Food safety and

sanitation
Dr. Mohd Sham Othman
 Causes of food pollution
 Biological agent – bacteria, virus, fungi, mold
 Chemical agent – pesticides, toxic materials
 Physical agent – radiation
 HACCP
 Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Points
 Used to ensure food safety
 Modern concept for maximizing food safety and
minimizing food hazard
 Applied to food processing and food service industries
 This system helps you.
– Identify food, hazards, and processes most likely to cause
food borne illnesses.
– Develop control points through the flow of food to reduce
risks of food borne illness outbreaks.
– Monitor and verify food safety in your operation
 Basic HACCP Definitions &
Concepts
 Hazard - Unacceptable contaminant, microbial growth, or
survival of microorganisms or their toxins that would make food
unsafe.
 Risk - Probability that conditions will lead to a hazard.
 Control point - Operation (practice, preparation step, procedure)
which a preventive control measure can be applied.
 Critical Control Point - Operation (practice, preparation step,
procedure) to which a preventive or control measure can be
applied that would eliminate, prevent, or minimize hazards.
 HACCP consists of …….
 A hazard analysis associated with the growing, harvesting,
processing, manufacturing, distributing, marketing, preparing
or using of a raw material or food product and assessing the
associated risks
 Determining the critical control points required to prevent or
control any identified hazard
 Establishing the appropriate preventive or control measures
with criteria for measuring these controls
 Monitoring the effectiveness of preventive or control measures
at critical control points
 Taking action to rectify any situation that is out of control
 Principles of HACCP
 Conduct a hazard analysis
 Determine critical control points (CCP)
 Establish critical limits
 Establish a system to monitor control of CCP
 Establish corrective action to be taken when monitoring
indicates that a particular CCP is not under control
 Establish procedure for verification to confirm that the
HACCP system is working effectively
 Establish documentation concerning all procedures and
records appropriate to these principles and their
application.
 Example of application of HACCP
 Critical control point for food service
– Selecting and receiving raw materials
– Storing, handling and preparing raw materials, inc
thawing and handling of frozen food
– Cooking – effective cooking temperatures
– Handling after cooking - inc further preparation, hot
holding, cooling, reheating, serving, packing
– Cleaning and sanitation of premise
– Hygiene of worker
– Training of employees in all step of the procedure
 Microbial monitoring in HACCP
 In recent years – become important
 EHO – concerned with pathogens in food and have the
power to render the food to be unfit for consumption
 During monitoring – microbiological examination must
be conducted.
 Microbiological surveillance
 Infectious intestinal disease (IID)
 Pathogens and indicator organisms in cream cakes and
salad bar
 Ready to eat meats and meat products and the
microbiological status of carcasses leaving abattoirs
 Types of Clostridium botulinum that can grow at
refrigeration temperature
 The survival of sublethally injured Vibrio cholerae in food
 Detection of Salmonella in home-produced eggs and
imported whole chickens
 Various Campylobacter studies and projects
 Emerging pathogens and verocytotoxic-producing E.coli
(VTEC) and food-borne viruses
 Food preservation - Food
spoilage agents
Food type Agent of spoilage
Canned food Bacteria, moulds
Dried goods Moulds, yeast
Modified atmosphere Anaerobic / microaerophilic
packaged goods bacteria

Preserved food Resistant micro-organisms

Chilled food Bacteria eg Pseudomonas
Frozen food Enzymes
 Methods of preservation
 Dehydration
 Refrigeration and freezing
 Fermentation
 Food irradiation
 Dehydration
 Deprives bacteria/ microbes of moisture
 Reduce enzyme activities that causes food to ripen and
rot
 Sun dried food – traditional method, subject to
contamination by insects, birds and airborne infection
 Methods of dehydration
 Solid food
– Often need prior treatment eg blanching, alkaline dip
and pre-cooking
– Contact between product with hot air together with
quick removal of moisture. Alternative – vacuum
drying
 Liquid foods
– Spraying thin film of liquid food onto heated rollers –
to form flakes and powders
– Spraying liquid food through an atomizer into heated
chamber
 Methods of dehydration
 Freeze drying
– Food first frozen and then exposed to a vaccum of not less
than 1torr (1 mm Hg)
– Water contained in the product in the form of ice is
sublimated directly into vapor. Vapor then eliminated by
condensors
 Infra-red drying
– Uses high powered sources of radiation
 Use of solvents
– Use solvents such as ethyl acetate
– They form low boiling point mixture with water that can be
removed by distillation
– Residual solvent – removed by vacuum drying
 Refrigeration and freezing
 Three basic categories
– Chilling
– Freezing
– Quick freezing
 Chilling – refrigeration to temperature below 5oC –
temperature that inhibits the growth of pathogens
 Freezing – food maintained at temperature of around
-10oC(for most meat). Sensitive food (eg fish ) may be
kept at -29oC
 Quick freezing – food pre-packed in slim packages. Then
food is held in contact under pressure on plate frosters
for quick freezing. After that food is placed in cold store
 Fermentation
 Process of anaerobic respiration
 Some can be preserved by addition of acid
 Some will be allowed to develop naturally as a result of
growth of organisms that produces lactic acid eg pickled
cabbage (sauerkraut) and olives
 Addition of preservatives (eg vinegar) after lactic acid
production – for onions, cauliflowers, walnut
 Food irradiation
 Uses ionizing radiations eg gamma rays, X-rays or
electrons
 Ionizing radiation interacts with the material being
irradiated by transferring some of its energy to particles
in the molecules of the material
 These reactions – destroys or prevents organisms eg
Salmonella from multiplying
 Processed and preserved food
 Food processed in anaerobic condition present an ideal
medium for the growth of bacteria
 This is because
– Heat processes is inadequate.
– Closure of can or pack is not effective in stopping the
entry of microbes
– Improper handling of products during processing
 Canned food
 Objective of canning – to produce sterile products – all
microbes are destroyed
 However – not practical. Therefore – storage
temperature and acidity of content is important in
reducing numbers of spores except heat-resistant
spores. This is termed “commercially sterile”
 Spoilage of canned food
 Often indicated by ‘blown’ condition content of this can –
decomposed food matter and unfit for human
consumption
 Faulty can due to under-sterilization – frequent cause of
spoilage
 Defects in cans
 Flipper
– Slight positive pressure in can due to production of gas eg
hydrogen and carbon dioxide – result of chemical and
microbial activities eg saccharrolytic strains of Cloistridium
produces acid and gas.
– Strike the can with something solid – one end will bulge out.
Then the end will return to original shape
– Incipient spoilage
 Springer
– One end is permanently bulged
– If this end is pushed, the other end will bulge
– Caused by greater gas pressure
– Incipient spoilage
 Hard and soft swell
– Both ends bulge but will move slightly under the pressure of
the thumb – soft swell
– Hard swell – the pressure is sufficient enough to prevent the
ends from being pushed in
– Both condition indicated spoilage
 Flat sour
– No gas in the can but the content has an unpleasant odour
and flavor and inedible
– Often caused by Bacillus stearothermophlis and B. coagulans
 Hydrogen swell
– Gas burns in ignition
– Usually associated with fruit
 Sulfiding
– Purple stain on the inner surface of can of food that contains
sulfur
– Breakdown of these – results in formation of hydrogen
sulfide
– Hydrogen sulfide reacts with iron forming iron sulfide –
causes discoloration of meat or fish
– Staining can be removed by trimming
 Slack cans
– Can not fully filled
– Sterilized air is present in can. Percussion will give a sound
of blown can
 Leaking cans
– Gas production causes perforation at weak point in
can
– May also cause hydrogen swell
 Corrosion
– Causes pin holes which lead to blown and leaking
cans
 Food safety – eggs
 Eggs - important vector of bacterial food poisoning –
salmonellasis
 Hygiene measures
– Stored in cool dry place, preferablly refrigerated (8oC or
below)
– Stored away from potential contaminants eg raw meat
– Stocks of eggs should be rotated
– Hand must be washed before and after eating eggs
– Cracked eggs should not be used
– Preparation surfaces and containers should be cleaned
regularly and always between the preparation of different
dishes
– Egg dishes should be consumed as soon as possible after
preparation or refrigerated
Food safety – milk and milk products
 Pasteurization – high temperature short time (HTST)
 Sterilization
– milk preheated to temperature of 43- 49oC and either
filtered or clarified by passing through centrifugal
clarifier.
– Then it is heated to temp 66- 71oC before homogenized
at 122060 kg per m2
– Hot homogenized milk – put in sterile bottle and sealed
– Milk bottles heated at 104oC for 30 minutes before
cooled
 UHT treatment
– Milk preheated to 78oC , transferred and then
heated to 150oC for 2.4 seconds
– water-free milk is produced by centrifugal
separator
– Milk then homogenized and cooled to 15.6oC
before aseptically poured into cartons.
 Food safety – fish
 General freshness of fish – superficial examination
 Complete examination – fish must be split – stale fish
leaves the bone easily
 Pink coloring along the backbone – sign of decomposition
 Parasites – roundworm
 Diseases – tuberculosis, tumors, ulcerative dermal necrosis
 Bacteria – Clostridium botulinum, Salmonella
 Other conditions – colour abnormalities, damage,
emaniation (flaccid and watery flesh) and weedy fish (with
iodine-like smell)
 Fish curing
– Smoking – fish soaked in brine, drain and smoked in
kiln
– Salt curing – uses common salt. Two types – dry salt
curing and pickling
 Food safety – red meat
Control point Potential Control measures
hazard
Acceptance of animals Contamination Clean livestock policy
for slaughter

Hide / fleece removal Contamination Prevent in-roll of

fleece.hide
Use hide pulling equipment
Reduce handling of carcass
Evisceration Contamination Fasting of animals, prevent
spillage of gut content,
avoid puncturing stomach
Temperature Microbe growth Temp controlled
atmosphere, reduce surface
of carcasses to 10oC as
soon as possible
 Food safety – poultry
Control point Potential hazard Control measures

Live bird supply Contamination Crate design to reduce

faecal contamination of
birds, observe appropriate
food withdrawal time
Evisceration Contamination Minimize spillage of content
of crop/gizzard, cloaca,
intestine and gall bladder,
remove viscera without
contaminating carcass

Temperature Microbe growth Temp controlled

atmosphere, reduce surface
of carcasses to 10oC as soon
as possible