How to serve your guests 100% safe food on Christmas Eve?

Everyone likes to eat safely produced food.?

Whether it’s going out to a restaurant or enjoying your personal culinary achievements at home with friends and family, nobody wants a bout of diarrhea and vomiting when they’re traveling around during Christmas.

As Christmas is approaching and many of us are already planning our menus for Christmas Eve to surprise loved ones, our food safety specialists at FoodDocs have decided to do their best to ensure this year's Christmas food extravaganza remains safe for everyone.?

Food safety is something that everyone - from a master chef at a Michelin kitchen to a modest home cook looking to impress everyone this Christmas - should keep in mind during every meal preparation step.

So in this newsletter, you will learn about:

1. The importance of food safety
2. The consequences of poor food safety compliance
3. The basic rules of food safety to follow every day but especially when cooking for Christmas Eve

And since we are really into numbers at FoodDocs, all this information is spiced up with thrilling food safety facts and statistics from around the world!?

Let's get into it!

What is food safety?

Food safety refers to standardized, safe, and proper food handling practices employed during the preparation, processing, storage, and distribution of the food products you deal with.?

The concern for food safety starts right from agriculture and goes all the way to packaging of finished products and their delivery to the consumer's table.

Examples of food handling practices that can be applied to keep food products safe include:?

• Cooking at the right internal temperature to prevent undercooked meat
• Preventing cross-contamination through proper segregation
• Storing foods at proper refrigeration temperatures
• Other critical control points that help render potential infectious pathogens ineffective

But why is food safety so important? Well, food is not only one of the most important things that keep us alive, but it also plays a great role in human culture and identity. Since food forms the foundation of our survival, safe food is a basic right that everyone has.

This is especially true during festivals like Christmas, when all people want is a good time. If you ignore food safety at a time like this, you’ll not only do your guests a great disservice, but you might also lose your credibility as a food establishment.?

Of course, this is not to say that you can ignore food safety at other times during the year. That’s because of all the awful things that can happen if you do so, as we’ll see in the next section.?

What happens when food safety regulations are not followed?

If there is one thing that keeps the food industry viable and upholds the importance of food safety, it’s the collection of food safety regulations. Uniform food safety regulations are an essential aspect of the food industry as they protect consumers from any potential food safety issues.

Recent data released by the World Health Organization revealed that at least 600 million people all over the world suffer from foodborne illnesses after consuming unsanitary food. Unfortunately, at least 420,000 out of these 600 million people die every year.?

The majority of food safety issues are caused by pathogenic microorganisms — such as bacteria and viruses — that cause food poisoning.?

These microorganisms can cause mild to fatal health consequences that include watery diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, or even sepsis, which is a severe infection that spreads throughout the body and can end up killing the victim.?

So think about it — who would like to spend the day after Christmas Eve like this? The answer is nobody.?

In addition, approximately $95.2 billion per year in productivity value and $15 billion in health care are lost because of foodborne diseases.

This means the consequences of food safety issues have fatal outcomes for both food business owners and consumers.

Who needs to follow food safety rules?

All members of the food supply chain play a role in maintaining food safety. Whether you are a manufacturer, food supplier, food business owner, or customer, you have a significant part to play in food safety.?

For manufacturers, suppliers, and food business owners, following food safety rules is essential to ensure their product meets the standards of health and safety regulations. This includes preparing food in hygienic conditions, storing food safely, and correctly labeling products.

Customers also need to pay attention to food safety. When shopping, they should look at product labels and expiration dates carefully. And of course, it's important to stop supporting businesses that fail to follow food safety regulations.?

The 5 basic steps of food safety everyone should follow this Christmas

Okay, we now know why food safety is important and it’s time to get to work. As Christmas approaches and we’re pressed on time, here are the 5 basic food safety steps to help you get started:

1. Maintaining cleanliness covers a broad range of food safety issues in the entire food chain. Cleanliness includes personal hygiene, proper cleaning of the surfaces that come in contact with food, and preparation of meals with clean ingredients.

Did you know that diarrheal foodborne diseases can be prevented by up to 50% by correct handwashing?

1. Cooking food properly is vital to keeping it safe for consumers. An adequate period of high temperature cooking reduces foodborne pathogens to acceptable levels. Different types of foods will require different target internal temperatures, so it’s a good idea to acquaint yourself with them. If you are planning to cook turkey or ham this year, take a look at our turkey cooking chart and ham cooking chart to ensure thorough cooking!
2. Similar to cooking, proper storage of foods is highly dependent on the right temperature. Biological hazards, such as harmful bacteria, molds, and viruses, are all affected by food storage temperatures. These pathogens double in number within two hours of storage at the temperature danger zone.
3. Avoiding cross-contamination is a critical task for any food business. The unintentional transfer of pathogens and other biological contaminants from one place to another is one of the most common causes of a widespread foodborne illness outbreak. Cross-contamination can happen as a result of a lack of proper hygiene, inadequate cleaning of the kitchen, and a lack of food organization.
4. One good way to reduce the number of pathogens in food is to accept only good quality raw materials. In addition to the food product quality, the condition of the delivery must also be considered, and highly perishable foods must be delivered in refrigerated conditions. When the appropriate delivery temperature is not met, raw materials are likely to spoil faster than expected.

Tips for easier food safety management for food businesses this Christmas

The 5 steps discussed above are basic elements of food safety. At a festive time like Christmas, you’ll probably experience an increase in customers, which makes it important to approach food safety in an organized manner.?

Establishing a digital food safety management system (FSMS) is the best way to achieve high food safety standards in an organized and efficient manner.?

That’s because food safety compliance is an ever-evolving task for food businesses. Compliance means having to repeatedly shape your food safety system to the requirements and food safety considerations of your food regulatory agency.?

With a traditional pen-and-paper food safety system, even the initial establishment of the system — let alone quick adaptations to changing rules and guest numbers — may be quite difficult to perform.?

But as the food industry starts to embrace technological advances, the easiest way to embark on your food safety journey is through an intelligent and digital platform, such as FoodDocs.

Making food safety easier and faster — and helping you stay compliant at all times — is our mission at FoodDocs.?

Our free tools and templates in our Template Hub are something that every home cook can use to keep their family and friends safe and healthy this Christmas.?

And FoodDocs' HACCP plan generator and Full Food Safety Management System are made for food businesses who want to stay compliant while saving time and money and continue to maintain high food safety standards as they experience a surge in customers during Christmas.

On that note, the FoodDocs team wishes you a very happy Christmas and hopes that you enjoy memorable and safe food experiences this year!