Safe food handling practices are the backbone of Georgia’s Food Code and your ticket to spotless inspection scores. This guide walks you through five critical pillars—hygiene, cross-contamination control, time-temperature mastery, equipment care, and documentation—so you can serve every dish with confidence and protect guests from foodborne illness.
Personal Hygiene Essentials
Personal cleanliness is the first barrier against pathogens. Georgia Food Code §511-6-1 requires employees to report vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, or diagnosed infections before handling food. Enforce a strict no-work policy for symptomatic staff and document exclusions in an illness log.
Handwashing sinks must be kept clear and stocked with 100 °F water, soap, and single-use towels—air dryers can’t replace towels if they blow toward food prep areas. Staff should scrub for a full 20 seconds; alcohol rubs are never a substitute when hands are visibly soiled. Reinforce technique with our interactive hand-washing timer.
- Trimmed nails—no acrylics or chipped polish.
- Fresh gloves for ready-to-eat foods; change after touching hair, phone, or raw proteins.
- Beard restraints for facial hair beyond 1/4 inch.
Post a mirror near the time clock—visual reminders boost compliance more than written memos alone.
Avoiding Cross-Contamination
Cross-contamination silently transfers bacteria and allergens. Start in the walk-in: top shelf is ready-to-eat foods, followed by seafood, whole cuts, ground meats, and raw poultry on the bottom rack. Keep allergens higher than raw meats to prevent drips.
| C Board Color | Food Type |
|---|---|
| Red | Raw Meat |
| Yellow | Raw Poultry |
| Blue | Seafood |
| Green | Produce |
| White | Bakery / Dairy |
| Purple | Allergen-Only Prep |
Dedicate squeeze bottles and spatulas to allergen orders—store them above the raw line in labeled caddies. Wrap scale platters with disposable film between proteins to speed sanitation during rushes. For a deeper look at guest safety, visit our allergen control guide.
Time-Temperature Mastery
Bacteria double every 18–20 minutes between 41 °F and 135 °F. Georgia adopts the FDA danger-zone limits plus strict cook and cooling targets:
- Poultry 165 °F for 15 sec • Ground meats 155 °F • Whole cuts 145 °F • RTE reheat 165 °F.
- Cooling rule: 135 → 70 °F in 2 h, then 70 → 41 °F in 4 h.
- Hot-holding ≥135 °F; Cold-holding ≤41 °F (monitor every 4 h or discard).
Mark pans with painter’s tape noting start time and target temp. Rapid-cool thick soups by portioning into shallow 2-inch pans, stirring over an ice bath, or using an ice-wand. Blast chillers shave hours off cooling curves and impress inspectors.
Storing foods correctly after they hit safe temps matters just as much—see our storage guide for shelf life charts and FIFO tips.
Monitoring & Corrective Actions
Even the best Standard Operating Procedures falter without routine monitoring. Georgia regulators want proof that you check critical control points—temps, sanitizer strength, and label accuracy—at prescribed intervals and react quickly when numbers drift. Use clipboards, tablets, or smart probes; the medium doesn’t matter as long as records are complete, legible, and retained for 12 months.
A three-step loop keeps performance tight: Measure → Record → Correct. If the walk-in climbs to 46 °F at 2 p.m., log the variance, move at-risk items to an ice bath, and document technician service within 24 hours. The Georgia Food Safety Checklist Generator auto-populates follow-up tasks so nothing slips through the cracks. Pair those digital prompts with a quick refresher from our Foodborne Illness Prevention guide to keep the “why” behind each metric front of mind.
- Spot-check at least five items per station every two hours.
- Flag any deviation >2 °F or sanitizer below target PPM as a critical variance.
- Verify corrective action completion during shift change to maintain accountability.
Trend data weekly. Recurrent problems—like prep cooler warm-spots—signal deeper process failures. Fix the root cause; don’t just trash product and move on.
Equipment & Utensil Care
A spotless slicer or spatula is useless if sanitizer is too weak. Georgia approved concentrations: Chlorine 50–100 ppm, Quat 200–400 ppm, Iodine 12.5–25 ppm. Test strips daily and record in logs. Rotate utensils every four hours or when switching from raw to RTE.
Three-compartment sink steps: Wash ≥110 °F → Rinse → Sanitize (full contact time) → Air-dry. Attach timer stickers to remind staff to change bucket solutions. Need exact chemical math? Try our sanitizer calculator.
Documentation & Verification
“If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen”—inspectors ask first for cook-temp, cooling, sanitizer, thermometer calibration, and pest sighting logs. Store forms in a binder or cloud drive, signed daily by the Person-in-Charge. Conduct a weekly self-inspection using our checklist generator and trend corrective actions: discard, reheat, or retrain.
Daily Opening Checklist
□ Verify hand sinks stocked (soap, towels, 100 °F water) □ Employees symptom-screened & illness log initialed □ Cooler & freezer temps ≤ 41 °F / 0 °F recorded □ Raw-to-ready storage hierarchy confirmed □ Cutting boards inspected & color-coded correctly □ Thermometers calibrated @ 32 °F ice-point □ 3-Comp sink set: wash, rinse, sanitize (record ppm) □ Line utensils sanitized & dated □ Allergen tools present & labeled □ Prep surfaces cleaned & sanitized □ Food delivery area pest-free □ Hot-holding units pre-heated ≥ 135 °F □ Chemical bottles labeled & SDS accessible □ Trash bins emptied, liners replaced □ Ice machine exterior wiped □ Floor drains free of debris □ First batch probe temp recorded □ Logs placed in inspection binder □ Pre-shift meeting conducted □ Manager signature ______________________
Supplier Verification & Receiving Procedures
Safety begins long before ingredients hit your prep table. Select vendors with written food-safety programs, verified refrigeration logs, and transparent recall histories. Ask for a current copy of their inspection score or third-party audit and file it with your purchasing paperwork.
On arrival, check truck temperature first—reject any load above 41 °F unless it is clearly marked for hot holding. Inspect packaging integrity, USDA or state seals, and product dates. When in doubt, log a corrective action and quarantine questionable items in a designated “Do Not Use” bin until a manager investigates. Our concise storage guidelines chart pairs each commodity with its ideal receiving temp and shelf location, helping new hires make fast, accurate calls.
After acceptance, label products immediately and rotate them using FIFO to avoid hidden expirations. Any boxes that leak or emit off-odors should be photographed, documented, and reported to the supplier within 24 hours—rapid feedback often yields credit and encourages better handling upstream.
Finally, check invoices for catch-weight variances and note discrepancies on your receiving log. Thorough documentation strengthens traceability and helps isolate inventory if a recall is issued.