Guide to Safely Handling Vegetables During Covid-19
Fresh fruit and vegetables are a concern for restaurants, cafes and any catering business during the covid-19 outbreak. Where meats and poultry will be cooked to remove any germs many fruits and vegetables are eaten raw. How can you make sure that you have taken every precaution to keep yourself and your customers safe?
Hygiene Measures When Fruit and Vegetables are Received
While there is no evidence that consuming contaminated food causes infection, handling infected food can help the spread of Covid-19.
1. Designate a specific zone for taking in deliveries.
This should be away from your food preparation area and if possible, physically separated from other areas. Make use of social distancing signs to let your delivery people know what your policy is and what is expected of them.
2. Remove packaging where possible.
Take your produce out of its outermost packaging such as cardboard boxes or plastic bags. The packaging may have been handled by many people during the distribution process. Any packaging that can’t be removed should be disinfected.
3. Swap for clean containers.
Fresh produce should be transferred from the delivery containers into fresh clean, disinfected containers such as the Aravan food storage containers.
4. Leave paper work in the delivery zone
Make a space for delivery notes and check lists within your delivery zone. Don’t take paperwork into the kitchen area.
5. Clean the area
After each delivery ensure you clean and disinfect the delivery area. Staff that have been involved must thoroughly wash their hands with disinfectant soap and water.
Disinfecting Fruits and Vegetables
Once you have received your delivery and transferred it into clean containers it may still require disinfecting before been given to the customer.
- Make sure to use food grade disinfectants and follow the manufacturer’s directions carefully.
- Don’t submerge vegetables for more than 5 minutes.
- After disinfection ensure to put the fruits or vegetables into a new clean disinfected container.
Storing Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh fruits and vegetables can spoil quickly when not stored correctly. The containers you choose must be made of materials suitable for food, be easy to clean at high temperatures for disinfecting and must enable identification with sufficient information to allow their traceability. Aravan containers include a colour identification system to quickly identify produce as well as permanent labels allowing you to identify the contents of the storage box.
Containers for storing food:
- Must be made of materials suitable for food contact.
- Must be easy to clean and disinfect at high temperatures (>80ºC)
- Must make any dirt that may appear visible
- Must not have any gaps or recesses where dirt could become lodged
- Must allow food to be protected with lids
- Must enable the products inside to be identified with sufficient information to allow their traceability
How to shop with Cooksmill
The safety of both our valued customers and staff are at the forefront of our minds. As such we have carefully considered safety precautions in place. Our stores are open with social distancing measures in place to ensure it is safe to shop. Alternatively we also offer free collection from store and free delivery on all orders over £50. There are thousands of items available in our online shop with quick delivery!
