Overview

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night suffering stomach cramps, diarrhoea or vomiting? In a lot of cases, this discomfort is caused by food poisoning.

When food is poorly prepared, stored, handled or transported, it may become contaminated with food poisoning bacteria. When you eat it, the poison is transferred to your stomach and causes a range of unpleasant symptoms ranging from a mild feeling of discomfort to a potentially life-threatening condition.

If a customer becomes sick as a result of dining at your workplace, the consequences can be very detrimental. This may include loss of reputation, revenue, jobs, heavy fines and even closure of the business.

It is your responsibility as a food handler to do everything possible to prevent food poisoning. In other words, you need to maintain a safe level of food hygiene in your workplace. This unit looks at the procedures that must be implemented to maintain high standards of food safety and thereby reduce or eliminate the risk of food poisoning occurring in your workplace.

Many basic food handling, hygiene rules and procedures have been discussed in the prerequisite unit SITXOHS002A Follow workplace hygiene procedures and will not be covered in detail again in this unit. You may wish to refresh your memory by reviewing this unit before commencing SITXFSA001A Implement food safety procedures.

In this unit you will learn how to:

• Implement procedures for food safety
• Store food safely
• Prepare food safely
• Provide safe single use items
• Maintain a clean environment
• Dispose of food safely.