Food preparation, packaging, and handling should be done in a separate place from other domestic activities such as family meal preparation, dish washing, clothes washing, kitchen cleaning or guest entertainment. When working with food, you should follow four basic guidelines:
- Don't allow smoking during food operations.
- Don't allow anyone with a contagious illness to work with food while ill.
- Wash hands and exposed arm portions before preparing or packaging food.
- Minimize any bare hand contact of food by using utensils, single-use gloves or bakery papers; especially when you are packaging ready-to-eat foods.
All equipment and utensils involved in the process of making homemade food should be kept in clean and operable condition. There are three guideline rules to follow when it comes to your utensils and equipment:
- Before each use, you should wash, rinse and sanitize all food contact surfaces, equipment, and utensils.
- Make sure any water that comes into contact with food products meets clean drinking water standards.
- All food preparation and equipment storage areas need to be free of insects and rodents.
All food that is used for manufacturing, producing, preparation, packaging, storage or transportation should be kept free from spoilage and adulteration. You can do this by observing the following four guidelines:
- Purchase ingredients from approved sources.
- Protect food from dirt, rodents, unnecessary handling, droplet contamination, overhead leakage or other environmental contamination.
- Prevent any cross contamination of foods or ingredients with any raw animal products or chemicals.
- All food should be prepackaged in order to protect it from contamination during transportation, display, sale and purchase.