FOOD HANDLERS UPDATED EXAM TEST PAPER
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Food Allergies and Allergens (continued) - ✔✔Most people with food allergy know
what to avoid. However, they may need help identifying which ingredients have been
used. Some symptoms of an allergic reaction include: rashes, swelling, difficulty
breathing, unconsciousness, anaphylaxis, and death.
✔✔Best practices - ✔✔The need to protect customers from harm is incredibly important.
Many times, potential allergens hide in plain sight. Therefore, it is critical that your
employees handle food of someone with an allergy with the utmost care and treat the
situation as through they are protecting their own family members' health and wellbeing.
-The most powerful tool that your employees, cooks and servers, cashiers and
managers can have access to is information. It is your responsibility to provide easily
accessible information so that customers can make informed choices about the foods
that they eating. Here are some best practices to consider adding to your establishment:
-Print your recipes and make them available to staff so everyone knows what
ingredients are in tour dishes and what needs to be changed to accommodate diners
with allergies. You should maintain ingredient list for all recipes. Make sure everyone
knows the alternate names for the big eight allergens.
-Create policy for both your front-and back-of-house employees. This policy should
reflect how each person should handle and react to questions about allergen-free menu
items.
-Have a disclaimer up in your restaurant that explains to customers the need to alert
their server if someone has food allergy.
-Wipe down every surface first with soapy water and a clean cloth. Afterward, use
sanitized cloths to wipe the surfaces again.
-Identify special dietary meals such as allergen free dishes, and highlight them on your
menus and menu boards. You can do this through the use of a special icon next to
those dishes.
-Use specially marked tools and plates in the kitchen that are reserved for allergen free
dishes.
✔✔preservation - ✔✔Preservation is the control of the safety and quality of food items.
Food is preserved by doing one or more of the following: killing spoilage and pathogenic
microorganisms, removing oxygen, and removing moisture.
-Preservation delays spoilage, prevents growth of pathogenic microorganisms, and
helps maintain the time period in which food tastes good and is good for us.
-Prevention also allows us to the opportunity to eat foods from faraway places and helps
maintain consistent availability of seasonal food items. We can be in Texas and eat a
lobster fresh from Maine or eat a Meal ready to Eat (MRE) five years after it is packages
because of preservation techniques.
✔✔Types of Preservation - ✔✔Depending on the type of food and preservation period,
different methods of preservation are used.
,✔✔Cold Preservation - ✔✔Foodborne bacteria slow down their growth and eventually
stop growing the colder food gets. Only when the temperature rises above a certain
level do they begin to grow again. Cold preservation does not always kill bacteria; in
fact, for the most part it only slows their growth; therefore, the colder foods can be kept,
the longer they can be preserved. Of course, many foods lose their quality rapidly upon
exposure to low temperatures.
-Types of cold preservation include:
Refrigeration: Good refrigeration temperatures may be anywhere from 34 to 40F; these
temperature are best for short term storage.
-Chilling: Just below refrigeration, but still above freezing. Chilling foods such as raw
meats is common practice by commercial food distributors to maintain quality for a
longer period.
-Freezing: freezing foods means dropping their temperature even lower than chilled
foods (below freezing point). Freezing foods means dropping their temperature even
lower than chilled foods
✔✔Heat Preservation - ✔✔Preservation by heat is simply raising the temperature of
food enough to kill spoilage and pathogenic bacteria.
✔✔Pasteurization - ✔✔Pasteurization is used for mostly dairy products, eggs, and wine.
It kills off many organisms, but after pasteurization, foods must still be preserved by
other means, such as refrigeration. The pasteurization technique involves heating foods
up to mild temperatures momentarily and then cooling them back down immediately.
Food establishments that serve the very young, the elderly or medically fragile must
substitute pasteurized eggs or egg products for raw eggs in the preparation of foods
unless the eggs are combined immediately before cooking a single meal to be served
immediately, such as an omelet, the raw eggs are immediately baked such as in a cake,
or there is a specific HACCP in place. Additionally, raw animal foods like raw fish and
steak tartare, partially cooked animal foods like rare meat and meringue, and raw seed
sprouts may not be served.
✔✔ultra heat treatment (UHT) - ✔✔Is much like pasteurization, except the food items
are bought to an even higher temperature.
✔✔Sterilization - ✔✔Is the process of heating foods at a high enough temperature and
for long enough tine ti destroy all organisms. Food often loses quality due to
sterilization; therefore, variations such as "Ohmic heating" (sterilization of food using
electric currents) have been introduced as an alternative. Heating foods at a lower
temperature and for longer time is also another option.
✔✔Canning - ✔✔Canning of foods require heating as well. In order to kill off the
bacterium Clostridium botulinum (botulism), canned foods are heated 249F for at least
three minutes this is called "botulinum cook." Some canned foods are cooked for longer
periods of time depending on the circumstances.
,✔✔Dehydration - ✔✔Dehydrating foods entails reducing the amount of water inside of
the food items. Instead of turning water into a solid (freezing) so that organisms cannot
use it, dehydration attempts to eliminate water. Dehydrated products such as beef jerky
and banana chips are good examples of how foods that are dehydrated take on new
shapes and textures.
✔✔Sugar and Sat Preservation - ✔✔Adding large amounts of sugar or salt to foods can
preserve them. Both sugar and salt absorb moisture in the food and in essence rob the
microorganisms of the water they need to grow.
Other type of preservation - modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), smoking,
irradiation.
✔✔Temperature control - ✔✔There are recommended methods for each of the
temperature controls listed. Several of these control point are the responsibility of the
manufacturer and the wholesaler while others are the responsibility of the food service
establishment.
-Food service establishments receive food that is already processed in some way. From
flour to dry beans, deli meats to prime rib, and vegetables to egg - each one has already
passed through several sets of hands before reaching your receiving door. That is why
it is crucial that foods are checked in and inspected thoroughly. Meat that looks off color
or is over 40F should be rejected. Vegetables that have signs of bruising, cracked eggs,
frozen items that are thawed, and fish that looks dull or has a strong odor should also
be rejected. Once the items are checked in, they must be stored correctly to prevent
further time and temperature abuse. As items are stored, make sure that existing stock
is rotated. Remember first in/first out.
- Beef brisket is properly handled and thawed in a food establishment - a young prep
cook accidentally put case of beef brisket into your walk in freezer, which holds the
temperature at 20F.
✔✔Thawing - ✔✔Remember that thawing could expose the meat to time and
temperature abuse. It is necessary to ensure that the entire cut of meat is thawed
completely before placing it into the smoker. It is not a good practice to leave the meat
inside the box or to leave the items to thaw on a prep area. In order to correctly handle
the meat, each piece that your intend to cooks needs to be placed in a tray to catch any
water or blood that is released during thawing. The meat needs to be placed into the
walk in cooler. However, placing nine briskets in trays makes for a crowded thawing
area. After rearranging a few things, all but two of the briskets are safety thawing in the
walk in cooler. Now you must decide how to thaw the other two pieces of brisket so that
it is not in the danger zone. There are many other ways that meat can be thawed. Here
are several of them that are acceptable under section 3-501.13 of the FDA food code:
-In a refrigeration unit at, or colder than, 41F
-Submerged under running, quality, drinking water at, or below, 70F
-As part of the cooking process, if cooked according to the requirements of the food
code.
, -In a microwave oven if the food will be cooked immediately afterward using
conventional means and the manufacturer's instructions are followed.
-Using any safe method is a segment of frozen ready-to-eat food is thawed and
prepared to be immediately served to an individual consumer by order.
✔✔Thawing (continued) - ✔✔The walk in cooler is already full to capacity and most of
the other methods do not make any sense because the entire brisket needs to go into
the smoker. Seeing no other alternative, the thawing method chosen is to submerge the
brisket in running drinking water below 70F. After a coupe of hours, the meat is thawed
completely and while the young prep cook has been busy helping, none of the meat has
been exposed to the temperature danger zone and the meat can be used. Once some
lessons are learned, they are not soon forgotten. For reduced oxygen packaged fish
that is to be kept frozen until it is ready for use, there are some additional thawing
requirements. It should only be removed from its reduced oxygen environment prior to
being thawed in a refrigerated unit or prior to or immediately after completing thawing
under running water.
✔✔Storing Food Properly - ✔✔In the food service establishment, proper food storage is
a crucial part of protecting food from pathogens. Proper food storage helps maintain
food quality by retaining flavor, color, texture and nutrients, while reducing the chance of
contracting a food-borne illness. Foods can be classified into three groups:
-Perishable foods including meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, and many raw fruits and
vegetables.
-Semi-perishable foods including flour, grain products, dried fruits and dry mixes are
considered semi-perishable. If properly stored and handled, they may remain unspoiled
for six months to about one year.
-Non-perishable or staple foods like sugar, dried beans, spices and canned goods do
not spoil unless they are handled carelessly. These foods will lose quality, however, if
stored over a long time, even if stored under ideal conditions.
✔✔Storing Food Properly (continued) - ✔✔There are many factors that go into how food
will last once it is in your establishment. It is important to consider the following factors
that will impact how long unprepared foods last. The storage life of foods is affected by
the:
-Freshness of the food when it is reached the food service establishment
-Length of time and the temperature at which it was held before purchase
-Temperature of your food storage areas
-Humidity level in your food storage areas
-Type of storage container or packaging the food is stored in
-Characteristics of the food item
✔✔Storing Previously Prepared Food Safety - ✔✔Wouldn't it be great if all foods that
was cooked each day in a food establishment was used each day. Of course, it would
because then there would be no wasted food and nothing to store for another day. That
rarely happens, so implementing best practices for storing previously prepared foods
must be planned. In order to safety store previously prepared foods or sale items, your
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Food Allergies and Allergens (continued) - ✔✔Most people with food allergy know
what to avoid. However, they may need help identifying which ingredients have been
used. Some symptoms of an allergic reaction include: rashes, swelling, difficulty
breathing, unconsciousness, anaphylaxis, and death.
✔✔Best practices - ✔✔The need to protect customers from harm is incredibly important.
Many times, potential allergens hide in plain sight. Therefore, it is critical that your
employees handle food of someone with an allergy with the utmost care and treat the
situation as through they are protecting their own family members' health and wellbeing.
-The most powerful tool that your employees, cooks and servers, cashiers and
managers can have access to is information. It is your responsibility to provide easily
accessible information so that customers can make informed choices about the foods
that they eating. Here are some best practices to consider adding to your establishment:
-Print your recipes and make them available to staff so everyone knows what
ingredients are in tour dishes and what needs to be changed to accommodate diners
with allergies. You should maintain ingredient list for all recipes. Make sure everyone
knows the alternate names for the big eight allergens.
-Create policy for both your front-and back-of-house employees. This policy should
reflect how each person should handle and react to questions about allergen-free menu
items.
-Have a disclaimer up in your restaurant that explains to customers the need to alert
their server if someone has food allergy.
-Wipe down every surface first with soapy water and a clean cloth. Afterward, use
sanitized cloths to wipe the surfaces again.
-Identify special dietary meals such as allergen free dishes, and highlight them on your
menus and menu boards. You can do this through the use of a special icon next to
those dishes.
-Use specially marked tools and plates in the kitchen that are reserved for allergen free
dishes.
✔✔preservation - ✔✔Preservation is the control of the safety and quality of food items.
Food is preserved by doing one or more of the following: killing spoilage and pathogenic
microorganisms, removing oxygen, and removing moisture.
-Preservation delays spoilage, prevents growth of pathogenic microorganisms, and
helps maintain the time period in which food tastes good and is good for us.
-Prevention also allows us to the opportunity to eat foods from faraway places and helps
maintain consistent availability of seasonal food items. We can be in Texas and eat a
lobster fresh from Maine or eat a Meal ready to Eat (MRE) five years after it is packages
because of preservation techniques.
✔✔Types of Preservation - ✔✔Depending on the type of food and preservation period,
different methods of preservation are used.
,✔✔Cold Preservation - ✔✔Foodborne bacteria slow down their growth and eventually
stop growing the colder food gets. Only when the temperature rises above a certain
level do they begin to grow again. Cold preservation does not always kill bacteria; in
fact, for the most part it only slows their growth; therefore, the colder foods can be kept,
the longer they can be preserved. Of course, many foods lose their quality rapidly upon
exposure to low temperatures.
-Types of cold preservation include:
Refrigeration: Good refrigeration temperatures may be anywhere from 34 to 40F; these
temperature are best for short term storage.
-Chilling: Just below refrigeration, but still above freezing. Chilling foods such as raw
meats is common practice by commercial food distributors to maintain quality for a
longer period.
-Freezing: freezing foods means dropping their temperature even lower than chilled
foods (below freezing point). Freezing foods means dropping their temperature even
lower than chilled foods
✔✔Heat Preservation - ✔✔Preservation by heat is simply raising the temperature of
food enough to kill spoilage and pathogenic bacteria.
✔✔Pasteurization - ✔✔Pasteurization is used for mostly dairy products, eggs, and wine.
It kills off many organisms, but after pasteurization, foods must still be preserved by
other means, such as refrigeration. The pasteurization technique involves heating foods
up to mild temperatures momentarily and then cooling them back down immediately.
Food establishments that serve the very young, the elderly or medically fragile must
substitute pasteurized eggs or egg products for raw eggs in the preparation of foods
unless the eggs are combined immediately before cooking a single meal to be served
immediately, such as an omelet, the raw eggs are immediately baked such as in a cake,
or there is a specific HACCP in place. Additionally, raw animal foods like raw fish and
steak tartare, partially cooked animal foods like rare meat and meringue, and raw seed
sprouts may not be served.
✔✔ultra heat treatment (UHT) - ✔✔Is much like pasteurization, except the food items
are bought to an even higher temperature.
✔✔Sterilization - ✔✔Is the process of heating foods at a high enough temperature and
for long enough tine ti destroy all organisms. Food often loses quality due to
sterilization; therefore, variations such as "Ohmic heating" (sterilization of food using
electric currents) have been introduced as an alternative. Heating foods at a lower
temperature and for longer time is also another option.
✔✔Canning - ✔✔Canning of foods require heating as well. In order to kill off the
bacterium Clostridium botulinum (botulism), canned foods are heated 249F for at least
three minutes this is called "botulinum cook." Some canned foods are cooked for longer
periods of time depending on the circumstances.
,✔✔Dehydration - ✔✔Dehydrating foods entails reducing the amount of water inside of
the food items. Instead of turning water into a solid (freezing) so that organisms cannot
use it, dehydration attempts to eliminate water. Dehydrated products such as beef jerky
and banana chips are good examples of how foods that are dehydrated take on new
shapes and textures.
✔✔Sugar and Sat Preservation - ✔✔Adding large amounts of sugar or salt to foods can
preserve them. Both sugar and salt absorb moisture in the food and in essence rob the
microorganisms of the water they need to grow.
Other type of preservation - modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), smoking,
irradiation.
✔✔Temperature control - ✔✔There are recommended methods for each of the
temperature controls listed. Several of these control point are the responsibility of the
manufacturer and the wholesaler while others are the responsibility of the food service
establishment.
-Food service establishments receive food that is already processed in some way. From
flour to dry beans, deli meats to prime rib, and vegetables to egg - each one has already
passed through several sets of hands before reaching your receiving door. That is why
it is crucial that foods are checked in and inspected thoroughly. Meat that looks off color
or is over 40F should be rejected. Vegetables that have signs of bruising, cracked eggs,
frozen items that are thawed, and fish that looks dull or has a strong odor should also
be rejected. Once the items are checked in, they must be stored correctly to prevent
further time and temperature abuse. As items are stored, make sure that existing stock
is rotated. Remember first in/first out.
- Beef brisket is properly handled and thawed in a food establishment - a young prep
cook accidentally put case of beef brisket into your walk in freezer, which holds the
temperature at 20F.
✔✔Thawing - ✔✔Remember that thawing could expose the meat to time and
temperature abuse. It is necessary to ensure that the entire cut of meat is thawed
completely before placing it into the smoker. It is not a good practice to leave the meat
inside the box or to leave the items to thaw on a prep area. In order to correctly handle
the meat, each piece that your intend to cooks needs to be placed in a tray to catch any
water or blood that is released during thawing. The meat needs to be placed into the
walk in cooler. However, placing nine briskets in trays makes for a crowded thawing
area. After rearranging a few things, all but two of the briskets are safety thawing in the
walk in cooler. Now you must decide how to thaw the other two pieces of brisket so that
it is not in the danger zone. There are many other ways that meat can be thawed. Here
are several of them that are acceptable under section 3-501.13 of the FDA food code:
-In a refrigeration unit at, or colder than, 41F
-Submerged under running, quality, drinking water at, or below, 70F
-As part of the cooking process, if cooked according to the requirements of the food
code.
, -In a microwave oven if the food will be cooked immediately afterward using
conventional means and the manufacturer's instructions are followed.
-Using any safe method is a segment of frozen ready-to-eat food is thawed and
prepared to be immediately served to an individual consumer by order.
✔✔Thawing (continued) - ✔✔The walk in cooler is already full to capacity and most of
the other methods do not make any sense because the entire brisket needs to go into
the smoker. Seeing no other alternative, the thawing method chosen is to submerge the
brisket in running drinking water below 70F. After a coupe of hours, the meat is thawed
completely and while the young prep cook has been busy helping, none of the meat has
been exposed to the temperature danger zone and the meat can be used. Once some
lessons are learned, they are not soon forgotten. For reduced oxygen packaged fish
that is to be kept frozen until it is ready for use, there are some additional thawing
requirements. It should only be removed from its reduced oxygen environment prior to
being thawed in a refrigerated unit or prior to or immediately after completing thawing
under running water.
✔✔Storing Food Properly - ✔✔In the food service establishment, proper food storage is
a crucial part of protecting food from pathogens. Proper food storage helps maintain
food quality by retaining flavor, color, texture and nutrients, while reducing the chance of
contracting a food-borne illness. Foods can be classified into three groups:
-Perishable foods including meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, and many raw fruits and
vegetables.
-Semi-perishable foods including flour, grain products, dried fruits and dry mixes are
considered semi-perishable. If properly stored and handled, they may remain unspoiled
for six months to about one year.
-Non-perishable or staple foods like sugar, dried beans, spices and canned goods do
not spoil unless they are handled carelessly. These foods will lose quality, however, if
stored over a long time, even if stored under ideal conditions.
✔✔Storing Food Properly (continued) - ✔✔There are many factors that go into how food
will last once it is in your establishment. It is important to consider the following factors
that will impact how long unprepared foods last. The storage life of foods is affected by
the:
-Freshness of the food when it is reached the food service establishment
-Length of time and the temperature at which it was held before purchase
-Temperature of your food storage areas
-Humidity level in your food storage areas
-Type of storage container or packaging the food is stored in
-Characteristics of the food item
✔✔Storing Previously Prepared Food Safety - ✔✔Wouldn't it be great if all foods that
was cooked each day in a food establishment was used each day. Of course, it would
because then there would be no wasted food and nothing to store for another day. That
rarely happens, so implementing best practices for storing previously prepared foods
must be planned. In order to safety store previously prepared foods or sale items, your
