Cleanliness of Restaurant Kitchen

Hygiene Aspects of Kitchen

Negative:

A cutting board was placed on a trash bin.

A cutting board, used to cut cooked meat, was found on top of a trash bin. This will allow the board to be contaminated with all the rotten food and dirty rubbish from the trash bin, hence causing cross contamination with ready-to-eat food if the board is used later on. Viruses, like Norovirus, can contaminate the cutting board, causing acute gastroenteritis to the customers. Fungi, like Aspergillus flavus and Cryptococcus neoformans can be found on the surface of rotten foods. Some fungi can produce mycotoxins which are cancerous and can cause hemorrhage if consumed. Hence, this can cause food-borne illnesses in consumers. 

Raw broccoli and raw meat were stored close to each other
and a dirty cloth was placed on the raw broccoli. 

The raw meat and raw vegetables were placed near to each other, unwrapped. Not wrapping or covering raw ingredients will increase the chances of cross contamination and might cause the food to spoil faster too. This poor storage hygiene can cause pathogens like Toxoplsma gondii to thrive. This pathogen can be found in contaminated or raw food, which causes swollen lymph glands, muscle aches, blurred or reduced vision. Another pathogen, Escherichia coli, too can be present in the raw meat and some can make a person very sick.

The dirty, contaminated cloth on the raw broccoli can easily cause the food to become 'unsafe' or cross contaminated. Cloths that are used on many food contact surfaces easily contain a lot of food-borne pathogens. Examples of some food-borne pathogens that might be present are Salmonella, Listeria monocytogens, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, etc. Hence, by storing raw meats and vegetables together and placing a contaminated cloth on raw food, it shows that this kitchen has poor food hygiene practices.

Positive:

1. The pest control system is good. There are no sights of pests like cockroaches, ants, houseflies, etc. This will prevent contamination of food or food contact surfaces by droppings of pests.
2. The floor, walls and preparation table are clean and dry most of the time. This will prevent contamination of food as well as prevent injuries like falling or slipping.
3. The common usage of gloves when handling ready-to-cook food is observed. Prevents cross-contamination of food.
4. All the equipment and utensils are within reachable distance. Reduces time and effort to get something.
5. The way to the restroom does not pass through the food preparation areas. Lowers the risk of contamination to food because some food-borne pathogens can travel by air.
6. Restroom is equipped with hand-washing station, toilet paper, hand-soap, trash bin.
7. Walls are light in colour (easier to spot soil and distributes light).

Recommendations for improvement

1. Wrapping the raw foods with cling wrap before storing.
2. Do not store raw meat and raw vegetables together or close by.
3. Keep cloths all at one side, away from the food. Also, frequently soap or rinse the cloth between use.
4. Get a rack to keep the cutting boards instead of anyhow placing them around the kitchen.
5. Label the production date, use by date and the name of the ingredient.

NEA Grading Checklist

FILE REF
NAME OF INSPECTIONS OFFICER: Yong Serene
TYPE OF FOOD SHOP: Restaurant
NO.	CRITERIA		SCORE	REMARKS
	HOUSE KEEPING
1	PREPARATION AREA
	a) Floors		4
	b) Walls		4
	c) Utensils/Crockery		4
	d) Preparation Table		4
	e) Exhaust Systems		3
	f) Sinks/Wash Hand Basin		4
	g) Refuse Management		3
	h) Overall Tidiness of Preparation Area		4
2	OTHER ASPECTS (if any)
	a) Pest Control System		5	No pests
	HYGIENE
3	PERSONAL HYGIENE
	a) Conditions of Gloves or Tongs		5
	b) Clean Clothing		4
	c) Personal Cleanliness (Finger nails, Hair, etc)		4
4	FOOD HYGIENE
	a) Food Properly Protected		3
	b) Conditions of Implements		4
	c) Cleanliness of Refrigerators/Chillers		3
	d) Proper Storage of Cooked and Uncooked Food		1	Raw meat and vegetable were stored together
	e) Storage Temperature Control System		4
	f) Cleanliness of other equipment (eg. Dispensers, Ovens, Dish-Washers etc)		3
5	FOOD TRANSPORTATION (if any)
	a) Clean Interior		-
	b) Provision of Containers / Trolleys		-
	c) Clean Delivery Equipment		-
6	AUTOMATION – BONUS (if any)
	a) Provision of Ice-making Machine		-
	b) Provision of other automated machineries (exclude Drinks Dispenser)		-
7	OTHERS – BONUS (if any)
	a) In-House training		-
	b) Incentive/Demerit System		-
	c) Central Cleaning System		-
Total			66
%			73.3
Grade			B

Grading System Grade A: >85% Grade B: 70% – 84% Grade C: 50% - 69% Grade D: <50%

Cleanliness of food premises and food safety

Hygienic Aspects of the food stall

Food container storing food was found storing
on the floor of the fridge instead of on racks.

Negative:
With reference to the picture taken above, the vegetable and fruits were found storing on the floor and the food product were not properly covered. Any food products should not be placed or stored at the floor directly at all times. The food should have been stored on racks which is at least 6 inches off the ground and properly covered. However, in the above picture, it did not follow the food safety steps. This bad practice will allow increase contamination and interactions of pest and roaches which carries bacteria and germs with them.

Chopping board was found to be messy and used
for both cooked and raw food

Negative:
As you can see in the above picture, the cutting board is very dirty and messy. Furthermore, the cutting board was used for both cooked and raw food. This will cause direct food cross-contamination. This chopping board was used to cut raw chicken as cooked corn. Raw chicken contains bacteria and pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella. In addition ready-to-eat food such as the cooked corn will then be contaminated with these pathogens and will not undergo any further cooking which can help to destroy the pathogens. Thus, this will be hazardous towards consumers.


Good Practices:
Food were stored at appropriate temperature in the chiller or freezer to prevent microbial growth
Both floors and walls were kept clean
Food items were seen to be well-organized.

Bad Practices:
Food was found being stored on the floor
Hair net or gloves were not being used.
Chopping board was not kept clean, and was used for both raw and cooked food.



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Food Hygiene Grading of the Premises 

Food Hygiene standard grading

-  National Environment Agency (NEA) Grading system      

      

FILE REF
NAME OF INSPECTIONS OFFICER: Lim Tao Wen
TYPE OF FOOD SHOP: Coffee Shop
NO.	CRITERIA		SCORE (1-5)	REMARK
	HOUSE KEEPING
1	PREPARATION AREA
	a) Floors		4
	b) Walls		4
	c) Utensils/Crockery		4
	d) Preparation Table		4
	e) Exhaust Systems		4
	f) Sinks/Wash Hand Basin		4
	g) Refuse Management		4
	h) Overall Tidiness of Preparation Area		4
2	OTHER ASPECTS (if any)
	a) Pest Control System		4
	HYGIENE
3	PERSONAL HYGIENE
	a) Conditions of Gloves or Tongs		3
	b) Clean Clothing		4
	c) Personal Cleanliness (Finger nails, Hair, etc)		2
4	FOOD HYGIENE
	a) Food Properly Protected		3
	b) Conditions of Implements		4
	c) Cleanliness of Refrigerators/Chillers		3
	d) Proper Storage of of cooked and Uncooked Food		3
	e) Storage Temperature Control System		4
	f) Cleanliness of other equipment (eg. Dispensers, Ovens, Dish-Washers etc)		4
5	FOOD TRANSPORTATION (if any)
	a) Clean Interior		3
	b) Provision of Containers / Trolleys		3
	c) Clean Delivery Equipment		3
6	AUTOMATION – BONUS (if any)
	a) Provision of Ice-making Machine
	b) Provision of other automated machineries (exclude Drinks Dispenser)
7	OTHERS – BONUS (if any)
	a) In-House training
	b) Incentive/Demerit System
	c) Central Cleaning System
Total			75/105
%			71.4
Grade			B

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Recommendations for Improvements

Cutting Boards
Firstly, the food stall should have multiple cutting boards for different food categories such as raw meat, vegetables and fruits, sea food as well as cooked food cutting boards. Furthermore, these chopping boards can be indicated by the different colors. Examples: red cutting board for raw meat while green cutting boards are meant for vegetables. By having different cutting boards, it will significantly reduce the risk of cross-contamination between raw and cooked food. In addition, the cooks should adopt the 'clean as you go' method so as to maintain the cleanliness of the work station. The preparation work table and cutting board can be sanitized every 2-3 hours. By adopting this method, the contamination of bacteria and pathogens will be absent.

Personal Hygiene
One bad practice is that they do not use gloves to prepare the consumer food. The cook might have contaminated their hands with soap, money or etc. However, it comes into direct contact with the food. Thus, one improvement can be that they start practicing the usage of gloves during preparation and using hair nets to prevent hair or dirt from landing into the food.