Topic 4 Storage, temperatures and cross-contamination

Much food poisoning comes from two mistakes: leaving food at a temperature where microbes grow, and passing microbes from a raw food to one that is already ready to eat. This topic explains how to avoid them at every step, from the moment goods arrive until the food is served.

Reference temperatures

In bars, restaurants, canteens and shops, the figures in the Spanish rules are the ones that apply (Royal Decree 1086/2020, Article 30, as amended by Royal Decree 1021/2022, and Royal Decree 1021/2022, Article 4). The WHO figures are the general reference: they point the same way, but the rules are more precise.

Exception: melons, watermelons, pineapples and papayas cut in half or in quarters may be kept at room temperature (20-25 °C) for a maximum of 3 hours after cutting; after that they go into a refrigerated display. The cutting time must be recorded and customers told to keep them in the fridge (Royal Decree 1021/2022, Art. 4).

Your business may set stricter temperatures for some products in its own-check plan. Its plan and the product label always come first. To check temperatures you use a thermometer, and the temperature at the centre of a food is measured with a clean, disinfected probe thermometer.

Receiving goods

• Check that chilled and frozen products arrive cold (measure the temperature if your business asks you to, and write it down).
• Check that packaging is closed and undamaged, that cans are not swollen or rusty, and that there are no signs of pests.
• Check that each product has its label and is not past its use-by date.
• Put anything that needs to be kept cold into cold storage as soon as possible: the cold chain must not be broken (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter IX, point 5).
• If something is not right, do not accept it and tell your supervisor.

Storage

• Nothing on the floor: use shelves, and covered containers or closed packaging.
• What expires first goes out first. Put the items with the nearest date at the front.
• In the fridge, cooked and ready-to-eat food at the top; raw food at the bottom, especially raw meat and fish, so they do not drip onto other food.
• Do not overfill cold rooms and fridges: the cold air must be able to circulate.
• Food taken out of its original packaging is kept in a food-grade container, covered and with a label saying what it is and the date.
• Cleaning products are always kept separately (topic 3).

The dates on the label

• “Use by”: found on highly perishable food. After that date, the food is considered unsafe and cannot be used or sold (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Article 24).
• “Best before…” (date of minimum durability): shows until when the food keeps its quality if stored as the label says. After that it may lose flavour or texture, but it is not a safety date.
• Also follow the instructions on the label: “once opened, consume within 3 days”, “store between…”.

Defrosting

• In the fridge, in a container that collects the liquid, and allowing enough time. Also in the microwave if the food will be cooked straight away.
• Never at room temperature on the worktop: the surface of the food warms up and stays in the danger zone while the centre is still frozen.
• The liquid that comes out is drained off and thrown away, without touching other food (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter IX, point 7, and Spanish Royal Decree 1021/2022, Article 5.8).
• Do not refreeze defrosted food unless you have cooked or processed it first: Royal Decree 1021/2022 (Article 5.9) does not allow bars, restaurants and shops to refreeze food. Microbes may have multiplied during defrosting.

Cooking, cooling, holding and reheating

• Cook thoroughly, especially minced meat, poultry, eggs and fish. The centre must reach 70 °C; with poultry and minced meat, the juices must run clear, not pink.
• Cool quickly anything that will be kept cold: the regulation requires it to be refrigerated “as quickly as possible” (Annex II, Chapter IX, point 6) and, if it is a ready meal prepared hot, its centre must drop from 60 °C to 10 °C in less than 2 hours (Royal Decree 1086/2020, art. 30.6). Divide food into small, shallow containers and use a blast chiller if there is one. The WHO also advises not leaving cooked food at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
• Keep hot at 63 °C or above until served (art. 30.2; the WHO says above 60 °C), or cold at the temperatures in the tables.
• Reheat thoroughly: the centre must reach at least 74 °C for 15 seconds, within an hour of taking it out of the fridge (art. 30.7), and only once.

Cross-contamination

This is when microbes (or allergens) pass from one food or surface to another food. It is especially dangerous when they reach a food that will not be cooked again: a salad, a dessert, a dish that is already cooked.

• Direct: one food touches another. For example, raw meat dripping onto a cake in the fridge.
• Indirect: through hands, a chopping board, a knife, a cloth or a surface. For example, cutting raw chicken and then a tomato with the same knife without washing it.

How to prevent it

• Different chopping boards and utensils for raw and cooked food (many kitchens use colours), or wash and disinfect them between uses.
• Wash your hands when moving from raw food to ready-to-eat food.
• Keep food separate in the fridge and in the storeroom: raw food at the bottom and covered.
• Do not crack eggs over a plate or container with food that will not be cooked.

Water, fruit and vegetables

• Always use drinking water, also for ice and for washing food (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter VII).
• Wash fruit and vegetables that are eaten raw thoroughly. If your business disinfects them, use a product authorised for that use, at the dose and for the time on the label, and rinse afterwards with drinking water.

Fish to be eaten raw: Anisakis

Fish that will be eaten raw or almost raw (sushi, carpaccio, ceviche, anchovies in vinegar and other marinated fish) must be frozen first to kill any live parasites: for at least 24 hours at −20 °C or colder, or 15 hours at −35 °C or colder, in all parts of the fish, except for the exceptions set out in the rules. Spanish Royal Decree 1021/2022 (Article 8) requires this of bars, restaurants and canteens, with the same figures as Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 (Annex III, Section VIII, Chapter III, Part D). Marinating, vinegar and salt do not kill them.

The establishment must also tell customers that the fish has been frozen, for example with a sign or on the menu. Freezing is not needed if the fish will be cooked so that it reaches at least 60 °C in the centre for one minute.