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CulinarySeparate tools and cooking areas

An allergen-free dish is prepared in the same kitchen as dishes with the allergen. Massachusetts allergen awareness training must teach the methods that prevent cross-contact, including cleaning and separating tools and preparation and cooking areas. You keep the allergen-free dish on its own tools and in its own area from start to finish.

Free to start
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Scenarios

  • The grill and the cutting board are in use for a dish with sesame when an allergen-free order comes in.
  • Only one cooking area is free during a busy service.

The steps

  1. Know what cross-contact is: the inadvertent introduction of an allergen into food that would not intentionally contain it.
  2. Use separate tools for the allergen-free dish.
  3. Prepare and cook it in a separate preparation and cooking area.
  4. If a tool or an area was used with the allergen, give it full cleaning first: wash, rinse, sanitize and air dry.
  5. Let the food touch only equipment and utensils that are cleaned and sanitized, or single-service and single-use articles.

Safety rules that stop the station

  • The allergen-free dish never shares a tool or an area that was used with the allergen and not fully cleaned.

To pass

  • Approved training covers the methods to prevent cross-contact, including cleaning and separating tools and preparation and cooking areas.
  • The employee poster shows the preventive methods for cross-contact.
  • Sanitizing a surface after cleaning can eliminate bacteria, but sanitizing alone does not fully eliminate contamination by food allergens.

Official source

Massachusetts · DPH, 105 CMR 590.011

Food Allergen Awareness FAQs

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health lists in its Food Allergen Awareness FAQs (Q3, Q5 and Q8) the methods to prevent cross-contact that the training and the poster must show.

Making Synapses is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the FDA, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health or any certification provider. Agency names are named only to describe the content.

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