The Food Safety AppThe seven cooking safe methods
The section that decides whether food is made safe, and the one whose methods map most directly onto records an officer will ask to see. It runs from planning the menu to holding a finished dish hot on display.
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One of the five sections of the 31 safe methods. Three of these methods have daily records behind them: cooking, cooling and reheating, hot holding, and the prove-it checks that stand behind the rest.
What each one asks you to write down
| Safe method | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Checking your menu | Working through what you serve before deciding how to make it safely. |
| Cooking safely | A manufacturer has tried and tested safe methods for its own products. |
| Reheating | Equipment unsuitable for reheating, or used wrongly, may not get food hot enough to kill bacteria. |
| Hot holding | Holding food at a consistent safe temperature is difficult without suitable equipment. |
| Ready-to-eat food | Protecting food from bacteria and allergens matters most where it will not be cooked again. |
| Foods that need extra care | Eggs can carry harmful bacteria, and thorough cooking kills it. Lion-marked or equivalent assured eggs change what is safe to serve lightly cooked. |
| Acrylamide | Potato varieties lower in natural sugars keep acrylamide levels lower. |
Three of the seven are really about equipment
Reheating, hot holding and cooking safely all turn on whether the kit can do the job, and on using it the way the method says. A bain-marie that cannot hold temperature with the lid off will not pass however carefully it is filled. A microwave is allowed for reheating and the method tells you what it takes: follow the product’s instructions, stir food you microwave yourself, let it stand, and check it is hot through rather than hot on the outside, because a dense tray is exactly where a cold centre hides.
That is worth knowing before writing the method down, because the honest answer is sometimes to change what you serve or how, rather than to describe a process the equipment cannot deliver. An officer reading a month of hot holding records with repeated low readings is reading an equipment problem.
What the app does with them
Each sheet in the app is the FSA’s own sheet, transcribed question by question, and it prints back onto the FSA’s published form. Completing one stamps the date and the initials of whoever signed it, and those stamps fill in the completion record at the front of the pack.
Sheets are versioned. When the FSA revises a method, a sheet completed against the older wording is flagged stale and asks to be re-confirmed rather than quietly continuing to count, while a method marked not relevant to your business is left alone.
Questions
Is 63°C a legal number?
It is the figure the pack works to for hot holding, and the app flags anything below it so a low reading stands out on the printed record rather than blending into a column of numbers.
Why is acrylamide in the cooking section?
Because it is formed by cooking, in starchy foods browned at high temperatures. The method is about choosing varieties and colours rather than about bacteria.
Does the app record cooking temperatures?
Yes, on the cooking, cooling and reheating records, and hot holding has its own records with checks at two, four and six hours.
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Made safe, and shown to be
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