All organizations work towards achieving objectives and primary objectives of commercial food businesses are to produce, distribute, store, handle, prepare or sell food profit. To ensure a profitable operation, managers must implement policies and documented systems relating to all their activities. One of the important of these policies in maintaining cost-effective hygiene by way of a planned hygiene programme based on hazard analysis.
One of the most important and frequently neglected functions of management is to monitor and control operations in order to facilitate any necessary adjustments to ensure achievement of objectives. The actual operation or standard should be compared with that which was planned. Regular hygiene inspections of food premises should be carried out by trained personnel, and food should be sampled at all appropriate stages of production and sale. Quality Assurance is essential, not only in food factories but also catering premises and retail outlets. A reduction in customer complaints can be an important indicator of improved food hygiene.
Hygiene is the science of preserving health. A Hygiene operation presents no risk of illness from the operations carried out therein. Food hygiene is much more than cleanliness, it involves all measures necessary to ensure the safety and wholesomeness of food during preparation, processing, manufacturing, packaging, storage, distribution, handling and offering for sale or supply to consume. This will involve :
(1) protecting food from risk of contamination of any kind and this includes the effective cleaning and disinfection of food premises and equipment, and requires high standards of personal hygiene and training of staff;
(2) prevention any organims multiplying to an extent which would expose consumers to risk, or result in premature decomposition of food;
(3) destroying any harmful bacteria in the food by thorough cooking or processing;
(4) discarding unfit or contaminated food.