What Hand Washing facility at your food premise should have?

Hand Washing facility is essential to be set at food premises such as canteens, cafeteria, restaurants, Food processing factories etc so that food handlers and / or customers could  wash hands when they feel their hands are dirty.  It is also a requirement in rule 27, 2009 Food hygiene regulations. 

Do take note that hand washing facility should be equipped with the followings         

✅ clean water.

✅    hands free operated water tab. This is to ensure the washed hands are not contaminated by touching the water tab.   

✅ liquid soap. Make sure the soap dispenser always contains liquid soap

✅ tissue paper/ hand dryer. If you are using hand dryer, do make sure the hand dryer is cleaned and maintained. Do not use towel. If you are using tissue paper, do make sure the tissue paper is available all the time. 

✅ hands free rubbish bin.  The type that step by foot to open. 

✅ 7 step hand washing poster. You may obtain free poster from your nearest Health dept, download from google and laminate or purchase the poster produced by our own at merely RM10.

It is important to train food handlers to familiar with the hand washing facility setting so to have hassle free, especially when there is a spot inspection or MeSTI audit. 

Credit: Food Safety & Quality division, Labuan Federal Territory Health Department.

How Grease Trap beneficial to Food Business Owners?

Grease Trap is a container that installed on sink to trap fats and separates fatty oils and grease from water of cooking pans and dirty plates in your kitchen.  Without a grease trap will drive to form fatbergs and blocked pipes.

Without grease trap, the fats continue flow through the pipes and solidify in it.  Eventually it will block the drainage system and causing foul smells.  As the fats solidify, they create a very solid blockage called a fatberg, which can lead to floods of raw sewage in and around your business.  A simple, well-maintained grease trap will capture the fatbergs and stop it entering the sewer and turning into a monster fatberg.

Here are 6 ways a grease trap will help you:

1. Stop blockages in your pipe

2. Eliminating foul odours 

3. Saving money - Avoid spending money to clear the blockages that causing flood on the sewage system.

4. Avoid pest infestation 

5. Avoiding prosecution (from authority)

6. Help keeping you in business

In addition, food business owner can establish good practice of disposal to maintain the grease trap well and reduce maintaining cost. Scraped food and food waste to be put into  garbage can to stop fats, oil, and grease from getting into your kitchen pipes, causing backups. Here are some recommended practices for your reference:

• Install screens under all sinks and drains so the solid waste such as rice, noodles etc that were cook in big quantity.
• Clean up any spills that might occur using a towel and clean in garbage can.  Avoid using mop as the waste will eventually just down the drain.
• Put notice in kitchen that no grease should be poured, swept or washed into the drains.
• Make sure that no hot water at temperatures of 63°C or more is poured down or connected to the drains. If the water is more than 63°C, fats oil and grease will melt and bypass the grease trap straight into the water stream.
• Avoid disposals such as food grinders to get into the pipes, getting clogged and causing future backups.

Installing a grease trap is essential especially in food business such as canteen, restaurants and food processors that produce a lot of oil and solid waste. We do not encourage such waste is threw in the pipes but this is one of the precautions steps to avoid blockage.  For more detail, kindly contact the specialist in this matter.

References:

1. https://www.properoils.co.uk/

2. https://www.mahoneyes.com/blog/understanding-your-grease-trap/

3. http://kualitialamhijau.com/greasetrap.html

Food Repacking Labelling Requirement

Usually supermarkets and wholesale stores will buy raw materials in bulk (large quantities) and re-pack in small packages for sale.

Business owner should take note that Re-packing raw materials must also be labeled with the essential information such as 

1. product name

2. Exporting country

3. Manufacturer

4. Product weight.

This information is important for identifying or locating the product when there is issue or complaint regarding the product.

Credit: Food Safety & Quality Division, Melaka State Health Department

Disgusting food premise

 Dirty premise will attracts pest, like mouse and cockroaches.  The presence of mouse could leads to Leptospiosis decease and induce food poisoning.  The decease is lethal and the infected person could died if not treated in early stage.  it would also resulting paralyze and joint pain for long period. 

Thus, food business owner should make sure the hygienic of their premise as the bad environment could affect the health condition of the crew and customers.  

A serious reminder for Food Business owner...

Food business owner may be compounded up to RM2500 under the category of premises under Rule 11 (1) (a).  This rule is read in conjunction with Rule 16 (1) of the Food Hygiene Regulations 2009 as the owner fails to ensure the premises are free of any pests.

Premises that is at high risk for food poisoning may also be closed under the Food Act 1983 section 11, not more than 14 days and if they do not comply with the order, it would be an offense and on conviction could be jailed for a term not exceeding 5 years or fined or both.

Thus, do make sure the food premise is clean and free of PEST so that food business is consistently maintained. 

Credit: Food Safety & Quality Division, Labuan Federal Territory Health Department.

How long does stored food last?

Cooked / leftover food should be consumed within 2 hours before bacteria growth on it. We can choose to heat it when the food become cool or put it into refrigerater to slow down the bacteria growth. 

Anyway, do you know how long does the stored food can be kept (in the refrigerator)? The answer is 3-4 days only as the bacteria could grow in lower temperature.  There is a good practice to label the stored food with date so that you can know the food had been stored for how long. 

Let's check the diagram  on the left to know about the duration of storing in refrigerator and freezer.  

With that, do plan the type and quantity of food to be cooked and stored in refrigerator, according to your needs in business or for your family meal. 

Credit: Food Safety & Quality Division, Labuan Federal Territory Health Department

Are you using the right pallet in your Food Premise?

We use pallet to place raw material, finished goods, chemicals, packing materials and so on in factory. it is important to using the right pallet so to ease house keeping and to avoid pest infestation. Let's check it out ...

There are 2 type of pallets - wooden type and plastic type. Wooden pallet is not allowed to be used in Food factory.  it is because wood absorb moisture and easily being a carrier of pest.  As we can notice, there are sometimes cockroaches eggs at the bottom part of wooden pallet.   

Plastic pallet  could be used in Food Industries.  We should choose hygienic pallet as the smooth surface ease cleaning and sanitation. Besides, this kind of pallet also could withstand weight until 3000kg.

For pallet that is used once (for the purpose of delivering goods to customers) - One Way Pallet.  It is lighter as it had cavity and so it is suitable for delivery.  Because of the design, it is not easy to be cleaned and so it is not advisable to be used for long time.  To avoid contamination, the goods and the One Way pallet can be wrapped with Shrink Wrap palstic using Auto Palettizing machine.    

If there are pallet to be used at Cold Room, we should choose special pallet that can withstand low temperature - Virgin HDDPE/HDPP. Otherwise, the normal plastic can be fragile after long time keeping in very low temperate. 

Credit: Sir Mohd Khairul Azli Sahrom

How to manage food waste?

Food waste in kitchen is one of the reason that attract pests. pests such as rats, cockroaches and flies can cause illness and food poisoning.  Therefore, we should clean the cooking area after every cooking.

Food business owners should put food safety and hygiene as the first priority before working on the profit of the business.  Otherwise, they will be big impact on their business.  For example, when customer found some "freebies" on the food, they would have bad impression and might "help to promote the restaurant for FREE".  More serious is when customers suffer from food poisoning and reported to Health department, the premise would be inspected and the business owner might be ordered to close the business. 

The very first step to avoid pest is to make sure all areas in the premise is clean and free from food, leftover food or food waste.  Secondly, make sure there is no holes in the closed area that enable mouse to insert from outside.  Thirdly, make sure the "dead spaces" in the food area (eg. space under the freezers, cabinet etc) could be accessed and cleaned.          

WARNING !!. 

In the premises category under Rule 11 (1) (a), together with Rule 16 (1) of the Food hygiene Regulations 2009, Food business owner may be compounded up to RM 2,500 if they fails to ensure the premises are free from any pests.

Credit: Food Safety & Quality Division, Labuan Federal Territory Health department

4000 food products seized!

About 4,665 meals worth RM75,933 were seized during the operation of the Chinese New Year 2020 by the Malacca Health Department for misconduct at a supermarket in Malacca.

Among the errors found were imported food labels, expiration dates and damaged food.  When marketing packaged food, we should always obeying to Food Act and regulations, especially the labelling. 
The followings are some highlights that vendor should know -

1. Declaration

Make sure the product label is not over-claiming. For instance, when the labels of coffee powder product stating "this product able to cure diabetes", it is an over-claimed statement.  

2. Expiration date

Make sure the expired food is not displayed on shelf for selling. And, the expiry date should be clearly printed on the products. 

3. Information of food label

All necessary information should be printed on label and make sure the fonts sizes are correct. 

4. Can food should be in good condition.  Make sure the can is clean, neither corroded, swallowed nor dented. Dented can will causing insertion of O2 into the can and induce bacteria growth. 

You may refer to Malaysia Food Act and regulations to check the details before marketing packaged products. 


Credit: Food Safety and Quality Division, Melaka State Health department.

Food Processors - Are you ready for Food Safety Program Certification / Maintenance ?

When applying / maintaining Food Safety program in a food processing plant, there are certain matters that might be overlooked by the personnels.  The followings are the matters highlighted by an experienced auditor in his audits at processing plant.  Do you overlook the followings too? Let's check it out and improve ...   

Issue 1: Ducting of air cond, air cooling system and exhaust hood were not cleaned or long time didn't cleaned.  It needs to be done as the ducting might have dead mouse, that excreting fats or any liquid in the ducting, contaminating processing plant air.   

Issue 2: Hand dryer that is never / seldom being washed.  When it dirty, it will blowing bacteria to hands.

Issue 3:  Floor dryer being used in toilet will flew up bacteria at the toilet floor. When some workers using it to dry their pants, it causes the pants is contaminated with more bacteria, bringing into processing plant, and further contaminating food.. 

Issue 4: Workers pants become a source of contamination when workers bring the pants into the toilet and continue with work after visiting toilet.  In the toilet, the pants could contacting the dirty toilet bowls and become contaminated.  Thus, it is best to wear a thorough PPE to perform work into processing plant. 

   

Issue 5: Using fan as a cooler in a processing plant.  It is because the fan does not have air filter system.  If the air is dirty, the fan will blow dirty air on the products. So, it is advisable to use cooler which have air filtering and the filter must be maintained.  

Issue 6: Foot bath could also a matter of discussion.  it is used to sanitize boots and trolly wheels.  If the footbath is not filled with Chlorine and maintaining the concentration, it will causing the boots and wheel to bring dirts and bacteria to all places, contaminating every area that workers go.  Chlorine is easily evaporated and the concentration should be monitored periodically. 

Issue 7: Studies shown that hand phone is a device that carries bacteria significantly.  When workers bring in hand phone in processing plant, toilets and so on, their hands will be contaminated with bacteria on hand phone, and further contaminating foods.   

Issue 8: Money notes are also a bacteria carrier.  Imagine, nobody is washing notes, right? So, after we touched the notes,  our hands are dirty and could contaminating food in processing. 

There may be more... let's have self check and do improve the processing hygiene before the next audits from officers.  Good luck... 

Credit : Sir Mohd Khairul Azli Sahrom

Food Storage

The egg is deteriorate! Stop keeping in refrigerator... How to ensure the food in refrigerator is stored in clean and safe to be consumed? 

Well, we need to clean the refrigerator oftenly and throw the damaged food.  Otherwise, the bacteria or dirts on the damaged food could contaminate the other food.   

Secondly, do make sure all food are stored properly in refrigerator to avoid cross-contamination. For example, when we have cooked and raw foods that needs to be stored into the refrigerator, we need to isolate the foods in a way of cooked food should be put above the tray of raw food. This is to avoid cross contamination from the raw food to the cooked food.   

Third, do not store too much food (until all stucked / squeezed) in the refrigerator.  Doing this will causing each food couldn't be cooled efficiently and allow continously bacteria growth. 

Forth, all stored food should be kept for 3 days only.  Food storing more than that should be threw away.  

Hence, always make sure food in good condition so that our family members or our customers could enjoy good food.   

Credit: Food Safet and Quality Division, Labuan Federal Territory Health Department. 

7 Easy Tips To Buy Food Safely

When we purchase raw food , no matter small quantity for our family or big quantity for a feast, or a group of people, we ought to maintain the food safety so that we can prepare good and safe food for consumption.  If the raw food is deteriorate, the cooked product would be unsafe to be consumed.  The followings are the 7 tips to buy safe food...   

Tips 1: Plan the raw material procurement. When buying raw food, plan the type of food and the quantity.  Things to consider include how many consumers , when to consume, what to buy, the capacity of keeping equipment (refrigerator / freezer). For instance, to prepare food for only 2 persons for 5 days. The space of refrigerator is limited.  Knowing this we couldn't buy more foods that need to be stored at refrigerator. Frequent procurement or purchasing of can foods is recommended.

Tips 2: Prepare Cold Box to keep raw material such as chicken, fish and meat. These kind of food is high risk food.  It will have bacteria growth if they are not handled properly. Thus, we need to have a cooler box and portable ice to keep the food in cool. The cooler the food, the less bacteria growth occured. 

Tips 3: Buy dry food such as dry anchovy, dry chilly or dry prawn before other food. This is because dry food could be kept longer compare to wet food and / or high risk food. 

 

Tips 4: Buy Raw Meats or cold / frozen food (nugget, ice-cream, cheese) at the last purchase. The wet / high risk food is intended to have bacteria growth when it is handled improperly.  So, the food could be purchased at last destination before going home / restaurant.  This would also shorten the duration of wet / high risk food keeping in warmer temperature.

   

Tips 5: Isolate the food and non-food goods in separate bags. If all goods are kept in the same plastic bags, cross contamination could happened from non-food goods to food. 

Tips 6: Clean and cut the raw food (chicken and meat) according to the usage.  Before cooking, it is important to cut the big sizes of meat into smaller parts to ease thorough cooking.  

Tips 7: Keep raw material in refrigerator.  All food should be kept in refrigerator.  When foods are in between 5 - 63oC, bacteria is easily growth on the food and multiply geometrically, especially high risk food. As we saw at the store or fish market, the high risk food are stored in cold or frozen. 

With that, we could keep the purchased food in good quality before we cook and consumed them. 

Credit : Food Safety and Quality Division, Ministry of Health 

Our January 2020 classes

We would like to express our appreciation to all the Food Handlers who supported us at January 2020.  We look forward to serve you better in future.  If you like the content of this blog, kindly click the follow button so that you could receive "first hand" blog whenever it is uploading, for FREE.  

4 Jan 2020 @ Citarasaku, Tawau

11 Jan 2020 @ E-Life Learning Centre, Lahad Datu

12 Jan 2020 @ Asrama Kompleks Sukan Sandakan

17 Jan 2020 @ Warung Kampung, Lahad Datu

18 Jan 2020 @ Jabatan Pendidikan Kunak

18 Jan 2020 @ Jackyz Solution, Tawau

21 Jan 2020 @ Citarasaku, Tawau

23 Jan 2020 @ E-Life Learning Centre, Lahad Datu

We hope that our food safety information will assist you in building your food business ! Have a nice day