What is the highest temperature at which you can cold-hold a TCS food like sliced deli turkey?
41°F (5°C) Cold TCS food must be held at 41°F (5°C) or lower. Above that, bacteria can grow fast enough to make people sick.
Chili on the hot-holding line must stay at what minimum temperature?
135°F (57°C) Hot TCS food must be held at 135°F (57°C) or higher. Below that, it drifts into the range where bacteria grow.
You cook a large pot of soup. How must it be cooled?
From 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then to 41°F or lower within a total of 6 hours The Food Code uses two-stage cooling. Food must drop from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, and reach 41°F or lower within 6 hours in total. The first stage is the most dangerous, so it gets less time.
Your kitchen uses time as a public health control (without temperature control) for cut melon taken out of the fridge at 41°F. What is the rule?
Mark it, and serve or throw it out within 4 hours Under the 4-hour option, the food must start at 41°F or lower, be marked with the time 4 hours later, and be served or thrown out by then. You need written procedures for it too.
Which is an approved way to thaw a frozen turkey breast?
Completely under running water at 70°F (21°C) or lower Running water at 70°F or lower, with enough flow to wash loose bits away, is one approved method. The others are thawing in the fridge, in a microwave if cooked right after, or as part of cooking.
What is the minimum internal cooking temperature for chicken?
165°F (74°C) for less than 1 second Poultry must reach 165°F (74°C), and the Food Code treats that as instantaneous: less than 1 second is enough. The same applies to stuffing and stuffed meats, fish or pasta.
A guest orders a hamburger made from ground beef. To what minimum internal temperature must it be cooked?
155°F (68°C) for 17 seconds Ground meat must reach 155°F (68°C) for 17 seconds. Grinding spreads bacteria from the surface all the way through the meat, so it needs a higher temperature than a whole steak.
Beef stew was cooked yesterday, cooled and refrigerated. You want to reheat it for hot holding. What is the rule?
Reheat to 165°F for 15 seconds, within 2 hours Food that was cooked, cooled and is being reheated for hot holding must reach 165°F (74°C) for 15 seconds. The time it spends between 41°F and 165°F can’t be more than 2 hours.
A walk-in cooler holds raw chicken, washed lettuce and cooked rice. Where should the raw chicken go?
On the bottom shelf, below the ready-to-eat foods Raw animal foods must be kept away from ready-to-eat foods. Storing raw chicken below them means juices can’t drip onto food that won’t be cooked again.
A prep cook finishes cutting raw chicken on a cutting board. Next she needs to slice tomatoes for salads. What must happen first?
Wash, rinse and sanitize the board and knife Food-contact surfaces and utensils must be cleaned and sanitized each time you switch from raw foods to ready-to-eat foods. Wiping or rinsing doesn’t remove and kill the bacteria.
According to the Food Code, how long should the whole handwashing process take, at a minimum?
20 seconds Food employees must clean their hands and exposed arms for at least 20 seconds. That includes at least 10 to 15 seconds of scrubbing with soap, plus rinsing in warm running water.
A line cook calls in to say he has had diarrhea since last night. What should the person in charge do?
Exclude him from the establishment A food employee with vomiting or diarrhea must be excluded, unless the symptom comes from a noninfectious condition. These symptoms often mean norovirus, which spreads very easily through food.
A server tells you her skin and eyes turned yellow three days ago. She has no note from a doctor. What should you do?
Exclude her from the establishment Jaundice that started within the last 7 days means the employee must be excluded, unless a health practitioner gives written documentation that it isn’t caused by hepatitis A or another fecal-oral infection.
In a three-compartment sink, what is the correct order of steps?
Wash, rinse, sanitize, air-dry Items are scraped, washed in detergent, rinsed in clean water, sanitized, then air-dried. Sanitizer only works on a surface that’s already clean and free of soap.
If you sanitize by soaking items in hot water in a manual dishwashing sink, the water must be at least:
171°F (77°C) For hot-water sanitizing in a manual operation, the water must be kept at 171°F (77°C) or higher.
How should you check that a chemical sanitizer solution is at the right concentration?
Use a test kit for that sanitizer The Food Code requires a test kit or other device that accurately measures the sanitizer’s concentration. Too little won’t kill germs, and too much can be unsafe and leave residue.
Which of these is one of the nine major food allergens listed in the Food Code?
Sesame The nine major food allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame. Sesame was added most recently.
A guest with a peanut allergy orders a stir-fry. The wok was just used for a dish with peanuts. What should the cook do?
Use cleaned and sanitized equipment and utensils, and fresh ingredients Allergens aren’t destroyed by cooking, and tiny amounts can cause a severe reaction. To prevent cross-contact, make the dish with equipment and utensils that have been washed, rinsed and sanitized, and with ingredients that haven’t touched the allergen.
What is the first principle of HACCP?
Conduct a hazard analysis HACCP starts with a hazard analysis: finding the biological, chemical and physical hazards that could happen at each step. The other six principles build on what that analysis finds.
In a HACCP plan, “cook chicken breasts to 165°F (74°C)” at the cooking step is an example of a:
Critical limit A critical limit is the minimum or maximum value a hazard must be controlled to at a critical control point. Cooking is the CCP, and 165°F is the limit that must be met.
United States · Exam