Emergency Response and Defense Plans for Food Safety That Actually Work

Occasionally, food products do become contaminated and they can cause serious foodborne illness outbreaks. So to help defend against this, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, or fsis, has developed a Food Defense and Emergency Response plan. FSIS Directive 5500.2 outlines how the agency responds to food based incidents and emergencies, including recalls of food items found to be tainted or causing illness. Recall announcements are posted on the FSIS website with the description of the food identifying codes, the reason for the recall, the name of the producer, distribution information, the health risk involved, and the FSIS contact info. So listen, if you discover that you've had recalled food in your restaurant or business, look, don't serve it. You can contact the distributor or discard it immediately. Another important step in food defense is the USDA's hazard analysis critical Control Points. That's the HACCP system. This is a management system in which food safety is addressed by determining and alleviating hazards in food before they actually even make it to the consumer. While the FDA HACCP system is currently voluntary, using it as a proactive approach to make sure the food served or sold in your business is safe is a solid plan. There are seven principles of HACCP designed to keep food safe. 1. Perform a hazard analysis. 2. Decide on critical control points or CCP. 3. Determine the critical limits. Four is establish procedures to monitor CCPs, then establish corrective actions. Also establish verification procedures and finally, you'll want to establish a record keeping system. Preventing these incidents is actually, of course, ideal. Food defense is a priority for the FSIS as it helps to protect foods from contamination or adulteration that could cause a significant public health concern. The significant incident preparedness and response staff within FSIS is responsible for developing strategies to prevent, protect against and mitigate, respond to and recover from contamination of the food supply. Part of this is the creation of a food defense plan. Sounds pretty official. Well, it is. It's a written plan identifying mitigation strategies and protective measures that will be implemented in the case of contaminated food. This plan needs to be reviewed annually and of course revised as needed. Sometimes emergencies do occur and steps need to be taken to help mitigate the possibility of contaminated food. So let's say in the case of a power outage, you keep fridge and freezer doors closed to keep the cold air inside. Most refrigerators should be able to keep food safe for up to four hours if the outage lasts longer than that. Transfer food to a cooler with ice and use a thermometer to ensure the temperature stays at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Or below. Replace that ice as needed to maintain the correct temperature. Discard any items that were in the danger zone for more than two hours. If in doubt, throw it out. If a flood occurs, throw out any food not in a watertight container that comes in contact with flood water. Items with screw caps, snap lids, pool tops and crimped caps or in cardboard boxes aren't watertight, and they have to be discarded. Foods in metal cans that aren't damaged, they can be sterilized and kept. Finally, food that's been near a fire or smoke fumes has got to be thrown away. Heat from fire can activate bacteria, and this causes food to become unsafe, even if the packaging looks like it's undamaged. Fumes and chemicals that are used to fight fires can also contaminate cookware and utensils, and they might even seep into fridges and freezers. It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to food safety. In emergencies.