Alaska Safe Food Worker Class Exercises

Food Safety Risk Factor categories are underlined. Practical exercises are numbered.
General considerations: practical exercises are good for this environment because they keep the adult learner focused, active, and involved. However, they take longer than lectures, and require more planning and equipment. Wherever possible team teaching helps with setup, assisting volunteers and helping the different groups as needed, cross training other EHOs, and spark group activities.

Back on the Job Exercise- reinforces actions that they can do at work from what they learned in class. In the book there is a section where they can write down things as they think about it.
When: at end of each section and again at the end of the class
Equipment:
 Marker
 Post It poster paper
Write “Back on the Job” on the top of the paper. After each section of the class, ask the students what they learned and how they can apply it at their worksite.
Example to give to class to show what you are looking for:
The underneath side of a toilet seat has been shown to have less bacteria than faucet handles. Therefore turning off the faucet with the paper towel so hands do not become re-contaminated is important.
What learned: Turn off faucet with paper towel.
How to use back on job: Use a paper towel to turn off faucet and clean the faucets more often.

Part 1: Worker Knowledge and Health

Exercise #1 Handwashing
Shows food worker how well their hand washing technique is.

When: right after hand wash video/section on handwashing in powerpoint. If the group is too large to take time out of the class to do it then it can be during the first break.
Equipment:
 glow germ lotion;
 UV light unit;
 handsink w/ warm water; soap; towels, adequate for all intended participants.
How: Follow directions on the glow germ lotion, give each worker about a teaspoon of lotion. Have them rub in hand just like they would regular lotion. They can then look at their hands under UV light. Have them then wash their hands. They return to the light to see what areas they missed.
Discussion Points:
 Even good handwashing doesn’t get off all the germs
 Need to do handwashing well and often
 Look around cuticles, rings or bandages to see how hard to clean these areas


Exercise #2-Proper Glove use with glow germ powder
When: right after No bare hand contact slides/ glove use slides
Equipment:
 glow germ powder
 4 gloves
 Portable UV light
 two volunteers
How: shake powder on student 1’s hand; and have them rub it around. Ask them to put on gloves without contaminating the gloves. Ask student 2 to put on the gloves, and then shake the powder on the gloves. Ask him to take off the gloves. Use a portable UV light to view the gloves- student 1 would probably have contaminated the gloves from their “dirty” hands. This reinforces that people need to wash hands prior to gloving up. Student 2 would contaminate his hands from the outside of the “dirty” gloves, unless he uses sanitary methods (peeling off glove from wrist area). Discuss with class.
An alternative is to glove up two students, spread shave cream on the outside of the gloves, and observe taking off gloves. Any shave cream on the hands is contamination.
Discussion Points:
 Handle gloves only by lower edge, not portion that will touch food
 Importance of washing hands before putting on gloves.

Exercise #3-Bare hand contact of RTE foods exercise
When: right after bare hand contact slides
Equipment:
 poster size Post It paper
 markers
How: ask students to list a food that their facility has that requires NO bare hand contact, the procedure, and the utensil used to prevent bare hand content, like tongs or gloves. Have students present or if time is short ask for each group to share a few examples.
Example: Salad--- preparation-----gloves or---service--------tongs
Discussion Points:
 Good handwashing is the first barrier between ready to eat food and hands
 The need for second barrier because as shown even good handwashing doesn’t get it all
 Second barrier is use of an utensil such as tongs, spatulas, deli tissues, single use gloves


Part II: Prevent CROSS CONTAMINATION-

Exercise #1
Contamination of ice with a plastic cup as scoop, using Glow germ powder
When: right after contamination slides/before section review
Equipment:
 ice bin
 plastic cup
 glo germ powder
 volunteer
 portable UV light
How: Place powder on a volunteer’s hand, and then he grasps the plastic cup (also covered with powder), dipping it in the ice bin to scoop up ice. Shine the UV light on his hand, cup, and ice in cup and ice bin, to show that hand contamination does go on ice, and that an ice scoop with definite handle would be a better choice for this activity.
Discussion Points:
 Avoid cross contamination by proper handwashing
 Use of the correct utensil with ready to eat foods such as ice


Part 3: The Right Temperature

Exercise #1 Cooling foods practical exercise- which method cools food the fastest?
When: set up at beginning of class as it takes entire class to complete
Equipment:
 5 pans:
o stainless hotel pan 10x10x2”
o Stainless Bain Marie 8”wide x 10” tall
o Stainless hotel pan (10x10X4 ½”)with ice wand
o Two plastic containers, one w/ tight cover
 Thermocouple
 Laminated cooling chart with dry erase marker or poster paper set up as below
 Means to heat 10 quarts of water to 135 degrees F. or hotter.
How: At beginning of class explain that your “soup” is cooling, and you are using 5 different methods, laid out on table where students can see. (Hold up pans so people in back can see them. Write down initial temp (must be 135 or above), and ask students for predictions on which container will cool quickest. Then have volunteer measure the temperature in each and record. After one hour, then again at two and three hours, take the temperatures.

Groups Guess
Pans 2” Pan Ice Wand Plastic Plastic/lie Bain Marie
Start temperature
Time



Discussion Points:
 Use a clean and sanitized thermometer
 Size and shape of pan makes a difference (amount of surface exposed cools most quickly)
 Material pan is made of makes a (Metal cools more quickly but must take in surface area as plastic may out cool if more surface area is exposed)
 Need to add refrigeration for even quicker cooling
 Need to label with date and time cooling started (so when go off shift the next cook will know what is happening)
 Stirring will lower temperature faster
 Do NOT cover food until it reaches 41 degrees F. or colder



Exercise #2 Thermometer calibration
When: after this section of the slides
Equipment:
 dial-type stem thermometers- put out of calibration,
 pliers or wrench to adjust them if don’t have ones with tool
 ice
 cold water
 cups
How: have the students mix the ice and water, making sure to use little water and lots of ice. Stir for 1 min, immerse for 1-2 minutes, attempt to adjust to 32F.
Discussion points:
 Discuss frequency of calibration- weekly or if dropped, etc.
 Stir thermometer around in slurry
 Keep thermometer in ice when calibrating
 Letting thermometer come to stop before calibrating
 Make sure there is enough ice in the water or will get inaccurate reading


Exercise #3 Cooking temperatures
When: after this section on correct temperatures.
Equipment:
 Poster pages
 Markers
How: Ask the students to form groups, and write common foods that they prepare in their facilities, and the minimum temperatures that they need to be cooked to. Gather the results and present them to the class.
Example: Hot Dogs-140 Degrees F. (commercially cooked food)
Hamburgers-155 degrees F.
Casseroles-165 degrees F.

Part 5: DISHWASHING- goal; wash, rinse, and sanitize utensils and areas for food safety.

Exercise #1
Mixing bleach sanitizing solution and using test strips
When: after section on wiping cloths
Safety: bleach is caustic and should not be put on skin. If any hits skin, flush well.
Equipment
 Red sanitizer bucket filled
 bleach test strips,
 other test strips like Iodine or Quat,
 measuring device (spoon or cap),
 Bleach
How: To prevent them from dumping a lot of bleach, first ask how much they intend to use. Follow directions from instructor, to add 1tsp to 1 gallon to achieve 50-100 ppm. Test with the correct strip. Show class the mixing procedure and the test color- light blue. If desired, allow volunteer to estimate the measurement without the spoon measuring device. Test should be too strong.. Another option is to use a spray bottle, or an old bottle of weak bleach, Ultra bleach, etc, to vary the results.
Discussion points:
 Don’t use the glug method
 Read the label, do it according to manufacturer’s instructions

Exercise #2 Contamination of smooth and rough cutting boards
When: after dishwashing section
Equipment:
 2 wet cloths
 glow germ powder
 one small, old, stained, scored cutting board
 one small new cutting board
 UV light
How: dust both cutting boards w/ powder, simulating dirt. Wipe both. Shine light on each, and the rough surface should look much brighter.
Discussion points:
 that this is very hard to clean due to the surface
 Wiping doesn’t get rid of soil off board so important to Wash, Rinse and Sanitize equipment used on continous basis at least every 4 hours
 Poor condition equipment should be replaced.