Almost all culinary schools require coursework in food safety, kitchen safety, and proper food storage. In the modern kitchen, there are hazards almost everywhere you turn – in using knives, navigating a hot and busy environment, and in making sure food is prepared without endangering the health of the customers.
One of the most important aspects of kitchen safety is in avoiding foodborne illnesses, which are estimated to impact up to 76 million people in the United States every year. Caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses, or even chemicals in the food, most foodborne illnesses arise out of improper cooking techniques or cross contamination due to storing or preparing the food without a mind to safety.
The Top Food Safety Culprits
Even though you’d most likely rather be in the kitchen, preparing food and getting hands-on training, food safety courses are a vital part of the culinary school process. Some of the key points you’ll learn in the course include:
Washing Habits – This includes both food and your hands. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a favorite component of top chefs working today, but even produce from your own backyard has to be properly washed. Some of the biggest food poisoning scares occur from tainted produce like spinach or tomatoes.
Improper Cooking/Cooling – Almost all foods have to be either cooled or heated to certain temperatures in order to slow the growth of bacteria, especially in meat products. This can be tricky for culinary students, since some of the finest cuisine comes tartare or in carpaccio form, and is therefore inherently more dangerous than cooked meat.
Cross Contamination – One of the biggest culprits of food hazards is due to cross contamination, or spreading dangerous germs through bad storage, bad cleaning habits, or a generally unorganized kitchen. Cross contamination hazards are often one of the first things health code inspectors look for when checking restaurants.
Cooking Food Safely
Before you can work with food in a public setting, you’ll most likely have to take a food safety certification test required by your state or city health department. These tests tend to follow right along with what you learned in culinary school, so there won’t be any additional classes to take.
If you plan on opening your own restaurant someday, these food safety issues will come into play all over again, since you’ll be the one responsible for ensuring that your restaurant meets all health codes. One sick customer can ruin an entire career’s worth of culinary training and development, so food safety should always be at the top of the aspiring chef’s to-do list.
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