Food safety and hygiene

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is the internationally recognised systematic approach to identifying, evaluating, and controlling food safety hazards. Every licensed food business in Malta and the EU is legally required to operate under a HACCP-based system.

The seven HACCP principles are: (1) Conduct a hazard analysis; (2) Identify Critical Control Points (CCPs); (3) Establish critical limits; (4) Establish monitoring procedures; (5) Establish corrective actions; (6) Establish verification procedures; (7) Establish documentation and record keeping.

As a T&H worker, you may not design the HACCP plan — but you must understand it well enough to follow it and to recognise when a critical control point is being violated. The temperature controls in your kitchen, the handwashing procedure before food handling, and the allergen labelling system are all HACCP outputs.

The temperature danger zone is the range between 5°C and 63°C. Within this range, bacteria that cause food poisoning multiply rapidly. Your goal in food storage, cooking, and service is to keep food outside this zone for as short a time as possible.

Key temperature rules: refrigeration must be at or below 5°C; freezing is typically at -18°C or below; hot food must be held at 63°C or above during service; cooked food must reach a core temperature of at least 75°C (check with a probe thermometer); cooked food being cooled must reach 8°C within 90 minutes.

Temperature records are a legal requirement in licensed food businesses. If you are responsible for recording temperatures, do so accurately and at the required intervals — falsifying records is a serious breach of food safety law.

Personal hygiene is the first line of defence in food safety. Hands must be washed before handling food, after touching raw meat, after using the toilet, after touching your face or hair, after handling waste, and after handling chemicals. Handwashing must last at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water.

Cuts and wounds on hands must be covered with a brightly coloured (ideally blue) waterproof plaster. If you are ill with vomiting, diarrhoea, or a gastrointestinal infection, you must not handle food and must report your illness to your supervisor immediately — this is both a legal obligation and an ethical one.

In food preparation areas, hair must be tied back and covered. Jewellery should be removed or kept minimal. Clean uniforms must be worn and changed if heavily soiled. Strong-smelling personal products should be avoided in food preparation contexts.

Cross-contamination occurs when harmful bacteria or allergens are transferred from one food (or surface, or hand) to another. It is one of the leading causes of food poisoning outbreaks. Prevention requires deliberate separation of raw and ready-to-eat foods, both physically and through the use of colour-coded equipment.

Standard colour-coding systems used in Malta and internationally: red for raw meat, yellow for raw poultry, blue for raw fish, green for fruit and vegetables, white for dairy and bakery, brown for cooked meat. Using the wrong board or knife — even if it looks clean — creates cross-contamination risk.

Surfaces must be cleaned and sanitised between uses, particularly when switching between raw and ready-to-eat food preparation. Cleaning removes dirt; sanitising kills bacteria. Both steps are required. A surface that has been cleaned but not sanitised still poses a contamination risk.

The EU requires all food businesses to disclose 14 major allergens. These are: celery, cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats), crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites (at concentrations above 10mg/kg), and tree nuts.

In a hospitality setting, you may be asked directly by a customer whether a dish contains a specific allergen. If you do not know with certainty, never guess — take the question to the kitchen and confirm with the chef before answering. An incorrect answer that causes an allergic reaction can be fatal.

Allergen management includes storing allergen-containing ingredients separately, clearly labelling pre-packed foods, using separate utensils and surfaces when preparing allergen-free dishes, and ensuring all staff know which dishes on the menu contain which allergens.