How to use barbecues to improve food safety.

If barbecues are used on site, then special steps must be taken to ensure the safety of food produced.

Unlike cooking foods in an oven, the cooking temperature of barbequed food is difficult to control. Often foods will cook relatively quick at the surface but remain raw or semi cooked in other parts of the food.

Other hazards to cooking outside include foreign body contamination as well as pests such as flies contaminating foods. Also, sometimes the strict hygiene controls carried out in a kitchen can be more difficult to maintain outside in the open.

Staff must follow the safety points below in order to maintain a consistent level of food safety.

Hygiene procedure

Ensure that food handlers maintain high standards of personal hygiene and maintain recommended hand washing frequencies, especially when handling raw products and high risk cooked or RTE products.

All utensils and equipment must be cleaned and disinfected before, during and after service. Staff should be vigilant and careful not to use utensils such as cooking tongs to pick up raw or semi raw products then handling cooked foods with the same utensils.

Good hygiene practices will be especially important as hand wash basins may not be readily available for hand washing.

Storage

Ensure that any foods to be barbequed are only removed from storage immediately prior to cooking, do not allow foods to sit around at ambient temperatures.

High protein and perishable foods left at ambient temperatures for even a short time can become hazardous when multiplication of bacteria takes place once food is put into the danger zone (5-63°c).

Defrosting

Ensure that high protein foods such as meat, fish and poultry are fully defrosted prior to barbequing.

Foods that have not been adequately defrosted will not cook evenly putting consumers at risk of food poisoning from bacteria that may have survived the cooking process.

Processed meats

All poultry products and processed meats, such as burgers and sausages must be cooked thoroughly to a temperature above 75°c, this must be checked with a food probe.

Poultry products can be potentially contaminated completely throughout the product, whereas processed meats such as burgers contain minced meat products, the bacteria present on the original surface of the meat will have been transferred to the inside of the product by the mincing process.

Charcoal

For safer cooking on a barbeque it is important to ensure that the barbeque is lit well in advance to allow the fire to develop properly.

The charcoal should be glowing red with grey powdered edges before any cooking starts to take place. Do not cook whilst visible flames are seen as the fire will not be hot enough.

Burning procedure

Burnt food can give the impression that it has fully cooked, this is not true with barbeques as they often burn foods very quickly on the outside surface whilst the inside is not fully cooked.

If food starts to burn too quickly, then raise the grill height or turn down the heat (if a gas barbeque) or damp the coals if not.

Pre-cooking food

Whenever possible it is safer to pre-cook foods in the oven or microwave prior to finishing off the cooking process on the barbeque.

Use clean and disinfected utensils and containers whilst transferring semi cooked foods.

Separation and rotation

Ensure separate areas of the barbeque are used for raw, cooking and cooked foods.

Ensure that raw products and their juices/blood does not touch or drip onto cooking or cooked foods

Ideally, it is best to cook all raw foods at once and remove the cooked foods prior to the placement of the next batch. If this is not possible, it is good practice to work from left to right, introducing raw foods from the left, cooked foods must be kept separated on the right of the barbeque, ensuring that separate tongs are used.

Maintenance

Maintain the physical condition of the barbeque, ensure that there is no rust or flaking paint that can cause physical contamination of the products.

Ensure that gas barbeques are regularly checked especially hoses and gas valves and kept in a highly maintained state.

Cleaning

Ensure that the barbeque is cleaned and disinfected before and after use with appropriate food grade chemicals.

Ready to eat foods

Salads and any other RTE food being offered as part of the barbeque must remain in cold storage until immediately prior to serving.

Perishable foods must not be stored in the open air but must be covered and placed in a cooler area until required.

Corrective actions if things go wrong

• •Foods that have not attained a safe temperature throughout must be cooked further until correct temperatures are reached.
• •Use alternative equipment, change the grill height or alter the heat if food is not cooking evenly or is burning.
• •Replace the barbecue if faulty or damaged.
• •Food that may have been cross contaminated should be discarded.
• •If staff do not follow the safety points above, then retrain them and increase supervision until competency can be shown.