Food Safety Training

Today we completed Unit 1 of our ServSafe online course. The entire class is estimated to be between 7 and 10 hours long. We learned all about pathogens, viruses, bacteria, and other toxins related to foodborne illnesses. While technically only one of us is required to have a ServSafe certification, we all decided to train for it - including Greg, who is the financial guy and Asad, our investor and 5th partner.

We learned all sorts of fun facts. For instance, to remember the elements that help pathogens grow and make people sick remember FATTOM, or Food, Acidity (lack of acidity contributes to pathogen growth), Temperature (41-135 degrees F is considered the DANGER ZONE), Time (pathogens grow after 4 hours), Oxygen, and Moisture.

We also learned less interesting and obvious facts, such as there is no smoking in the kitchen, open wounds must be covered when handling food (unless you want to give new meaning to 'blood sausage' or 'blood oranges' hardy har har), and if you use a knife to cut a raw chicken, you can't then use it to cut an orange.

And that is a summary of Unit 1. So the next time you decide to apply the 5 second rule, just remember that you could potentially be exposing your food to physical, chemical, and/or biological pathogens.