ServSafe Food Handler Study Guide for the ServSafe

Cross-Contamination

Cross-contamination happens when pathogens are passed and spread from one person, thing, food, or surface to another and can lead to foodborne illness. Reject food and non-food items that are received open, torn, water damaged, leaking, discolored, smelly, rusty, dented, swollen, etc. These could signal contamination and could cross-contaminate your establishment.

Preventing Cross-Contamination

When storing foods, you should use designated areas for certain items and always wrap them to prevent something falling into them. Never reuse chemical containers to store food—use only food-grade containers. Always store and transport raw and ready-to-eat foods separately. When storing food in the same refrigerated cooler, store on shelves top to bottom in this order:

• Ready-to-eat foods
• Seafood
• Whole cuts of meat
• Ground meat and ground fish
• All poultry

Store non-food items away from walls and at least six inches from the floor.

During Food Preparation

It is easy to cross-contaminate while preparing raw and ready-to-eat foods at the same time if you’re not paying attention. But if you cross-contaminate, you could cause customers or coworkers to get sick. There are guidelines to follow when preparing foods.

Safe Practices with Tools and Surfaces

Work stations, tables, cutting boards, knives, equipment, and utensils must be cleaned and sanitized. Prep raw meat, seafood, and poultry at different times or in different areas than ready-to-eat foods. Clean and sanitize everything between tasks.

Safe Practices with Produce

Ready-to-eat foods and fresh produce must not come into contact with anything that’s been used for raw meat, seafood, or poultry. Produce must be washed and soaked at the prep sink under slightly warm water, between any leaves and ribs where dirt collects. Never mix different items when soaking. The prep sink must be washed and sanitized before use and used only to prep food.

Self-Service Safety

Self-service areas like buffets can become contaminated by customers reaching under the sneeze guard, using their bare hands to get food, or reusing dirty plates. Buffets are vulnerable to biological, chemical, and physical contamination and can be kept safe by self-service guidelines.

Food

Food items must be labeled, have their own separate serving utensil, and must be under a sneeze guard.

Utensils

Each food item must have its own utensil and customers should never use a dirty utensil to pick up food, or reuse their dirty plate. Ask customers not to do so if you see it happen.

Ice

Never serve customers ice that has been used to keep something cold, such as ice in a container of bottled drinks, or ice under bowls of cold food.

Safety When Serving Food

Servers can cross-contaminate if they touch food-contact surfaces when serving customers. A food-contact surface is the inner rim of a plate or the rim of a drinking glass. There are guidelines to follow when touching utensils, handles, and other things servers touch.

Handling Dishes and Utensils

Never touch the area of the plate, bowl, or glass that comes in contact with food or drink. Hold plates and bowls by their base or their edge. Hold glasses by their middle, base, or stem. Never stack glasses. Carry them in a glassware rack or on a tray. Never hold utensils by the end that customers put in their mouths. Hold utensils by their handle. Never use bare hands to serve ready-to-eat (RTE) foods like sandwiches. Use tongs, deli sheets, or gloves to serve RTE foods.

Ice Dispensing

Never scoop ice with a glass. The glass could break, physically contaminating the ice with glass shards. Never scoop ice with bare hands. Use the designated ice scoop or tongs.

Other Safety Practices When Serving Food

• Never use cleaning towels for other tasks, and never store them in your pocket or apron. Towels should be kept in a bucket of sanitizer solution when not in use.
• Never use the same utensil for different food items; always separate utensils for each item. This is especially important between ready-to-eat foods and raw foods.
• Utensil handles should always be up and out of the food, and foods should be covered to prevent contamination.

Storage Safety

It is equally important to keep non-food items clean and free of pathogens to prevent cross-contamination. Equipment, utensils, food prep surfaces, and cleaning supplies must all be stored safely and properly.

Utensils

Shelves and storage surfaces must be cleaned and sanitized. Equipment and utensils used for food prep must be stored at least six inches from the floor. Glasses and cups should be stored upside down and utensils stored handle up.

Chemicals

Cleaning supplies should be stored away from food to prevent chemical contamination, including mops and buckets. Chemicals should be stored in original containers or labeled if poured into new ones, and disposed of according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Mop water should be dumped into the designated service sink drain and nowhere else to prevent the spread of pathogens.

What If Cross-Contamination Occurs?

If cross-contamination happens, do what you can to correct the issue. Put the contaminated product to the side to prevent further use. Consult your manager if you don’t know what to do, but act swiftly to prevent further contamination.

Allergens

Some customers are allergic to certain foods and contact could lead to severe sickness or even death. When allergens come in contact with foods or surfaces, this is called cross-contact and could be dangerous to customers with allergies. When cooking for and serving customers with allergies, cross-contact must be avoided.

Common Allergens

There are many foods that contain the proteins that cause allergic reactions (allergens), but eight foods are the most common. These are the Big 8 and food handlers must be aware of them:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Soy
• Fish (like bass, flounder, and cod)
• Tree nuts (like almonds, walnuts, and pecans)
• Peanuts
• Wheat
• Crustacean Shellfish (like crab, lobster, and shrimp)

Serving Food Safely

When serving customers with food allergies, use the following steps to avoid cross-contact:

• Inform the customer how each menu item is prepared and ask your manager if you’re not sure. (You should know of any menu item containing Big 8 ingredients.)
• Disclose all “secret” ingredients.
• Suggest menu items without food allergens.
• Clearly inform the kitchen of any allergen special order.
• Hand deliver the special order separately.

Preparing Food Safely

Cross-contact must be avoided during preparation and cooking.

• Read ingredient labels and recipes for allergens.
• Wash, rinse, and sanitize everything you’ll use to prepare the food, including the table. Your establishment might require separate utensils for allergen orders.
• Wash your hands and put on new gloves. Avoid cross-contact with other foods, drinks, your gloves, equipment, utensils, etc.
• Use separate fryers and cooking oil when frying foods (for example, chicken fried in oil that has fried shrimp can cause cross-contact).

If Cross-Contact Occurs

If something comes in contact with a food allergen, keep it away from the customer. Never serve cross-contact foods to the allergic customer. Put them to the side. Inform your manager if you think cross-contact has occurred.

If an Allergic Reaction Occurs

If a customer experiences an allergic reaction, call your local emergency number and inform your manager. You must take action to protect the customer.