Risk Management
Risk Management
Risk Management
Course Description
This course is designed to introduce the students to the value of safety, security and sanitation
principles and sound practices. Using the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) as guidelines, the
students are oriented towards the proper handling of food from preparation, production to service. It provides
an orientation on the various categories of hazard such as garbage disposal procedures, pest management and
accident prevention in the establishment and factors involved in food safety and physical risk management.
TABLE OF CONTENT
WEEK 11 HACCP
A food borne disease occurs when a person eats a contaminated food product containing harmful
pathogens, which then grow in the intestinal tract and cause illness. Depending on the pathogen,
organism, or chemical, food borne illness symptoms can range from mild to severe and can last
from a few hours to several days.
Food borne illness is a disease that is caused by consumption of food items that are contaminated
by dangerous micro-organism also known as germs or microbes. Please take note that the word
borne with an “e” means carried. Thus simply speaking food borne illness means an illness carried
by food. This is often referred to as food poisoning by many professional in the Hotel and restaurant
industry. Nevertheless, this term does not only constraint to contaminates foods but as well to
contaminated beverages.
A person suffering from food borne illness may experience the following symptoms:
Diarrhea – Also known as LBM or Loose bowel movement. This is when a person has
watery stool. This person may visit the toilet for two to three times within an hour or even
more.
Vomiting – Also known as throwing up. This is when the person pushes out all the food and
liquid from its stomach exiting through its mouth, this may include gastric juice that is about
green or yellowish in color.
Nausea – This is when the person experience light headedness and may not be able to
stand straight for a long period of time.
Muscle cramps – the person experiences tightness on the same part of the muscle.
Difficulty moving this muscles may be experience. Pain in this cramped muscles may also
be experience by the person.
Stomach ache – Extreme pain in the abdominal area. These maybe cause by spasm or
bloating of stomach due to some gases produced in the stomach or intestine by the micro-
organisms.
Body weakness – Loss of strength particularly on the extremities of the person. The person
may not be able to stand up or walk at this stage.
Dehydration – This is the most dangerous symptoms of food borne illness. This occurs
when the person losses a significant amount of the body fluids particularly electrolytes
during diarrhea. Electrolytes help control the fluids in the body, maintain normal ph level and
ensure the correct electric potential between nerve cells that enable the transmission of the
nerve signals. A person experiencing dehydration may have dry mouth with the lips starting
to cracked, flushed skin and usually have dark circles around the eyes. If the person is not
re-hydrated on the soonest possible time serious damage to some organs may occur which
may eventually cause DEATH.
The micro-organism that causes food borne illness cannot travel on their own and
contaminate food. This micro-organism is transferred through the food via a process called
cross contamination. Cross contamination is a process wherein an infected person may not
be the only way that a food item maybe contaminated, they could also be contaminated
through the following:
Let us start this topic by giving an example. Suppose you bought a fresh fish from the
market in the morning is immediately placed in the freezer of the refrigerator. On the next day, the
fish is frozen, you get it thawed. (thawing is the process of defrosting frozen meats or fish/ goods)
The fish is not deteriorated.
Why did the fish frozen in the freezer did not deteriorate compared to the one just place on top of
the table?
The main explanation of the above is that at certain temperature, certain micro-organism
particularly bacteria are active and are capable of multiplying. This temperature where
bacteria are active and capable of multiplying. This temperature where bacteria are active
and are capable of multiplying. This temperature where bacteria are active is between 5 to
60 °C. Thus, the main objective in order to keep the food safe from contamination is to keep
it away from the temperature danger zone. The fish that was stored inside the freezer did
not deteriorate because the temperature inside the freezer is between 0 to negative 20 °C.
At this temperature the micro-organism cannot multiply and affect food items both raw and
cooked. Therefore, this is the main reason why you would see some flame at the bottom
part of a chaffing dish. (a stainless steel shallow pan with a with a source of heat beneath)
on a buffet table. The flame is not just to keep the food warm but to ensure that the
temperature of the food item is always outside on the temperature danger zone. (in this case
60°C. According to experts, you can only leave a food safe for consumption in the water
danger zone for about 4 hours beyond that time, most big hotels would discard the food in
order to avoid food borne illness. For them, it is cheaper to discard dangerous food items
than to face law suits and damage claim, not to mention ruin the company’s reputation from
individual who had been sick by eating contaminated food from their establishment.
Certain food items are pre packed when they arrive in the supermarket. Some of
them need to be cooked such as instant noodles, hotdogs ,and cereals while other are
ready to eat such as sardines, corned beef and beef loaf. Most ready to eat items usually
comes in cans or in sealed jars. Canning is the process of preserving food by heating and
sealing them in airtight containers should be very clean and free of micro-organism before
the food items are place inside these containers. If not, the food inside the containers are
already contaminated with deadly micro-organism that cause food borne illness. Further, the
containers should be tightly sealed to avoid other micro-organism from coming inside the
containers and spoil the food items. In the Philippines, the Bureau of food and drugs (BFAD)
of the department of Health is the government body in charge of inspecting and regulating
big food manufacturing plants to make sure that a high degree of hygiene standards is being
followed and practiced by these plants.
Make sure that the frozen items are as much as possible wrapped in vacuum packed
plastic containers. Vacuum packing the food would discourage the growth of micro
organism due to the absence of oxygen and moisture.
Make sure that the plastic seal is still intact. This means that the food items inside
that pack had not been cross contaminated due to a broken pack.
If the above consideration are met, then try to see if the plastic bag have some
frozen ice inside the bag. Particularly, an ice that is colored red as a sign of blood
leaching ( leaching is the process when soluble materials from a food particularly
meat and vegetables escape due to improper handling, this materials would come in
a liquid form and would froze outside of the food item. If this is present, perhaps this
means the following;
- The meat had been frozen and thawed before thus the leaching occurs,
then it had been re-frozen back to look like that it had been properly
stored.
- Adding salt to the food items when freezing them. Salt dehydrates the
cell, thus forming a liquid part then turning into colored (depending on the
color of the vegetable or meat) ice inside the pack.
Thus in order to avoid food borne illness brought about by improper packing of food
items the following considerations are useful;
In order to prepare the food in the most hygienic manner we would seriously take this following
consideration;
The person preparing the food – The person preparing the food would be dressed
appropriately wearing a complete chef uniform. The uniform should have been
properly washed and disinfect from the workplace so contamination from the
outside environment. Further, the person should wash their hands before starting
to work. Nails should be cut short in order to avoid harboring dangerous micro-
organism in the long nails. The person preparing the food should avoid touching
any part of the face and hair as these places are high risk. Lastly wearing of hands
jewelleries.
The area where the food is prepare – The area where the food is prepare should
be strictly restricted only to the kitchen staff. Other personnel should not be allowed
to enter the preparation and cooking room. This is done in order to avoid
contaminated people from outside the preparation area brought in unwanted micro-
organisms that may contaminate the food.
The area must also be free from pest and rodents such as cockroaches, rats and
other insects. Insects and rodents may dangerously contaminate the food items
through their droppings or through the dangerous micro-organism that they carry in
their body. Once these creatures got into contact with the food items secretly, they
leave on the food items various micro-organism that may seriously infect human
ingesting these contaminated foods. Thus, the preparation area should be
enclosed enough that the insects and rodents would find it next to impossible to
enter such area.
Working areas as well as the tools and equipment being used in the preparation area
should be thoroughly cleaned and stored in places that they are free of contaminants as well as
insects and rodents.
Dangerous cleaning chemicals should not be stored inside the food preparation area
they may be mistaken as food ingredients that may cause multiple fatalities.
Lastly, proper waste disposal of garbage inside the preparation area should be
constantly made in order not to expose the prepared food into these things that may contaminate
the food.
IMPROPER REHEATING OF FOOD
Reheating of leftover food is very common among many people here in
the Philippines. However, serious things should be considered in reheating food items. First,
leftover food items should be properly stored in a freezer or chiller and freezer is that these food
items should have been properly cooled first. Putting hot or warm items inside the freezer or chiller
would not only destroy the freezer or chiller but would take a long time to lower down the
temperature of the food item, thus making it still susceptible to food spoilage. Second, when
reheating food items, make sure that the entire food items are left reheating that is still not
consumed, cooling and reheating them again for the second time would pose a serious hazard in
food poisoning.
PHYSICAL HAZARDS
Physical hazards are foreign objects in food that can cause illness or injury.
Among them are the following.
Pebbles
Fragments of jewelry
Staple wires
Hairs
Broken glass
Cracked manicures
Physical hazards are a common sign of poor food handling practices making workers not
properly well briefed or trained in food safety. To prevent physical hazards, thoroughly check food
items for the presence of these hazards, properly washed these food items.
Another important aspect is that the employees who are in direct contact with food should
be properly trained in their work to prevent foreign hazard getting mixed up with food items. Lastly,
discourage food service staff from wearing jewelries particularly hand jewelries while they are
working in the kitchen.
WEEK 6
CHEMICAL HAZARDS
Chemical Hazards in food s come into two different categories. They are man-made chemical and
natural occurring chemicals.
These are hazardous chemical added to food items. They are called man made because humans
manufacture them in order enhance the shelf life of food items, enhance its flavor and to kill pest that are
damaging important crops.
Food additives- These are use to enhance the flavor and appearance of the food. Among
them are food coloring, salt and other food enhancing flavours.
Food preservatives- These are use to enhance the shelf life of the food items, among them
are phosphates, sodium nitrate and others. These items should be properly use in
preserving food. In an event in this food items are not properly measured and being use fro
more than what is necessary, the result would be fatal to the person who ingested it.
Pesticides- This items are often sprays in fresh fruits and vegetables before they are being
harvested to repel pest and other insects from destroying the fruits or vegetables. In an
instance that the fruit and vegetables is an wash and are consume by human whilst the
pesticide is still present, the result may be fatal and may result to serious injury to the
person.
There are three common natural occurring food chemicals that are dangerous to humans once
ingested among them are food allergens, shell fish toxins and mycotoxins.
Food Allergen
A food allergen is a chemical in certain food items that causes allergic reaction. It should be noted
that certain person are allergic to certain type of food while other person may be unaffected by such food
items. Upon ingestion of the allergen, allergic reaction would occur, among them are the following:
Hives- an allergic reaction in the skin that causes swelling, redness and lesions began to form.
Swelling of the lips
Swelling of the tongue and mouth
Itchiness all over the body including scalp and palms
Vomiting
Diarrheal
Muscle cramps
Wheezing
Difficulty in breathing
Among the food that usually cause allergic reaction are the following;
Eggs
Peanuts
Wheat proteins
Tree nuts (walnuts, macadamia)
Crabs
Shrimps
Squids/octopus
Fish
Clams
Mussels
Oyster
Chicken
The best way for a person allergic to a certain type of food is to avoid eating these foods. Some of these
foods allergens may be fatal even if ingested in smaller quantities.
Shellfish Toxins
There are several shellfish toxins. Among them are the following;
The most common symptoms for the above poisoning are the following;
These toxins come toxic algae called dinoflagellates. These dinoflagellates are microscopic and they
are freely floating about in the water. Certain types of shellfish absorbed by them while they are in the
water. Eating these contaminated shellfish that are common sources of these toxins from dinoflagellates are
the following;
Mussels
Clams
Oysters
Scallops
In an event that the poisoning is reported, avoid eating these types of shellfish until a safety
advisory from health authorities will come out. In the Philippines, a similar poisoning is known as
RED TIDE. Red tide is named after red colored dinoflagellates found in the sea causing the sea water
to turn red. These are ingested by shellfish and can be fatal to human when ingested in enough
quantities.
Mycotoxins
Mycotoxins organism are fungi, molds, yeast and mushrooms. This organism procedures a chemical
compound called mycotoxins in an event that they grow of food items.
Milk, meat or eggs from animal that had been fed contaminated grains
Cereals
Corn
Corn products such as breakfast, cereals, popcorns
Peanuts
Walnuts
Hemorrhage
Liver damaged
Fluid build up in the body
Intestine injury
Spleen injury
Thymus injury
Cancer
Death in advance stages
The most common prevention from mycotoxin is to keep nuts, corn and corn products dry. Should
these types of food items are exposed to water or humidity, the best solution is to discard them particularly
away from animals that might feed them and get contaminated.