Reflection Post: Than Jia Hui

Through this project, I get to learn the importance of food safety myself on my own pace. I become more curious about why then to ask how and what. Waiting to be spoon-fed with information. Although it is a little rush for time, but we still manage to do it. Being a food handler, I learn a lot and benefitted a lot from these posts as i get to learn about things that I have never been concerned about before. Learning through this posts, I became more self conscious while handling Food. its also a good opportunity to educate people and to spread the words of a safer food environment.

Reflection Post: Neo Wei Kang, Ken

I feel that the posts are useful in educating the public on the do's and don'ts for kitchen staff hygiene practices and ensuring food preparation does not cause contamination to the food which can cause serious foodborne illnesses. However, the posts should also include information of what causes these foodborne illnesses and how the do's and don'ts in kitchen staff hygiene practices helps ensure that contamination will not happen and lowers the risk of foodborne illnesses

Reflection post: Ian/ Tan Yuan Jing

Overall i feel that being responsible with one self to begin with is the best way to maintain a safe and healthy functioning kitchen . After all . We are the ones frequently exposing ourselves to the outside before entering the kitchen day in day out . Unavoidable contact with microbes cannot be ommitted however . Keeping ourselves clean is a good start to decreasing microbial count . Therefore after reading the blog . I believe that self cleanliness is the most basic and fundemental of food safety and hygiene.

Personal Hygiene: HAIR.

Have you ever anticipated a meal at a high end restaurant after having to queue for more than 1 hour and you FINALLY get your food yet you found that there is extra garnish? 

I have entered that at a high end popular japanese ramen store. I also thought that paying a higher price for food means a better quality of food such as higher hygiene standard, where staffs are guarded with high personally grooming standards. However, I was wrong. When the cold appetizer arrived, which is like a cucumber roll extravagantly garnished. As we started eating, with the dim lighting, my friend did not take notice of putting the cucumber roll with a piece of hair into her mouth. As she chews, she found something funny in her mouth and she took it out of her mouth. To our horror, IT WAS A PIECE OF HAIR. We immediately told the waiter about it, and we canceled all of our order. 

Through this incident, I learnt that high grooming standards are very important, this is because it will not reflect well on your store no matter how high standard is the food but without proper hygiene standards, you will still lose your customer. Furthermore, lousy grooming standard can lead to your customer's health at risk after consuming the food.

Hair is a physical hazard because when the hair enter any food item, it can be consume easily as it may not be that visible to the eyes reasoning being its fine and black. 

The human digestive system cannot digest human hair as the protein, which is keratin, is a highly composed structure of protein and it can be digested only in high alkaline or acidic environment with high temperature of about 100 degree celsius which the human digestive system cannot provide, hence, any consumed hair will be retain in the body leading to potential health hazard. 

This is why high personal grooming is important in the kitchen or dining area.

Proper grooming standard:

1. All LADIES will long hair should have their hair neatly with a hair net. 

2. All GUYS will beard should have it tidy and have regular hair cut to prevent falling of hair/beard.

3. GUYS hair should not touch the collar of their chef jacket with their sunburn length not more than half the length of ear.

Appropriate hair grooming standard for ladies.

Not acceptable hair hair grooming standard for ladies.

                                   

Appropriate hair grooming standard for guys.

Not appropriate hair grooming for guys.

Aspects of food premises: Station Cleaniness

For a kitchen, it is important that the work station for food preparation be clean so that any food that is being prepared will not be contaminated by surface bacteria.

Clean bench top

A clean bench top greatly reduces the possibility of cross-contamination.

For example, a dirty bench top could have harmful bacteria like

 1) Salmonella, which is known to come from infected raw poultry

2) Escherichia Coli (commonly known as E.Coli) found on human skin.

 Clean Bench Top which ensures minimal contamination

 Clean Wok Station

It is important that the wok station is cleaned after cooking as any microorganisms from any previous cooking can be present of the surface of the wok station, which may contaminate the ingredients that are placed at the station for cooking.

Kitchen Towels

Towels are a breeding ground for microorganism especially since they're often used to wipe bench tops that have spills or any liquid left by food.

The dirty towels may be left unwashed which might allow for bacterial growth as the towels contain moisture that bacteria thrives on.

Also, the dirty towels may contaminate any surface that it has come into contact with.

To avoid this issue, towels should be washed after every use.

Towels should be washed at the end of the day with a washing machine and dried in a dryer.

Personal Hygiene: Proper handwashing techinque

Proper handwashing technique

 1. Remove all jewellery and wet hands and wrists.

 2. Use 1 or 2 squirts of hand washing liquid or foam.

 3. Lather soap and scrub well from palm to palm.

 4. Scrub in between and around fingers.

 5. Scrub back of each hand

 6. Scrub fingertips of each hand in opposite palm

7. Scrub each thumb clasped in the opposite hand











8. Scrub each wrist clasped in opposite hand
9. Rinse thoroughly under running water
10.Pat hands dry with paper towel
11. Turn off water using same paper towel

Aspects of Food Premises: Equipment

Ian: It is important that all equipments are appropriately chosen and appropriately as well as their materials as different kinds of kitchens dish out different styles of presentation and cooking methods . Just like the Chinese kitchen for example . You cannot use western stove ranges to achieve the Chinese “ wok hei “ maybe you can but that is nearly impossible to achieve without using a jet flame in due time . Therefore , A stove range that is suitable for an air blast flame must be designed . Rather than having many vents which evenly distribute heat around the pot . A centralized pressure point of heat with high powered gas exit is designed to achieve such . Also stone is used to contain the heat so that heat is not immediately cut once the flame is turned off therefore , easier handling of heat . I can go on and on but this is not about the Chinese kitchen .

Lay out and materials are the bare essentials of what kind of food is a kitchen going to be able to dish out . For example a full fledged Chinese kitchen will not be able to dish out risotto . A dish which requires low and slow heat and constant simmering to be able to achieve the right texture and doneness . Leave that to an air blast stove and your rice would be burnt before it would be cooked as all the stocked that is used to cook the rice would have been evaporated . Therefore the choice of materials and equipment lay out determines the food that is going to be churned out .
Without proper organization of equipment . the chefs and cooks will not be able to deliver up to their fullest potential and may prove hazardous in certain situations . Just like how easily a jet flame would enable a grease fire as it is so powerful . Leave it to an untrained individual and the risk of a grease fire would loom .

The choice of equipment I feel would determine the quality of food as well . Just like how a good knife is able to sustain it’s sharpness longer due to the quality of steel . Also , it’s weight would enable stability to it’s user . With a cheap wobbly knife that is made of cheap metal might dent on impact as it is not durable . As it is flimsy , it would mean that it is not stable and without weight it would mean that more strength would have to be exerted and that would mean the cuts would not be precise . Also with the knife being unstable , the risks of getting cuts are higher . This would disallow any cook or chef to work in their top form , therefore the quality of the food would be affected and also , as a very impatient person , I would be personally very annoyed by dull or flimsy blades , with that I would spend more time trying to get the cuts right therefore delaying the amount of time I need to finish whatever cutting job I need . With also good equipments . They will grant you more time  as they will last longer enabling chefs to get comfortable with them . And if equipments do not spoil easily . It would mean that less time is spent trying to salvage situations due to faulty equipment buying more time to do what a kitchen is meant to do – Help produce cooked food .

However , with good equipments require good care . And one of the simplest forms of care is to keep them clean . To enable a Chinese wok for example to be use cleanly . One must be able to burn the wok at least once in awhile till red hot to enable all the dirt and carbonated food to be released from the wok in order to prevent them from dropping them into each others food . Scientifically , these black substances contain a lot of carcinogens which contains free radicals , This in the long run is not good for the human body . Therefore in this case keeping your equipment clean will ensure the health based safety of your customers . If a wok is not properly maintained the risk of getting harmful substances into others are definite therefore cleanliness of equipments must be maintained in order to produce safe food .

Personal Hygiene: Attire and Food handling

Ian: I for one personally work at a ramen restaurant that shall not be named which serves delicious Japanese noodles paired with soup that are literally made with love. Fresh and delicious .

We serve a specific kind of soup well loved by many Singaporeans known as the pork bone soup otherwise known as Tonkotsu. Tonkotsu is basically a translation for “ Pork bone “ Which is what the soup base is generally made of.

The soup consists of bones that range from spinal chords to knuckles to whole pig heads. How the soup is made is that the bones are washed by boiling them and removing the scum for about half an hour. The bones are then drained and washed. They will be then boiled again at low-medium heat for the next 16 hours of which the duration is separated into 2 days. The soup is stirred on an average of every 20 minutes and scum will continue to rise and other ingredients such as ginger , chicken feet as well as garlic and other ingredients will be added later in the process . Therefore the misenplace for this is extremely tedious without having mention the rest of the toppings ie: the marinated pork belly that comes in extremely thin slices

Having all this information said . It is NOT redundant because here comes the important bit . Everything mentioned above is done by hand . And usually time is the very essence of probably everything . You would require a specific time frame to do everything right . Like the marinated pork belly would need to be sliced within 3 days . else the meat would dry out and the mouth feel would be dry and maybe even gritty if the amount of fat in between the lean meat is insufficient . Therefore most of the misenplace is done in the most efficient way possible . Though dining concept is an open kitchen concept . There are still times where there are blind spots in the kitchen . With my colleagues and myself rushed for time we usually would sacrifice a good bit of personal hygiene to get work done in the shortest time possible to meet the needs of our peak hour crowds .

You can safely say that ramen is a form of fast food . Therefore the primary concern is to simply get the food out fast and hot . Therefore the attire we wear is fit for comfort and maybe a little for show . The attire we wear consists of a cotton t-shirt with the logo of our store names along with jeans , shoes and a bandana . All this do not follow any strict regulations as dress code isn’t too much of a concern at work . We just want to get the food out .

Having that said . Fellow employees do not give too much of a whim about dressing . Long pants maybe be torn having holes here and there , shirts included .

The bandana usually takes the form of a cloth secured at the back of the head via a rubber band and is worn just for display as a part of our dress code .

The shirts and pants can be worn a couple of days in a row

Shoes usually take forms in many kinds . For myself , because the kitchen is usually wet and really slippery ( due to beating of noodles ) I wear my safety shoes so that I don’t slip and fall . Whereas my fellow colleagues may wear croc sandals from time to time sometimes even without socks .

Not to mention of course that nails and hair aren’t really properly kept .

All in all The rules of being neat are pretty much for show . It is not that we don’t care but what really matters to us is efficiency . Despite hair lingering everywhere and handling cooked food and order pagers with the same bare hands . Food is still churned out without complaints from customers . There has been zero occurance of any customer having food poisoning throughout the 2 years I have been working there .

From what i see despite the lack of hygiene practices is that the food is always still handled with care despite the possibility of cross contamination . We also handle chicken and eggs at our workplace however cooked food is almost never mixed with raw food . Unless both are touched one after another the cross contamination is rather rare . Even if so . The food is always served hot at temperatures above boiling be it mains or sides therefore even if there is cross contamination . The likelihood of the pathogens sustaining their growth is minimal as everything will be boiled . microwaved or fried before serving . Which brings me to my points on safety practices .

Only with good hygiene practices only can food be served safe . Maintaining good hygiene is one of the first and most simple steps to preventing the spread of illnesses and diseases through food . Food has high water activity which means that they contain suitable levels of moisture for microbial growth . Though some may argue that microbes have their benefits , much of them that multiply on food are harmful for example salmonella and staphylococcus aureus and the list goes on . Most of these can also thrive on our skin and body surfaces therefore it is important to have our body surfaces covered when handling raw/uncooked food .

Next . When handling cooked food . It is preferable for us to handle them not with our bare hands . If so . It would be best if they were sanitized by washing with soap or hand sanitizer . Even if we are not handling food , it is still a good practice to wash our hands with soap every now and then because in our social lives bodily contacts come in many forms such as hand shakes , pats on the back , hugs and so on and so forth .

Clothing should be professionally worn in order to cover skin from sweat emissions that might come into contact with food or other unhygienic matter coincidentally .

However when handling food it is best to use devices such as tongs or disposable latex gloves to handle food .

All in all safety in food preparation is and will always remain as a huge issue as the unspoken rule in the kitchen is that if no one sees what is going on . Nothing is wrong as the food is dished out . However we all can make this turn around by being conscious of our own personal hygiene first .

Personal Hygiene: Nails

Nails

Hygienic habits in kitchen should include keeping nails short to prevent bacteria from gathering under the nails as food contamination can happen.

Bacteria in nails

There are many kinds of bacteria that can be found under the nails, most commonly Salmonella and Escherichia Coli which may come from touching raw meat and poultry.

If the nails are long and not cleaned regularly during food preparation, contamination with these bacteria can happen and cause food poisoning to the consumers.

Artificial Fingernails

Artificial fingernails harbor a greater number of pathogens than natural nails. Artificial fingernails are made of acrylic. Acrylic is a chemical used to fasten the artificial nail and contains methyl and methacrylate. The acrylic in artificial nails is what gives rise to the growth of gram negative bacilli and yeast.Having artificial nails could lead to a lift in the natural human nail base, therefore, dirt and bacteria will then have the opportunity to invade. Also, bacteria and fungi can also grow in between the natural and the artificial nails. In addition, the cosmetic application of the artificial nail may disrupt the natural environment of the human hands in that it interferes with the skin around the fingernails. 

(Source: https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Human_Hands_and_Fingernails#Different_Conditions_of_the_Fingernails)