It’s a difficult task to prevent cross-contact among ingredients in a busy foodservice kitchen. With the continual increase in food allergies and other dining sensitivities, the task, while difficult has become a essential to customer safety.
The first step in preventing cross-contact is identifying the areas in your foodservice operation that have an increased risk of transferring food particles from one item to the next. Sources for cross contact are everywhere, but there are very specific areas that pose the highest risk which can be managed. These high risk areas include cutting boards, utensils, worker sanitation including unwashed hands and general lack of caution during food preparation steps. Luckily, there are easy steps that can be implemented to reduce the risk and tools available to simplify these steps. First and foremost, awareness and education of staff can address these risks. Here are some tips to manage allergens.
1. Utilize specific cutting boards for certain foods. Many operators utilize cutting boards that follow HACCP Like the San Jamar cutting board sets which include a chart identifying what each board is made to handle. To handle allergens, you can add in the San Jamar Allergen Board which is purple.
2. Staff should be trained to wash hands frequently, especially after handling fish, eggs, or any other common allergen. The Hand Washing Station Smart Chart can be useful when you have a large and diverse staff, placed by the handwash sink or used for training.
3. Make it easy for staff to identify allergen-safe kitchen items through color-coding. Similar to the Allergen Board from San Jamar, purple is commonly designated for allergen safe items. The Winco 8” Cook’s Knife with a purple handle to the Vollrath turner with purple handle, there are a wide variety of kitchen utensils available with the purple allergen differentiator.
4. Finally, be aware of your food prep and storage procedures, areas and tools. Keep all tools and surfaces clean and isolated. Store products in air tight containers to avoid cross contamination.
Increasing awareness through training, providing proper tools to isolate allergens and manage food prep and ensuring proper sanitation steps are taken can help you manage allergens in your kitchen.
