Category: Health & Safety
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Common Pests – Rats and mice
Mice can enter premises through a hole no larger than the diameter of a pencil. Young rats don’t need a much bigger space. Once rats and mice are established they can be very difficult to get rid of. They can breed very quickly and they often have a resistance to rodenticides and other chemical poisons.…
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Don’t create any favourable conditions for pests
You can never be completely sure of keeping pests out, but you can at least limit the opportunities for them to contaminate food. Here are some good working practices to do this: remove spillage and food particles promptly from work surfaces and floors don’t leave dirty utensils and equipment lying around maintain a high standard…
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Keep pests away from food
There are three main kinds of pests which are commonly found in places where food for human consumption is prepared or stored. (There’s also a fourth type, namely student chefs who can eat like a plague of locusts sometimes, but that’s a different story.) The main types are: rodents – such as mice and rats…
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Colour Coding
The previous article looked at equipment to food contamination and suggested using separate equipment and utensils for raw and cooked foods. Colour coding is one way to achieve this. Most commercial kitchens use colour coded chopping boards, and even colour coded knives, cloths, etc. Here’s a table of the most usual colour coding system. Colour…
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Prevent Cross-Contamination
Here are some rules to prevent cross-contamination of food. Identify separate parts of the work area for dealing with raw meat and poultry and foods which will be eaten without being subjected to any further cooking This isn’t always feasible in a domestic environment, in which case you could use separate chopping boards for raw…
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Other sources of bacteria
Having already talked about the two main sources of food poisoning bacteria – raw food and humans – now we can look at some other common sources. Flies and other insects Birds Rats and mice All these pests carry bacteria in their bodies and in their urine and droppings. They can infect food and places…