Hazards and risk

A hazard is anything that could cause harm to the person eating the food. Risk is the chance that the harm will happen, and how serious it would be.

Take a tray of raw chicken. The bacteria on it are a hazard. If the tray sits above a bowl of salad, the risk is high, because juices can drip onto food that will not be cooked. If the chicken is sealed and kept on the bottom shelf, the hazard is still there, but the risk is much lower.

Food safety hazards are grouped into four types: microbiological, physical, chemical and allergenic. You will learn about each type in the next module.

A hazard can appear at any step: delivery, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, hot holding or service. At every step, ask two questions. What could go wrong? What stops it? The thing that stops it is called a control. Checking the temperature of a delivery is a control. So is using a probe thermometer, or keeping raw and ready-to-eat food apart.

Here is how this works for a chicken salad. At delivery, raw chicken could arrive warm, so you check it with a probe. In storage, it could drip, so you keep it sealed on the bottom shelf. During cooking, the centre could stay undercooked, so you check the core temperature. During cooling, bacteria could grow, so you cool it quickly. At service, it could pick up bacteria or an allergen, so you use clean boards and utensils. One dish has many hazards, and each one has a control.

Risk can change. A busy service, a new member of staff or a broken fridge can all raise it. Think again whenever something changes.

Ready-to-eat food needs special care. It will not be cooked again before it is eaten, so nothing will kill any bacteria that reach it. Sandwiches, salads, cooked meats and desserts are all ready-to-eat foods.