Preventing Cross-Contamination

This is Domain 4 and it is where scenario questions live. The exam rarely asks “what is cross-contamination” — it describes a shift and asks what the manager should do first.

The rules worth memorising:

• Separate: raw meat stored below ready-to-eat food, never above.

• Store by cooking temperature: poultry on the bottom shelf, then ground meat, then whole cuts, then seafood, then ready-to-eat.

• Clean and sanitise: after a task change, after 4 hours of continuous use, and any time the surface touched raw animal product.

• Dedicate: separate cutting boards by colour or by label, and never reuse a container that held raw animal food for ready-to-eat food.

• Hands: bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food is prohibited unless a specific alternative is followed.

Scenario drills for every one of these rules: FoodSafe Prep.