Keeping Food Safe – Part One

Backgrounder

Many people are leaving the countryside these days. Towns and cities are getting bigger and people are getting busier. Many people don’t have enough time to cook a meal. So they buy food from a market or roadside stall, or they go to a restaurant. This means that more and more people make their living by selling food in stalls and restaurants.

The people who buy food at these stalls or restaurants need to know that their food is safe. This is an important concern for you as a food seller. If you serve food that is spoiled, your customers could get sick, or even die. Food sellers themselves can get sick or die if they eat spoiled food. And your business could suffer. Is there anything you can do to stop your food from spoiling? Fortunately, the answer is yes.

Food is spoiled by two things: tiny organisms called ‘microbes’ that live inside food, and chemicals called ‘enzymes’ that are part of food. If you can stop these microbes and enzymes from growing and spreading, you can stop food from spoiling.

Today we will tell you about some simple, inexpensive ways to stop food from spoiling.

The first way is to wash your hands. Clean your hands thoroughly before you touch any food. Use soap and clean water. Dirty hands can easily spread microbes that spoil food, as well as germs that cause diseases such as diarrhoea. Sometimes you are interrupted while preparing food. For example, you may need to stop and attend to a child. Or you may touch an animal, or use a toilet. If you do any of these things, make sure you wash your hands before you touch any food.

You should also keep any surface where you work with food clean and disinfected. That is, any place where you clean, cut, cook, prepare, serve, or display your food. It might be a table, cutting board or countertop, or a refrigerated display unit. Wash all surfaces with a clean cloth and very hot water. If you do not have hot water, add a few drops of vinegar, iodine or chlorine to some water – this makes a good cleaning solution. Everything should be clean and disinfected, including the cloths you use to wash dishes, clean counters, and dry your hands. And remember to remove all food wastes, food wrappers and other rubbish from food surfaces. Put them in a garbage area as soon as possible.

Make sure that all your dishes are clean and disinfected. Wash dishes in clean hot water after every use. If you do not have any hot water, add a few drops of vinegar, chlorine or iodine to your water. Do not wash dishes in dirty water! This can spread germs that cause disease.

Take care that the food you make and serve to your customers is clean. Wash all food with clean water before cooking. This will get rid of many of the microbes that cause food to spoil. Washing also helps to remove chemicals such as pesticides that may have been used to treat foods. These chemicals are sometimes poisonous, and are especially dangerous for children.

Once your food is clean, store it in clean containers. Always wash and disinfect empty containers before you refill them.

Part of keeping food safe is protecting it from insects, rodents and other animals. Keep animals away from the areas where you prepare and serve food. Store foods in sealed containers in places where no creatures can reach them. Dried foods such as beans, rice, spices and dried fruit are no different – they should also be stored in sealed containers.

There is one last thing to remember: never prepare food when you are ill, especially if you have diarrhoea. You could easily pass on your illness to your customers.

If you follow these practices, your whole business will be clean. If you are careful to keep it clean, your food will be safer, and will not spoil. This is good for your customers – and good for you!

This is the end of our first program on keeping food safe. But there are other important things to talk about. In our second program, we will talk about more ways to keep food from spoiling.

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