific supermarket or restaurant.
This Emergency Action Plan provides a list of emergency situations relating to water supply, interruption of electrical service, sewage
backup, fire, and flood; the revised edition also includes infectious disease events and potential terrorist threats. Using water supply
issues as an example, planning should include the following:
• Prepare an "emergency menu" in advance that uses limited or
no water.
• Maintain an inventory of bottled water and containers for hauling
water.
• Maintain an inventory of single-service and single-use articles.
• Develop a business agreement with a supplier of bottled water or
licensed hauler.
• Develop a contingency plan for toilets.
• Develop a business agreement with a supplier of ice.
• Make a list of all equipment that uses water and develop a
contingency
plan.
The Plan includes expanded sections on each type of emergency that
leads you through assessment, response procedures, and recovery steps.
This is a
comprehensive document that was developed with input from industry,
regulatory institutions, and academia. Access the 2006 version at http://www.foodprotect.org/Guidesdocuments.
The revised 2008
document also will be posted soon at this site. Currently, it is an
attachment to 2008 CFP Issue II-033, as passed by the Assembly of
Delegates, also
available on the CFP website.
Additional helpful information on disaster response is available from FDA at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fsdisasm.html, entitled "Restaurants and Grocers Reopening After Hurricanes and Flooding".
Food facilities creating or updating disaster plans may also use the resources of the Food Marketing Institute at http://www.fmi.org/foodsafety/disaster.htm.
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Boil Water Notice Guidelines*
The following are temporary procedures that can be used to address
specific food operations when a Boil Water Notice has been issued:
Drinking Water: Use bottled water or water that has been boiled for at least 1 minute and cooled, or arrange to use a licensed
drinking water tanker truck. Water may be hauled from an approved supply in a covered, sanitized container. Note, using bleach for
emergency disinfection will not kill parasites that may be present; however, boiling will kill parasites.
Beverages and Ice: Discard existing ice and discontinue making ice. Use commercially manufactured ice. Disconnect
or turn off water vending machines, drinking fountains, ice-making units, post-mix carbonated beverage machines, auto-fill coffee makers, etc.
Food Products Requiring Water: Discard any ready-to-eat (RTE) food prepared with water prior to discovery of the
contamination. Prepare RTE food using commercially bottled or boiled water.
Washing, Soaking Produce: Use pre-washed packaged produce. Wash only with boiled or bottled water or safe, potable water hauled
from an approved supply.
Thawing of Frozen Foods: Thaw only in the refrigerator or as part of the cooking process.
Cooking: Use commercially bottled water, boiled water or water hauled from an approved supply.
Handwashing: Use heated bottled water, boiled water that has been safely cooled, or potable water hauled from an approved
supply. Food workers should not use tap water. An FDA Food Code compliant hand sanitizer may be used after washing. Do not allow
bare hand contact with RTE food.
Cleaning and Sanitizing Utensils: Manually wash, rinse and sanitize using a three-compartment sink with bottled water, boiled
water, or water hauled from a safe source. Use single service articles when possible. Mechanical dish machines may be used only to remove
food residue and debris, if followed by a manual wash, rinse and sanitization as described above.
Spray Misting Units: Discontinue use of misters.
After notice is received that the Boil Water Notice is lifted, allow water to run and flush each tap and each piece of water-connected equipment for
five minutes. Sanitize equipment with waterline connections. Replace filters in water lines. After flushing lines and valves to ice
machines, clean and sanitize according to the manufacturer's instructions, make ice, and dispose of the first batch.
* Information is taken from Emergency Guidelines for Retail Food Establishments (CFP) and 2005 Industry Bulletin for
Florida's
Food Industry. Also see Resources at www.chemstarcorp.com.
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Backyard BBQ
Basics
The summer holidays of the Fourth of July and Labor Day bring on the company or family picnics and barbecues. Whether
your restaurant or supermarket is catering a large event, or it's just you and your grill under a shade tree, food safety basics must be kept in
mind.
After all, you don't want to serve Staph or Salmonella along with the BBQ sauce!
Four basics of food safety for retailers and consumers alike are Cook, Clean, Separate, and Chill as promoted by www.befoodsafe.org.
Cook The "cook" step is the "kill" step for harmful bacteria. Remember the three basic minimum cook temperatures:
• 145°F. -- pork, most beef, fish, eggs
• 155°F. -- ground beef or pork, injected meat
• 165°F. -- poultry, stuffing or stuffed meats
Insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the product; you can't tell by sight or feel.
Clean It's a little more difficult outdoors, but you must provide potable water, detergent and sanitizer at your outdoor event. A
spray bottle of Chemstar Q-San will provide the kill-step on food contact surfaces. Clean and sanitize cutting boards between uses. Use single
service
utensils and tableware in order to reduce the volume of water needed. Don't neglect proper hand washing. Hand sanitizer or sanitizing towelettes are
an added precaution. Remember, no bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food.
Separate Raw meats and vegetables contain microorganisms that can contaminate cooked and other ready-to-eat foods. It is very
important to keep raw foods separate from cooked and ready-to-eat foods so that harmful bacteria will not be transferred. Also, different bacteria
are
present on different types of raw foods, so remember not to cross contaminate. Keep raw poultry and raw meat separate from each other, and keep both
separated from raw produce.
Chill Potentially hazardous/temperature-controlled for safety foods (PHF/TCS) should not remain in the Danger Zone (41° -
135° F.) for longer than four hours. No more than two hours is an even better rule in the hot summer outdoors. Cool foods rapidly to 41°F.
or below by using an ice bath, adding ice as an ingredient, packing small portions in ice in an insulated cooler, separating into shallow pans and
refrigerating, or any FDA Food Code-approved method.
Have a Safe BBQ Season!!
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Make Cleaning
Safe and Simple
Following
a natural or man-made disaster there are potential health
concerns that can be created by fires, interruption of potable water
service, flooding, sewage back-ups and infectious disease events.
Decontamination procedures must be carried out in a manner that
eliminates filth and harmful microorganisms that could pose a food
safety risk.
Wash thoroughly all surfaces of the facility's interior with a hot
detergent solution using potable water. Chemstar Grease Cutter
Positive and
Chemstar Chemclor are two products designed for cleaning food
processing environments. After washing, rinse thoroughly and follow
with a
sanitizing solution. Chemical sanitizers should be used at an
FDA-recommended concentration of 100-200 ppm chlorine (1 tablespoon
un-scented
household bleach in one gallon of potable water) or 200 ppm quaternary
ammonium. Chemstar Q-San is a quaternary ammonium chloride with an EPA
registration for use in all food areas. When used at 200 ppm it kills
99.99% of microorganisms.
Thoroughly wash equipment and non-food contact surfaces with detergent
such as Chemstar Ultra Deli Detergent and hot water, rinse, and then
sanitize
as above. For food contact surfaces, the sanitizer concentration
should be 50-100 ppm for chlorine and 200 ppm for quats. Remember to
clean and sanitize sinks before washing utensils.
For mechanical dish machines, once potable water has been restored, run
the empty dish machine though the wash-rinse-sanitize cycle three times
to
flush the water lines. This will ensure that the dishwasher is clean
and sanitized internally before used to wash wares, equipment, and
utensils.
An approved chemical test kit or test strips should be available to
validate appropriate sanitizer strength. A maximum registering
thermometer
or temperature sensitive tape should be available for hot water
machines to check that the hot water reaches 180°F or that the utensil
surface
reaches 165°F.
There are some emergency situations such as sewage back-ups, flood, and
vomit incidents that may require disinfectant procedures rather than
sanitization. The concentration needed to "sanitize" is lower than the
concentration needed to "disinfect."
Following a flood or sewage back-up, the CFP Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments
advises use of an EPA-registered
disinfectant. Chemstar Q-San is a disinfectant when applied at a rate
of 625 ppm active quat (4 ounces in five gallons) with a contact time
of 10
minutes, as is a chlorine solution of 500 ppm. Since this disinfecting
step is in excess of the limit for food contact surfaces, use either a
potable water rinse or another terminal cleaning with a normal
sanitizing rinse prior to food preparation. For vomit incidents,
substitute an
EPA-registered disinfectant with a claim against norovirus. Always apply sanitizers and disinfectants according to label instructions.
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Did
You
Know?
Salmonella Saintpaul has been identified in a multi-state outbreak of infections, with raw
tomatoes (red plum, red Roma, red round) as the likely source of the illnesses. More than 225 people in at least 23 states have become
ill. Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. FDA recommends food facilities offer only
tomatoes from specific sources listed at http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html#retailers
Need an Expert's Opinion?
In an effort to help you run clean, efficient, and safe operations, Chemstar Corporation's team of dedicated Food Safety Experts would like to
provide you with a Benchmarking of your Food Safety and Sanitation Program against recent regulatory changes as well as industry best practices. Our
Food Safety Experts can help you identify gaps in your operations - which could create risk to your products, your customers, and your image.
For more information about this offer, send us an email to info@chemstarcorp.com, with the subject
line "Food Safety Benchmark". Please provide your contact information and the best way to reach you and one of our Food Safety Experts will be in
touch to discuss the details.
For more information
Visit us online at
www.chemstarcorp.com
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| 120 Interstate West Parkway | Suite 100 | Lithia Springs, GA 30122 |
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