A
modern meat retailing operation. Lots of products, red meats, poultry, pork and a range
of value added ready to eat products. Looks good doesn't it? Clean food and clean surroundings.
But value adding adds another dimension to meat retailing. Food safety. Selling safe
food from safe surroundings. Look what happens when food safety goes wrong. A devastating
outbreak. 18 dead and more than 500 injured. Some of them seriously. The cause? Production
of cooked value added meat products. An inquiry found many lapses of food safety and in this
program we're going to cover the causes of the Scottish outbreak. We'll point you in
the right direction for setting up and operating a clean safe premises. But you should also
consult your trade association, local authority and your supplier of cleaning chemicals. The
program is in three parts. One, the basics of hygiene. Two, safe processing of value
added products. Three, how to keep your premises clean and minimise cross contamination. Let's
start with the basics of hygiene. There are two aspects to hygiene. The first is a clean
premises free of dirt and waste foods. You can see if an area is clean so this aspect
is straightforward. The second is more difficult to control. It's all about germs, bacteria
which are invisible to the naked eye. You can't see them but they're there. On the
surface of meat and poultry, on equipment and utensils and on us, all over us but especially
our hands. Let's expose the enemies, their names and addresses. First there's Salmonella,
an old enemy. It's occasionally present on raw meat. On cooked meats and small goods
it can be a killer. Look what it did in the Victorian epidemic of 1997. Almost 1000 illnesses
and three deaths. Then there's E. coli. Also found on raw meat and normally a harmless
bacterium, there are a few really dangerous types which target the very young and very
old. There is also Listeria. It attacks the young, old, pregnant and people whose immune
systems are down. It lives in the environment so there are plenty of ways it can get onto
cooked products if we let it. A fourth enemy is Clostridium. It also is present on raw
meat and it's resistant to cooking because it has spores. These spores germinate like
seeds and the bacteria grow very quickly in cooked meats which are not cooled properly.
The fifth enemy is Staphylococcus or Golden Staph. It lives in us, in food handlers, on
our hands, noses and in spots or pimples. It's a very common cause of food poisoning.
Okay, now we know the enemies, where they live and how they like to grow. We can beat
them with this knowledge. In the next program we'll look at how to cook and cool properly
so bacteria are not a problem. In our first program we listed the five main
enemies. Now let's look at how we control them. There are three ways to do this. Kill
the bacteria during cooking, cool quickly and safely, have a clean area to prevent cross
contamination. The first effective control on all our products is that they are cooked.
We put the heat into product in the roasting and smoking oven or on the stove. These processes
must deliver enough heat so that the dangerous bacteria are all killed. All that is except
for Clostridium. We know we can't kill the spores so we'll cover how to beat this bacterium
later in the program. But for almost all bacteria high temperatures have the same effect as
a scud missile. Look at how these salmonella have exploded during cooking. So cooking works,
but how much cooking do we need to kill bacteria? For cooking hams we need 65 degrees centigrade
for 10 minutes at the slowest heating point, the centre. This is because dangerous bacteria
may be at the centre. On a beef roast the bacteria are all on the surface so cooking
and smoking delivers a much higher temperature than 65 degrees for a much longer time. You
can check it by putting the probe just under the surface. Worried about the centre being
rare? You needn't because in a piece of meat the bacteria are all on the outside. When
you cook on the stove the germs are all through the product so you must make sure the heat
is stirred through the product. If you bring the mix to the boil you'll have put enough
heat into the product to kill all the dangerous germs. Well our cooking processes have given
us a product that looks good, tastes good and is also safe. Now we have to keep it safe
during cooling. Our enemy now is spores of clostridium which have survived the cooking.
Once the product cools to 60 degrees the spores germinate and begin to grow. Between 30 and
50 degrees the bacteria grow at a fast rate doubling the population every 15 minutes or
so. Below 30 degrees growth still occurs but at a lower rate so rapid cooling is the go.
The best way is to cool the product in cold water until the temperature gets below 60
degrees then get it into the fridge. But not in a large volume like this. It'll take many
hours for the centre to cool and the bacteria may reach a level where they can injure your
customers. Remember just putting hot food in the chiller isn't the end of the matter.
You must arrange the product so the cold air gets to all the surfaces and protect it from
contamination by preventing cross contamination. Now in your cooked products recontamination
is the real enemy. Any dangerous germs which get in now will go straight into the consumers
mouths and may poison them. So let's look at some ways in which final products can get
contaminated. Well here's the first opportunity. Straight out of the oven is that rack clean.
Plenty of chances in the chiller under raw meat up against carcasses. You are also a
major culprit. Those hands go everywhere transferring bacteria from raw to cooked products. We
can't see bacteria. They're invisible but if we use this glitter instead just see how
it goes around the place. If this were a dangerous bacterium we'd have a lot to worry about.
So let's set our operation up to prevent cross contamination. Ideally we'd have separate
premises, staff, chillers and displays for our valuating operation just like the airline
kitchens. But we don't so we'll work with what we've got. So all raw meat is stowed
in the chiller. Now for a couple of hours our premises look like a small cooked food
factory. Everything is cleaned and sanitised. Clean benches, clean slicer, clean vacuum
packet, clean utensils. Then we set ourselves up. Clean uniform, apron and hat. Clean hands,
a good scrub up. Now we're ready to go. And if we're going to handle cooked product,
a gloved hand. It just takes setting up, changing your butcher shop into a cooked food premises.
That means clean premises, clean staff and a system. And that's the subject of our last
segment. A clean premises, the basis of a safe operation. If these aren't cleaned you're
playing Russian roulette with customers who buy cooked ready to eat products and that
also means you. In this program we're going to cover hygiene and sanitation in the meat
retailing operation. We'll focus on plant and equipment and on you. How to stop you
putting dangerous germs on a cooked product. Let's start with the end of day clean down.
This is typical of any meat retailer. Band saw full of meat dust. Benches covered in
fats and blood. Mincers full of meat scraps. The slices had a hard day and the floors also
pretty dirty. We'll turn this around in two stages. First we'll clean to remove build
up of dirt and food. Clean work areas mean customers get clean food. Second we'll sanitize
to remove any lurking germs. Sanitizers are essential to ensure our customers get safe
food. To clean properly we need the right chemicals and equipment. And we need a trained
operator with the right protective gear. Most cleaning chemicals are friendly to our skin
but some like oven cleaners are strong caustic so we need to protect our skin. First we clear
the decks. Remove foods to storage. Now clear up as much scrap food and rubbish as possible.
It'll make the clean down much easier. Now we make up our cleaning solution. The secret
of successful cleaning is to get right into the equipment and remove all build up of food.
So although it takes time dismantling is vital. Let's follow through on cleaning this slicer
and see how our expert does it. First get rid of all food material. Brush on detergent
and rinse in clean water. Common sense says when you've cleaned a piece of equipment you
put it somewhere clean so it won't pick up any new contamination. Now reassemble. Finish
it all off with a sanitizer spray and you're ready to go tomorrow. A top cleaning job.
Our sanitizers are proven killers of all the germs we're ever likely to encounter in the
meat business. But give them time. At least 10 minutes to seek and destroy the bacteria.
Don't forget give the slicer a thorough clean at least once through the day. Note the sanitizing
step doesn't need to be done during this clean down. The cleaning process we just followed
is the one for you no matter which piece of equipment you clean. Clear the decks. Remove
and rinse as much build up as you can. Then dismantle so you can get at the soils. Clean
thoroughly with detergent solution. Rinse. Then spray sanitizer for that overnight kill
of any germs which may have survived the cleaning step. Some areas require specialist treatment
with powerful cleaners. Thick grease takes a lot of detergent power. So protect yourself
with gloves and mask. Spray on the cleaner. Start high and let gravity work for you. Give
the caustic time to loosen the soil. Then rinse and finish off. Floors also get the
same treatment. Remove all scraps. Clean with detergent and rinse. Our display cases need
regular cleaning. Smeary glass looks terrible to our customers. So get in there as soon
as you can and make those surfaces gleam. Our displays also need that wiggly deep clean.
So let's follow that now. Remove all trays to the cool room. Then get right in and clean
with detergent. Rinse. Then finish off with sanitizer. This last step is especially important
because Listeria can actually colonise and grow in displays. Sanitiser is used for a
number of jobs. We can use it on utensils throughout the day. Changing around lunchtime
to keep the sanitiser active. Tickets and display decorations we soak overnight. And
working surfaces get a final spray for overnight kill. One very important aspect of hygiene
is us. We use the tools of the trade, our hands, for many operations where we pick up
dangerous germs. Boning raw meat. Moving carcasses. Taking rubbish out to garbage bins. Going
to the toilet. So when we get them dirty, it's our number one job to get our hands back
in good shape. Every time we work with cooked products. Same with our aprons. When we move
to cooked product handling, we put on a clean apron. And handle cooked products with tongs
or a glove tan. Look, if you think this is over the top, think again. This is a cooked
food operation and we need a higher level of hygiene. So let's summarise what we need
for safe food handling. To beat the dangerous bacteria, we need to cook thoroughly at the
right temperature. Cool effectively to stop survivors growing to dangerous levels. Protect
products from cross contamination. From raw meat. From working surfaces. From equipment.
And from us. We need a cleaning program. Simple procedures with chemicals which do the job
all over our operation. And that includes us. Another important food safety measure
includes protecting products from cross contamination. One example of where extra care is necessary
is the display case. Now that you've prepared your cured, cooked or fermented product safely,
your next job is to keep it safe by avoiding cross contamination. Remember, bacteria are
everywhere. So it's hard work keeping those germs off ready to eat products. Some points
to remember are ready to eat products should never come into contact with any surface,
piece of equipment or staff member that has been in contact with raw meat until it's been
thoroughly cleaned. Protect ready to eat products from contamination during retail. Ideally,
you would use separate display cabinets. But if that's not possible, ensure that raw and
ready to eat products are physically separated within the display. You can achieve this by
using a removable dividing wall to keep raw products separate from the ready to eat ones.
Don't forget, the same rules for personal and equipment hygiene apply. Have separate
tongs and other utensils for use in the raw and ready to eat parts of your retail operation.
You must wash your hands prior to handling ready to eat products. Then use tongs or a
gloved hand to serve your customers. Look, the meat retail business is developing and
you need extra care with value added products. So make a sensible food safety plan and get
advice and help. Your industry authority is only too keen and so is your cleaning specialist.