High Risk Foods are those ready-to-eat food articles which may invite the growth of the harmful bacterial organisms.
Such foods are in the ready to be consumed state and does not require
any further processing except in some ready to be made food products,
where minimum processing is further required before consumption. High
Risk Foods are responsible for breeding pathogenic bacteria and could
lead to food poisoning incidents.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
has declared that special considerations will be needed for specific
varieties of foods i.e. High Risk Foods. Food business Operators are to
follow the instructions & guidelines defined under FSS Regulations
while treating with such food articles to avoid contamination.
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) approach need to
be implemented in order to serve the safe food to the people. FSS
regulations have separately provided a list of food articles which
require special attention.
For products like cut fruits/salads, fresh juices and beverages,
where storage is allowed for a short time period in case of cut
fruits/salads and fresh juices must be checked on regular basis and only
potable water should be used for ice & cleaning containers.
It is recommended that Meat, Poultry and fish products should be
stored under the specified temperature and should be cooked separately.
Confectionery products should be kept in the airtight containers and
date of expiry should be mentioned for the finished products.
While delivering ready to eat food, the temperature should be
maintained at 74 degree Celsius while in transportation and the food
must be consumed within 4 hrs of reheating.
If any ingredient is being used after cooking, it should be properly
cleaned/washed and the food must be consumed immediately on post cooked
mixing.
There are instructions given to deal with the following categories of
High Risk Foods and we will discuss them all in the upcoming articles.
* Cut fruits/ salads, fresh juices and beverages
* Confectionery Products
* Meat, Poultry and fish products
* Water Waste Chutneys, sauces etc.
* Foods transported to point of sale from the point of cooking
* Foods with Gravy
* Fried Foods
* Adding ingredients after cooking
* Thawing of Frozen Products
No comments:
Post a Comment