Managing Food Safety: A Regulator's Manual For Applying HACCP Principles to Risk-based Retail and Food Service Inspections and Evaluating Voluntary Food Safety Management Systems

Table of Contents

Annex 4 - Food Safety Questions

In order to assure yourself that you are conducting comprehensive, risk-based inspections, you may want to ask yourself the following sample list of questions before leaving establishments. This list addresses the significant food safety concerns for each operational step in the flow of food through the establishments. This sample list can be used as a tool to help you focus your inspections on assessing the active managerial control of foodborne risk factors. Assessment of whether establishments are actively monitoring critical processes is especially important in your assessment of establishments' active managerial control of foodborne illness risk factors. Note that this list is not intended to be a questionnaire for operators, but rather a tool to help you remember the critical processes to evaluate during your inspections.

RECEIVING

1. Is their food from an approved source?
2. How do they verify that their food is from an approved source?
3. How do they know if the food is at the proper temperature upon receipt?
4. What kind of refusal policy do they have?
5. Do they keep receiving logs (not required)?
6. How do they verify the source of shellfish?
7. How do they maintain certification records for fish that must be frozen to destroy parasites as specified in the Food Code?

COLD STORAGE/COLD HOLDING

1. How do they monitor their refrigeration units to ensure that they are maintaining proper temperature?
2. Is their date marking procedure acceptable?
3. How do their employees know what food is to be used first?
4. Are their storage practices for RTE and raw food acceptable?
5. Where are their thermometers stored? Are they calibrated? How often?
6. What kind of monitoring procedures do they implement for ensuring food is at the proper cold holding temperature?
7. Do they keep temperature logs (not required in most cases)?

PREPARATION

1. What steps do they use to prevent cross-contamination?
2. What training is given for handwashing?
3. What is their handwashing policy?
4. How do they clean and sanitize their equipment?
5. How do their employees eliminate bare hand contact with RTE food?
6. How do their employees minimize bare hand contact with food that is not RTE?
7. How do they process fruits and vegetables before service?
8. Do they serve a highly susceptible population?

COOKING

1. Does the staff know the correct cooking temperatures?
2. Do they have a consumer advisory?
3. Are cooking temperatures monitored?
4. What corrective actions are taken when food does not reach the proper temperature?
5. Are cooking temperature logs maintained (not required)?

COOLING

1. How is food cooled?
2. How are temperatures monitored?
3. How do they ensure that the prescribed time frames are met?
4. What corrective actions do they take if the time frames are not met?
5. Are cooling records maintained (not required)?

REHEATING

1. What happens to leftovers?
2. How are food products reheated? Stove/oven, microwave, steam table, other?
3. How are temperatures monitored?
4. Are reheating records maintained (not required)?
5. What corrective actions are taken?

HOT HOLDING

1. How are cooked foods held until service?
2. How is temperature controlled? Steam table, stove/oven, hot box, other?
3. How are the temperatures monitored?
4. How are temperature records maintained (not required)?
5. What corrective actions are taken when food is found out of temperature?
6. Is temperature maintained during distribution if food is transported off-site?

TIME ALONE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH CONTROL

1. How long is PHF being held out of temperature before or after cooking?
2. How is the time out of temperature controlled?
3. How is time monitored?
4. How are time records maintained? As specified in the Food Code?