Protection against Bacteria

Appears in
Professional Baking
Professional Baking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2008

  • About
Because we know how and why bacteria grow, we should be able to keep them from growing. Because we know how bacteria get from place to place, we should know how to keep them from getting into our food.
There are three basic principles of protecting food against bacteria. These principles are the reasons behind nearly all the sanitation techniques we discuss in the rest of this chapter.

  1. Keep bacteria from spreading.

    Don’t let food touch anything that may contain disease-producing bacteria, and protect food from bacteria in the air.

  2. Stop bacteria from growing.

    Take away the conditions that encourage bacteria to grow. In the kitchen, our best weapon is temperature. The most effective way to prevent bacterial growth is to keep foods below 41°F(5°C) or above 135°F(57°C). These temperatures won’t necessarily kill bacteria; they’ll just slow down their growth greatly.

  3. Kill bacteria.

    Most disease-causing bacteria are killed if they are subjected to a temperature of 170°F(77°C) for 30 seconds or higher temperatures for shorter times. This enables us to make food safe by cooking and to sanitize dishes and equipment with heat. The term sanitize means to kill disease-causing bacteria.

    Certain chemicals also kill bacteria. These may be used for sanitizing equipment.