Foodborne Illness Risk Factors & Risk Control Plan Tool
Risk Factor: Contaminated Equipment/Protection From Contamination Data Item #3: Food Is Protected From Cross- Contamination During Storage, Preparation, and Display
What's the Rule? Separate raw animal foods from ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and all other foods. If storing raw foods above each other, order them from lowest cooking temperature on top to highest on bottom. Clean and sanitize food-contact surfaces between use of different raw animal foods or moving from raw to RTE. Protect food during storage and display with lids, splash guards, sneeze guards, etc. Refer to FDA Food Code: 3-302.11, 3-304.11, 3-304.15, 3-306.13 What’s the Risk? Each type of raw animal food, such as beef, chicken, and fish, can carry different germs and pathogens. It is essential to cook it to the proper temperature, separate raw meats from other foods, use separate cutting utensils and surfaces, and not wash raw poultry.
Why Do You Need a Risk Control Plan? A Risk Control Plan can reduce your risk of causing a foodborne illness outbreak. The process has three parts: 1) identify your chronic issues, 2) determine the root causes, and 3) create a food safety management system. This guidance document can be used to complete an agreement between you and your local regulator to plan for long-term food safety success.
PART 1: Identify continuous or chronic out-of-compliance issues • List all cross-contamination issues from previous inspection reports
• Identify any pattern or similarity among the citations • List the corrective actions that have already been tried PART 2: Use the table below to determine the root causes • Chronic issues can have multiple root causes • Identify all the people, equipment, economic, or procedural factors that play a role in your recurring issues • This table includes a few examples, but it might not include your specific root cause
PEOPLE
EQUIPMENT
ECONOMICS
PROCEDURES
Storage shelves not labeled to separate foods by cooking temperature
Not enough space available for proper segregation or raw foods Insufficient time committed to train on procedures Insufficient staff scheduled to execute procedures Insufficient amount of gloves and other utensils available
People not trained to separate ready-to-eat foods from other foods People not trained to recognize raw and RTE foods People not trained to separate raw foods by type People not trained to protect foods during storage and display Person in charge is not a trained food protection manager
Written procedures incorrect or unclear to understand
Equipment position exposes food to splash
Written procedures not followed
Equipment not designed for easy cleaning and sanitizing Sneeze guards not positioned to prevent food contamination Utensils for consumer use are improperly stored or not provided
Procedures are not monitored; monitoring is not documented
No process for conducting and documenting corrective actions
Splash barriers and sneeze guards not provided
RTE prep is not conducted prior to raw food prep
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