[box type=”shadow” ]As the national regulator, FSSAI has over the years put in place food safety standards for food producers and distributors to follow. More often, Food Business Operators fail to maintain the standard hygiene practices at their premises. FDA’s role has been to monitor FBOs and ensure that the right sanitary & hygiene practices are being followed at their premises. Dr Krishna Methekar, Food Safety Officer at Food and Drug Administration, Maharashtra, lists down the standards to be followed under the revised laws.[/box]
The standards are defined by schedule-4 (Regulation 2.1.2) of Food Safety & Standards (Licensing & Registration of Food Business) Regulations 2011, include the following:
- Sanitary and hygienic requirements for food manufacturer / processor / handler
- General requirements on hygienic and sanitary practices to be followed by all food business operators applying for license
- Specific hygienic and sanitary practices to be followed by food business operators engaged in manufactureing, processing, storing and selling of milk, milk products, meat and meat products.
Good Manufacturing Practices
The rules apply to rooms where food is prepared. There will be no smoke nuisance in the food preparation area. Wherever cooking or frying of any kind is being done, a chimney having appropriate suction capacity as per the size of the kitchen has to be installed prior to start of business.
Hand washing facilities and toilets
- Adequate number of wash-hand basins made of porcelain / stainless steel shall be provided along with soap to wash hands, with hot and cold running water, and materials for cleaning hands and drying them hygienically. Clean and dry towels shall be kept for the use of customers.
- Separate sinks must be provided, where necessary, for washing raw food and cleaning equipment.
- Sinks with a draining board, detergent and hot water shall be provided to ensure proper cleaning of utensils, crockery and cutlery there will be a separate place for washing pots and pains.
Changing facilities
Facilities for staff to change their clothes, must be provided.
Good Food Hygiene Practices
Cleaning: Food areas and equipment between different tasks, especially after handling raw food shall be cleaned. The surface must be thoroughly cleaned in case if somebody spills food / water / drink.A systematic cleaning schedule and instructions has to be developed by the FBO.
Food handlers should strictly follow the systematic cleaning schedule to make sure that surfaces and shop-floor equipment are cleaned when they need to be.
The schedule includes
- what needs to be cleaned
- how often it needs to be cleaned, and
- how the cleaning should be done
Cleaning instructions should indicate
- what cleaning products should be used
- how the products should be stored (away from raw, cooked, packed food) and used
- how much consumables should be used or diluted and how long that should be left in contact with the surface (following the manufacturer’s instructions)
Raw materials
Raw materials shall be purchased from reliable and known dealers and checked for visible deterioration & off odour. There should be no physical hazards and foreign body contamination. Raw paste, sauces etc. should be stored in properly covered containers made of food grade material and checked regularly for fungal growth, deterioration, etc.
Preparation of fruits / vegetables
- Fruits and vegetables that have been protected from cross-contamination and properly conserved should be used
- Fruits and vegetables should be washed in potable water before being cut, mixed with other ingredients. Uncooked, ready-to-eat fruits & vegetables should be with 50ppm chlorinated water before cutting, peeling or serving
- Fruits and vegetables should bepeeled, squeezed and /or cut, as appropriate, with clean equipment / utensils made of non-absorbent food grade materials
- Previously prepared fruits / vegetables should be kept in clean and properly covered food grade containers under refrigeration or at a maximum temperature suitable for the product in question
Preparation of Non-veg. Products
- Raw meat and processed meat should be separated from other foods; items and surfaces
- Separate items (e.g. cutting boards, dishes, knives) and preparation area for raw meats and poultry and marine products should be used to avoid cross contamination of food
- Hands should be thoroughly washed before switching from preparing raw meat or poultry or marine products to any other activity
- Ensure proper cooking of all non vegetarian products
- Used surfaces should be washed with antibacterial cleaning agent, rinsed properly with water and sanitized after preparing raw meat / poultry
- Ensure that frozen products are thawed as per point no. 9 under special requirements for high risk foods
Cooking
- The preparation / processing / cooking should be adequate to eliminate and reduce hazards to an acceptable level which might have been introduced at the raw food level; should ensure that the foods are not re- contaminated
- Whenever cooking or reheating of food is done, it should be hot all the way through, it is especially important to make sure that food is cooked thoroughly
- Re-use of cooking oil should be avoided
- Food hot held at 60°C and cooled at 21°C within two hours or cooled to 5°C in four hours and thereafter refrigerated might be reheated
- Reheated food must reach a minimum internal temperature of 74°C. When using microwave to reheat, food must reach a minimum temperature of 74°C and stayed covered for five minutes to allow the temperature to equilibrate
- Reheat food quickly in ovens, steamer, and microwave oven and / or on top of range in a steam kettle
- Never reheat food on a steam table, in a bain-marie, in a bun drawer and / or under a heat lamp
- In case of reheating of oil use maximum three times to avoid the formation of trans-fat. It is ideal to use once if possible
Chilling
Semi cooked or cooked dishes and other ready-to-eat foods such as prepared salads and desserts having short shelf life should not be left standing at room temperature - Chilled food intended for consumption should be cold enough
- Food items that need to be chilled should be put straight away into the fridge
- Cooked food should be cooled as quickly as possible and then put it in the fridge
- Chilled food should be processed in the shortest time possible
- Fridge and display units should be cold enough and as per requirement
- In practice, fridge should be set at 5oC to make sure that food is kept in chilled condition. Also, fridge and display units should be maintained in good working condition to avoid food spoilage and contamination
Cross-contamination
- Raw food / meat / poultry and ready-to-eat foods should be keptseparate at all times
- Hands should be thoroughly washed after touching raw meat / poultry
- Work surfaces, chopping boards and equipment should be thoroughly cleaned before the preparing of food starts and after it has been used
- Separate chopping boards and knives for raw fruit / vegetables / meat / poultry and ready-to-eat food should be used
- Raw meat / poultry below ready-toeat food should be kept in the fridge
- Separate fridge for raw meat /poultry should be kept
- Staff should be made aware how to avoid cross-contamination
Personal Hygiene
- High standards of personal hygiene should be maintained.
- All employees handling food should wash their hands properly:
– before preparing food
– after touching raw food or materials, specially meat/poultry or eggs
– after breaks
– after using the toilet
– after cleaning the raw materials or utensils / equipment
- Street shoes inside the food preparation area should not be worn while handling & preparing food
- Food handlers should ensure careful food handling & protect food from environmental exposure
- Food handlers should not handle soiled currency notes to avoid cross contamination
Transportation & Handling of Food.
- The vehicle / transportation being used to carry cooked / prepared / processed food should be clean and dedicated for this purpose and should not carry anything else
- Time required for transportation should be minimum, to avoid microbial proliferation
- Cooked food served hot should be kept at a temperature of at least 60oC to prevent microbial growth
- Cooked food to be served cold should be kept below 5oC to prevent growth of pathogens
- All foods during transportation must be kept covered and in such a way as to limit pathogen growth or toxin formation by controlling time of transportation, exposure,
temperature control and using safe water for cleaning, etc. - Handling of food should be minimal. It should be ensured that utensils, crockery, cutlery and specially hands of the food handlers / seller are clean and sanitized
- All surplus food and unused thawed food should be discarded.
- Food to be kept for cold storage should be distributed in small volumes to ensure uniform cooling
- Dry, fermented and acidified foods should be stored in cool and dry place
- All packaged food viz. sterilized milk, bottled beverages, canned foods, etc., should be stored properly during transportation to ensure that seals remain intact and undamaged
[box type=”shadow” ]FDA Maharashtra Facts & Figures
The FSSA is in nascent stage, it is now getting momentum. As compared to the global standards, we are now moving towards global standards with codex point at FSSAI, New Delhi
FDA, Maharashtra is all set to adopt latest technology. We have two labs at Mumbai and Aurangabad. The third lab at Nagpur will be started soon. Mumbai Lab has been accredited by NABL, and further planning for strengthening the lab is going on. We have proposal to merge the Public Health Lab to FDA & it is put up for Government consideration; if it is so, then 14 Public Health Labs will add to FDA.
In Maharashtra, the FBOs are kept informed. There are lots of workshops & meeting sheld at Dist. level, Taluka level & Village level. Licensing & Registration for FBO had been taken as massive drive in State and almost 780,000 FBOs, are having either registration or licenses as per new 2011 rules. Online Licensing registration has been adopted for FBO in state.
100% implementation of Act, Rules & Registration is adopted. We hve well defined enforcement structure at place. We are having Joint Commissioner (Food) placed at divisional levels controlling the district under jurisdiction. We have offices at every district place armed with Food Safety Officers, in accordance with population & FBO density for enforcement.
Banjare, Joint Commissioner, FDA[/box]
Storage
- It is very important to store food properly for the purpose of food safety. Following things must be ensured:
- Foods should be cooked, stored and kept at right temperature
- Raw meat / poultry should be stored separately from other foods
- Vegetarian foods should always be stored above non-veg. foods and cooked foods above uncooked foods on separate racks in the refrigerator
- Storage temperature of frozen food should be minus 18oC or below
- Cooked food to be eaten later should be cooled quickly, and kept it in the refrigerator – It is advisable to put date on food packages or containers, using stickers or any other way of identification, before keeping inside the refrigerator to keep track of food prepared date wise and use accordingly to minimise wastage
- Storage instructions over food packaging should be followed
- Dried foods (such as grains and pulses) should be stored off the floor, ideally in sealable containers, to allow proper cleaning and protection from pests
Stock rotation
The rule for stock rotation is FIFO (first in, first out) to make sure that older food is used first. This will help to prevent wastage.