Food hygiene for childcare educators

Why it matters

Young children get sicker from food poisoning than most adults. Staying healthy says services must prepare and provide food in a way that's safe for the children in their care. Food safety requirements — such as food safety programs, supervisors or registration — are set by each state or territory and your local council, so your service's food safety plan is the procedure to follow.

Before you handle food

• Wash and dry your hands at the kitchen hand basin, even if you'll wear gloves — gloves aren't a substitute for clean hands.
• Don't prepare food if you have a sore throat, runny nose, diarrhoea or vomiting, or sores on your skin.
• After diarrhoea or vomiting, don't handle food until you've had no symptoms for at least 48 hours.
• Wear a clean apron and tie long hair back.
• Where possible, the person preparing food shouldn't also be changing nappies. If that can't be avoided, take extra care with hand hygiene and put on an apron before preparing food.

Keeping food at safe temperatures

• Keep cold food at 5 °C or below and check the fridge with a thermometer.
• The danger zone is 5–60 °C. Throw out food that's been in it for 4 hours or more, or if you don't know how long.
• Reheat food until it's steaming hot — Staying healthy recommends 70 °C for 2 minutes in childcare — and only reheat once.

At meal and snack times

• Clean food surfaces with detergent and hot water, and check every child has clean hands.
• No sharing of cups, cutlery or food from other children's plates; use tongs or spoons for shared plates.
• Use a separate bowl and spoon for each baby, and wash your hands again if you're interrupted.
• Follow each child's allergy and dietary plan exactly.

Bottles

• Label bottles with the child's name and date, and store them in the fridge at 5 °C or below.
• Warm a bottle once only, and throw away any formula left in a bottle after a feed.
• Throw away made-up formula at the end of the day.

Cooking with children

Choose foods that will be cooked, don't let children eat raw dough or batter, and skip cooking activities during a gastro outbreak.