Food Safety Jeopardy

This popular method for checking whether food has reached a safe internal temperature involves inserting a metal probe into the thickest part of the food.

What is a food thermometer?

This minimum internal temperature is required for cooking poultry safely, whether it's a whole chicken or ground turkey.

What is 165 degrees Fahrenheit?

This minimum internal temperature, followed by a three-minute rest before carving or eating, is the standard safe cooking temperature for whole cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb.

What is 145 degrees Fahrenheit?

This required food safety practice brings hot food down from 135 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit within two hours, then to 41 degrees within a total of six hours.

What is the two-stage cooling method?

Hot food sitting out on a buffet line must be held at or above this minimum temperature to stay safely out of the danger zone.

What is 135 degrees Fahrenheit?

Food workers should wash their hands for at least this many seconds to properly remove germs, about the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice.

What is 20 seconds?

This step should always follow using the restroom, before returning to any food handling tasks.

What is handwashing?

This type of hand covering does not remove the need to wash hands before putting it on and after taking it off.

What are gloves?

This category of accessory is generally discouraged on hands and arms while handling food, aside from a plain band, because it can harbor bacteria.

What is jewelry?

This illness symptom, along with vomiting and jaundice, requires a food worker to be excluded from the establishment and reported to the health department.

What is diarrhea?

This kitchen practice uses separate cutting boards, often color-coded, for raw meat and for ready-to-eat produce.

What are color-coded cutting boards?

In the refrigerator, this type of food should always be stored on the bottom shelf so its juices cannot drip onto items below.

What is raw meat?

This kitchen tool should be washed, rinsed, and sanitized between uses on different types of food, especially after contact with raw meat.

What is a knife?

This term describes using the same unwashed utensil or cutting board for raw meat and then for vegetables without cleaning it in between.

What is cross-contamination?

When an allergen transfers from one food to another through shared equipment or surfaces rather than through ingredients, it is called this specific type of cross-contamination.

What is cross-contact?

This inventory rotation method, meaning first in, first out, ensures older stock gets used before newer stock.

What is FIFO?

This label, applied when a food item is opened or prepped, should always include the date so staff know when to discard it.

What is a date label?

This maximum number of days many food safety codes allow for keeping a ready-to-eat, refrigerated food item before it must be discarded, counting the prep day as day one.

What is seven days?

This type of date on packaging indicates the last day a store should sell an item, and is not a food safety expiration date for the consumer.

What is a sell-by date?

This category of hazard, including cleaning chemicals stored improperly above food, can contaminate food through drips or spills and must always be stored separately.

What is a chemical hazard?

This is the term for the nine foods that US food labels are required to specifically identify, including peanuts, milk, and shellfish.

What are major food allergens?

This tree nut-free legume is often confused with tree nuts but actually grows underground and belongs to the bean family.

What is a peanut?

This grain protein, found in wheat, barley, and rye, must be avoided by people with celiac disease.

What is gluten?

This dairy sugar, found naturally in milk, causes digestive discomfort in people who are intolerant to it, distinct from a true milk allergy.

What is lactose?

This life-threatening allergic reaction can cause the throat to swell and blood pressure to drop, and is treated immediately with injectable epinephrine.

What is anaphylaxis?

This first step of the process uses soap and water to remove visible dirt and food debris from a surface.

What is cleaning?

This second step, done after cleaning, reduces germs on a surface to a safe level using heat or chemicals, but does not necessarily eliminate them all.

What is sanitizing?

This chemical, diluted with water, is one of the most common sanitizers used on food-contact surfaces in commercial kitchens.

What is bleach?

This three-part fixture in commercial kitchens is used to wash, rinse, and sanitize dishes and equipment by hand.

What is a three-compartment sink?

This small strip is dipped into a sanitizing solution to confirm it is at the correct concentration before it touches food-contact surfaces.

What is a test strip?