ServSafe Chapter 1: Keeping Food Safe

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core definitions, hazards, risk factors, and safety management requirements from ServSafe Chapter 1: Keeping Food Safe.

Foodborne illness

A disease transmitted to people through food.

Foodborne-illness outbreak

An incident considered an outbreak when two or more people have the same foodborne illness after eating the same food, an investigation is conducted by state and local regulatory authorities, and the outbreak is confirmed by laboratory analysis.

2009 Salmonella peanut butter outbreak

A notable outbreak where 691 people were infected across 46 states, resulting in 23% hospitalized, 9 deaths, and the company owner sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Costs of foodborne illness to an operation

Consequences including loss of reputation, loss of customers and sales, lowered staff morale, negative media exposure, staff missing work, lawsuits and legal fees, staff retraining, increased insurance premiums, and human costs.

High-risk populations

Groups of people with an elevated risk of contracting a foodborne illness, specifically preschool-age children, elderly people, and people with compromised immune systems.

Biological contaminants

Pathogens—including bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and biological toxins—that pose the greatest threat to food safety.

Chemical contaminants

Chemical substances that can make food unsafe, such as cleaning products, sanitizers, polishes, pesticides, and toxic metals.

Physical hazards

Foreign or naturally occurring objects that contaminate food, including metal shavings, staples, bandages, glass, dirt, and fish bones in a fillet.

Five risk factors for foodborne illness

The top five causes of foodborne illness: purchasing food from unsafe sources, failing to cook food correctly, holding food at incorrect temperatures, using contaminated equipment, and practicing poor personal hygiene.

Time-temperature abuse

Occurs when food stays too long at temperatures favorable for pathogen growth, such as when food is not held, stored, cooked, reheated, or cooled correctly.

Cross-contamination

The transfer of pathogens from one surface or food to another via contaminated foods, food-contact surfaces (cutting boards, tables, plates), equipment (knives, slicers, utensils), or hands.

Poor personal hygiene

Unsafe worker behaviors that cause illness, including failing to wash hands after using the restroom, coughing or sneezing on food, touching or scratching wounds before handling food, and working while sick.

Poor cleaning and sanitizing

Unsafe practices such as wiping surfaces clean instead of washing, rinsing, and sanitizing them, failing to store wiping cloths in sanitizer solution between uses, or using sanitizers below required concentration levels.

TCS food

Food requiring 'time and temperature control for safety' because of a natural potential for contamination based on how it is grown, produced, or processed.

Common TCS food items

Milk and dairy; eggs; meat (beef, pork, lamb); poultry; fish; shellfish and crustaceans; baked potatoes; heat-treated plant foods; soy proteins; sprouts; sliced melons, tomatoes, and lettuce; and untreated garlic-and-oil mixtures.

Ready-to-eat food

Food that can be eaten without further preparation, washing, or cooking, including cooked food, washed fruits and vegetables, deli meat, bakery items, sugar, spices, and seasonings.

FDA Food Code

A set of science-based recommendations issued by the Food and Drug Administration on how to keep food safe in foodservice operations.

Certified Food Protection Manager

The person in charge of a restaurant or foodservice operation who demonstrates required food safety knowledge, typically fulfilled by passing the ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification Exam.