Food hygiene for a new age

3rd of July 2017
Food hygiene for a new age

As an increasing number of diners take to the streets or the fast food counter for sustenance, we look at the cleaning and hygiene challenges faced by today’s fast food vendors and street food sellers.

Ready-prepared meals have become a big part of our lives. Instead of picking up fresh ingredients and creating a dish from scratch, a growing number of us are heading instead for a street food cart or a burger joint when we are hungry.

And fast food is not a new phenomenon. Street stalls that served noodles round-the-clock were common in second century China according to a Han Dynasty text, while outdoor vendors in medieval Europe sold ready-made pies, pasties, flans, waffles and pancakes.

The development of trawler fishing in 19th century Britain led to the introduction of fish and chips. And White Castle pioneered the takeaway hamburger in the US when the chain opened its first fast food restaurant in 1921.

In recent years the takeaway has evolved into an entirely new phenomenon. The ease of international travel has given us more sophisticated tastes and made us increasingly willing to sample exotic dishes from overseas.

Enter the street food stall: now a familiar sight in Europe’s towns and cities. Here you can buy anything from frittatas to falafels and rogan josh to raclette - and eat it on the hoof. Meanwhile our town centres are filled with takeaway curry houses, Chinese, pizza places and kebab shops.

For customers the takeaway experience is markedly different from that of the restaurant diner. Most dining-in customers will be happy chat to their companions for 30 minutes or more while awaiting their food, which will probably be prepared well out of sight in the kitchen. The takeaway customer, on the other hand, may have to queue -  perhaps outside in the cold. They will probably be standing up and impatient to be served. And where the food preparation area is open to view their eyes will inevitably be drawn to the person preparing their meal.

This produces huge cleaning and hygiene challenges on the part of the staff. Preparing meals quickly and in full view of the customer places more pressure on the server to get things right. And there are plenty of other challenges to contend with according to Dr Schnell Chemie’s marketing executive Franz Felbermeir.

“Staff on street food stalls have to provide meals in a small space and in a limited amount of time while also having contact with money,” he said. “This increases the risk of contamination with dirt, bacteria and infectious diseases.

“It can also be hard to ensure that a consistent product quality is delivered while coping with challenges such as just-in-time delivery and sufficient time spent heating the product. And where food is being prepared more quickly than usual and for higher numbers of customers, there will be little time available for cleaning and disinfection tasks.”

Fast food restaurants have their own issues, he says. “Here there will be a large number of guests which means the staff are again rushed,” he said. “Cleaning here will need to be carried out quickly and efficiently with as little chemical exposure time as possible.”

Enough space

According to Felbermeir the first food safety requirement in this type of environment is ensuring there is sufficient storage space for prepared foods in freezers and fridges. “All process steps should be analysed so that any risks and possible danger points are identified,” he added. “These could include outsourced storage for goods, such as in a freezer trailer for example. The team should also be able to professionally manage just-in-time delivery along with sufficient heating times.”

Staff training is a crucial factor in any fast food environment according to Felbermeir. “All employees should be educated on issues such as using separate members of staff for food contact and handling money, and on reliable hygiene behaviour in general,” he said.

All disinfection products need to be fast-acting, safe and easy to clean away, he said. “It is also Important that a water supply is available so that surfaces can be rinsed clean of chemical products after use,” said Felbermeir.

He believes ready-to-use chemicals are the ideal solution in the fast food sector. Dr Schnell Chemie offers a range of ready-to-use products such as degreasing agent GastroFee; PeroFee a decalcifier, and disinfectant product Desifor S.

For dishwashers in fast food premises, the company offers dishwasher blocks that can be used with a compact dosing system. “These eliminate the risk of incorrect dosage or any contamination since the bottles are sealed,” he said.

Cleaning the floors of fast food kitchens requires a compact solution since space will be tight, according to managing director of Denis Rawlins James White.

“Unfortunately most of these floors tend to be mopped by hand which increases the hygiene and slip risks,” he claims. “Mops fail to dislodge ingrained contamination and end up spreading it around, increasing the risk of falls by customers and staff.

“In the fast food trade all cleaning systems need to be speedy – given the high-pressure environment – and also easy to use, particularly for casual staff who receive little or no training.”

Denis Rawlins offers the OmniFlex Dispense and Vac, a compact machine that comes with a one-piece vacuum wand for brushing. “This has been expressly designed for the food service industry since it has a crush-proof vacuum hose that resists grease and trans fats,” he said.

Enough space

Every centimetre counts on a street food stall according to SCA’s European marketing and communications manager Camilla Skaremyr Crook. ”Often there will not even be sufficient space for a sink with running water to provide adequate hand hygiene facilities,” she said. “Staff may also be required to switch between tasks which means they will need to perform hand hygiene extremely frequently.”

A situation in which a single person both serves food and accepts payment can be particularly challenging, she said. “If possible staff should work in pairs and take turns at serving and handling money.”

Where staff are switching from one role to another they will need to wash their hands repeatedly, says Skaremyr Crook. “Frequent hand hygiene in combination with exposure to wind and weather will result in a high risk of sore and chapped hands,” she said. “Plans therefore need to be in place for maintaining the skin health of employees. This could include the provision of lotions, for example.”

Hand hygiene becomes a real challenge on stalls where running water is not available, she said. “Alcohol hand sanitisers will help to improve hygiene in this type of situation, though they are less useful for removing oil, grease and other foodstuffs.”

A fast food restaurant will face similar pressures in terms of having to deliver hot food quickly according to Skaremyr Crook.  “Smaller fast food restaurants may not have space for a wash station behind the counter which means the staff may be required to head for the kitchen or washroom to wash their hands – something that takes time,” she said. “Since the pressure will be on to deliver food quickly there may be a temptation for some to neglect their hand hygiene.

“Staff may be handling both food and money, too, so a plan needs to be in place for allowing employees to maintain good hand hygiene while avoiding the need for overly frequent hand washing.”

Where fast food is being prepared in an area that is visible to customers, gloves are often worn to provide reassurance that hygiene is important, she says. “However gloves may become contaminated when worn for extended periods since the bacteria on the hands will proliferate in the warm humid environment,” she said. “This can be a real hygiene problem.”

She recommends that a hand sanitiser dispenser be placed behind the counter as a supplement to hand washing.  “An effective sanitiser will take up little space and can help to prevent the spread of germs in situations where no water is available,” she said. The Tork Alcohol Gel Hand Sanitiser comes in a 400 ml pump bottle that can be placed on a food stall counter. There is also a 47 ml pocket size version for close-at-hand needs. And all staff should be trained in the correct use of gloves and sanitisers, says Skaremyr Crook.

Mild, unscented soaps that are gentle on the skin should be provided to prevent frequently-washed hands becoming chapped and dry, she adds. The company offers Tork Extra Mild Liquid Soap which comes in a mini dispenser for areas where space is limited. Also available is Tork Reflex Portable Single Sheet Centrefeed, a food contact-approved wiper that comes in a compact freestanding dispenser. “This can be used for wiping away water, oil, fat and food remains as well as for hand drying,” she said.

Takeaway outlets and street food stalls are subject to strict hygiene regulations like any other food provider. They have an obligation to supply meals that can be safely consumed by the customer, despite the challenges they face. And the market is growing, according to Dr Schnell Chemie’s Franz Felbermeir.

“People are travelling more extensively and today’s street food stalls offer dishes that tend to be more creative and individual than traditional restaurants,” he said. ”Meanwhile an increasing number of food stall concessions are appearing at large events such as festivals.

“It seems clear that many more of us today are preferring to enjoy our food outside our own home or office environment.”

Skaremyr Crook is more pragmatic about the sector. “The food stall industry is projected to grow by around one per cent between 2015-2020,” she said. “This means it is still only a limited part of the food preparation sector.”

 

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