Prevention of Chemical Contamination (Benjamin)

Written by: Benjamin Sng
Food safety is an important aspect of the Food and Beverage industry as it plays a key role in the safety of the food presented to your guests.In this blog post, I will be discussing one aspect of food safety that may be observed in your own kitchens - chemical contamination. Chemical contamination is the phenomenon at which a food item is rendered unsafe for consumption due to the presence of a prohibited food chemical.

With that being said, what are the guidelines to practice proper food safety with chemical agents? The FDA and USDA have recognized the many different chemicals that are acceptable additives in food products. Such as preservatives and food colouring. The chemicals that do not fall under that category, are generally prohibited substances. To begin practicing food safety, one should first be aware of the prohibited substances that should not be near consumables. These include any substances that may harm the individual if consumed even in small amounts such as sanitizers not designated for food usage or heavy chemicals such as oven cleaners, etc. You can practice food safety through these guidelines on storage and usage.

First and foremost in preventing chemical contamination of your food products is perhaps storing your chemicals separately from food products as well as food packaging materials. People often forget packaging materials because they generally focus on consumables. However, what difference would it make if the materials you use to wrap your food is laced with toxic chemicals? Hence, I strongly encourage individuals to take extra precautions with anything that may come into contact with food that will be served to their guests such as cling film, aluminium foil, plastic containers, etc.

Below is an example of what you should not do when storing chemicals.

Here, a bottle of dish-washing liquid is stored next to garlic cloves as well as on top of a container with different herbs and spices. Should the bottle of soap spill and leak into any of the items, one would face the risk of chemical contamination. Hence, the dish-washing liquid should be placed on a shelf specifically allocated for chemicals only and away from food items. Furthermore, when using food-grade chemicals to sanitize the kitchen equipment used, it is a good practice to thoroughly clear all residue of chemicals left on the equipment. This way, the chances of contamination are lowered even further.