Marinades infuse meats, poultry and even vegetables with great flavors, but if you’re not careful they may also infuse your food with pathogens, bacteria and other contaminants that could sicken guests. As the saying goes, so it’s important to make sure that your extra flavor doesn’t come with a dose of illness. Let’s explore food safety training for pathogen-free marinades.
Food Safety Training to Prevent Tainted Marinades from Causing Foodborne Illness
There are three major concerns when it comes to food safety training for bacteria-free marinades:
- Cross-contamination
- Spoiled Fresh Ingredients
- Temperature Control
If you’re using the same marinade for multiple purposes, you run the risk of mixing two ingredients that may be required to be cooked to different temperatures. You’ll inevitably contaminate some ingredients if you mix multiple items in the same container. Meats and vegetables cook at different temperatures, and poultry requires a much higher final cooking temperature than most other raw foods. To avoid any type of cross-contamination, use a separate container to marinate different ingredients. It’s also a good food safety procedure to throw out marinades used for raw ingredients and start over each time you marinade new ingredients regardless of type.
If you make your own marinades in-house and make more than you need for any given day, make sure you take note of the shelf life of any fresh ingredients involved. Fresh ingredients spoil over time naturally and adding them to liquids can accelerate the process. Use proper labeling techniques to date all marinades and have a defined expiration date on all marinades and marinated product.
Temperature control can also sometimes be an issue with large batches of marinades. When soaking raw proteins, make sure that all ingredients are out of the danger zone, and don’t soak any protein at room temperature.
Finally, if you utilize dry rubs or marinades, you should still follow the same food safety procedures as wet marinades.
What’s the favorite marinade you use in your restaurant?
