This step is also the first part of the HACCP acronym: Hazard Analysis.  The second part, Critical Control Points, doesn’t do you much good if you don’t know which hazards to control.  The two together form the backbone of a HACCP food safety program.

• Biological agents: bacteria and bacteria-produced toxins, parasites, and viruses.
• Physical objects: jewelry, stones, glass, bone and metal fragments, and packaging materials.
• Chemical contamination: allergens, cleaning compounds, food additives, insecticides.

Illness can result from all three of these groups, although the most common, and most worrisome for restaurateurs, is biological contamination.  All three groups can be controlled using an effective HACCP food safety program.  So how do these hazards actually get transmitted to food being prepared and served in restaurants?

• Food from unsafe sources.  The restaurant is only one link in a long chain that brings food from the place it was harvested to the diner’s table.  Unfortunately for restaurants, they are the last link in that chain.  That means they stand to take the blame for food-borne illnesses, which means restaurants must be extra vigilant about the sources of their ingredients and make sure they check the condition of food as it arrives.
• Inadequate cooking.  Restaurants have absolute control over how food is cooked, and this hazard is probably the most common reason behind sickness.
• Improper holding temperatures.  Raw food and cooked food both need to be stored at the proper temperature (below 41 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to prevent biological agents from spreading.
• Contaminated equipment.  The restaurant equipment used in a kitchen can easily transfer any of the three groups of hazards listed above to food just before it is served to a customer.
• Poor personal hygiene.  Likewise, restaurant staff can easily transfer any of the three hazard groups to food at the most critical time – just before it is served to a customer.

• Only buy food product from a reliable, approved source.  Check that food has stayed out of the “temperature danger zone” (between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit) prior to its arrival at your restaurant’s back door.  Also ensure proper and safe  handling once food arrives at your restaurant.
• Always cook food thoroughly.  Make sure uncooked products you buy like dairy and juice have been pasteurized or thermally processed.
• Make sure food is at the proper temperature when you are hot holding, cold holding, cooking, or freezing it.  Also date mark food product and follow a First In, First Out (FIFO) strategy that ensures the oldest product is used first.

Every restaurant encounters these risk factors.  To conduct a hazard analysis in your establishment, carefully evaluate where, when, why, and how each of the above factors occurs, and which of the three types of hazards are involved.  Once you have a complete list of hazards and risks, you can start to develop a process for addressing and minimizing those problems.