Preparation
of Food in Advance
Catering premises cannot always freshly prepare food from raw ingredients for
each customer and must, therefore, prepare certain foods in advance of
requirements. However, the practice of preparing large quantities of certain
foods, such as sauces and rice, well in advance of requirements, cooling them
too slowly or storing them at warm temperatures can result in a serious risk of
food poisoning.
Here we highlight the problems associated with
advance preparation of such foods and to give advice on methods of reducing
or eliminating the risks of food poisoning.
What problems are there with rice ?
A particular hazard associated with rice results from a bacteria
called Bacillus cereus. This organism can produce two distinct forms of food
poisoning, the more common form of which produces nausea and vomiting
between one and five hours after consumption.
Bacillus cereus also has a dormant form, known as spores, which will survive
normal cooking and will produce harmful toxins (poisons) if the food is not cooled
quickly and refrigerated. The toxins are highly resistant to heat and so would not
be killed off by further heating.
How can we avoid food poisoning ?
Rice should not be prepared for more than one day’s use at a time. Cooked rice
should be served at once or cooled, within 1½ hours and refrigerated at 5 º C
or below. Preparation of fried rice should be from refrigerated rice. Cooked
rice should not be kept at room temperature. Rice salads should always be
prepared from cooled rice to minimise risks of food poisoning.
Reheating leftover rice is not recommended
What about sauces, sambar/rasam or any other liquid ?
It is common practice for commercial caterers to prepare
these items in advance, to keep them warm during the serving of
meals. If the temperature is not properly controlled there is a
possibility of food poisoning, especially if sauces are to allow them to cool at
room temperature and to re-heat any leftovers later.
How can we avoid problems with these items ?
The risk of food poisoning from sauces can be avoided by :•
only preparing small quantities of sauce ,sambar or rasam
• keeping the sauce hot, i.e. above 63º C
• never "topping-up" any sauce pots with new ingredients
• avoiding contamination of the sauce once it has been produced
Remember
The cost of discarding unused rice ,sambar or rasam is minimal compared to the
damage which could be caused to your business by a food poisoning incident.