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Check for safe food-handling procedures in your kitchens

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, February 23, 2007

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When was the last time your safety committee discussed cleanliness in the hospital's kitchen? Part of infection control, materials management, and patient safety, the cooking areas can easily become breeding grounds for pests and spoiled goods. Cut down the odds of a food poisoning outbreak by reviewing your kitchen's policies and making sure staff members follow these federal recommendations for dealing with meat.

1. Order irradiated meat to cut down on the risk that it will carry most food-poisoning bugs, including E. coli.
2. Follow cooking-temperature recommendations for each type of meat and poultry; do not undercook.
3. Never place cooked meat on a plate or surface where raw meat has been, unless the plate has been cleaned.
4. Discard all meat, poultry, eggs, and casseroles that have been left at room temperature for more than two hours.
5. Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot water and soap between the preparation of raw meat, poultry, and seafood and the preparation of produce that will not be cooked.
6. Use kitchen sanitizers on cutting boards and countertops periodically. In a pinch, try a solution of one teaspoon of chlorine bleach to one quart of water.

To get more information, go to Briefings on Hospital Safety (BOHS). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire February issue of BOHS. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of BOHS have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their February issue.

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