What practice minimizes cross-contamination in food service?

Keeping raw and cooked foods separate is crucial in minimizing cross-contamination in food service. This practice helps prevent harmful bacteria present in raw foods, especially raw meat, poultry, and seafood, from coming into contact with cooked foods that are ready to eat. By maintaining separate processing areas, utensils, cutting boards, and storage solutions for raw and cooked items, the risk of transferring pathogens is greatly reduced.

For example, if raw chicken juices were to contaminate a salad through shared equipment or surfaces, it could pose a serious health risk to consumers. Therefore, proper segregation not only enhances food safety but also ensures that the food served is safe for consumption.

In contrast, using the same utensils for all food types could lead to cross-contamination as pathogens from raw foods could easily transfer to cooked foods. Similarly, washing hands only once per shift does not provide adequate protection against contamination; frequent handwashing is essential, especially after handling raw foods. Lastly, while using high temperatures can kill bacteria, it does not address the issues of cross-contamination that can occur before cooking. Hence, keeping raw and cooked foods separate is the most effective practice in this context.