Ready-to-Eat Food

READY-TO-EAT FOOD 

It is important to handle ready-to-eat food safely to protect it from harmful bacteria and allergens.

Ready-to-eat food is food that will not be cooked or reheated before serving. This includes salads, cooked meats, smoked fish, desserts, sandwiches, cheese and food that you have cooked in advance to serve cold.

SAFETY POINT 

When preparing and handling food, you should: 

• keep ready-to-eat food completely separate from raw meat, poultry, fish, eggs and unwashed vegetables

• make sure work surfaces, chopping boards, knives etc. are clean (and disinfected if you have prepared raw food) 

• Ideally, use separate chopping boards and utensils for ready-to-eat food

• keep ready-to-eat food covered at all times during preparation and storage.

This protects food from harmful bacteria and allergens. This is especially important for ready-to-eat food because it will not be cooked or reheated before serving. It also helps keep allergens from spreading.

When preparing fruit, vegetables and salad ingredients:

• peel, trim, or remove the outer parts, as appropriate

• wash them thoroughly by rubbing vigorously in a bowl of clean water

• wash the cleanest ones first Wash your hands before and after handling fruit and vegetables.

If you have prepared vegetables that have dirt or soil on the outside, clean and then disinfect chopping boards and work surfaces before preparing other food.

Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to store and  prepare the food, if these are available.

Make sure you keep ready-to-eat food cold enough. See ‘Chilled storage and displaying chilled food’ in the Chilling section.

Do not use ready-to-eat food after the ‘use by’ date, if there is one.

For food you have prepared, or removed from its original packaging, you should have a method of keeping track of when food should be used or thrown away.

If these types of food are not kept cold enough, harmful bacteria could grow.

You should never use food that has passed its ‘use by’ date because it might not be safe to eat.

If you slice cooked meat:

• make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions when you clean the slicer

• avoid handling the meat as much as possible – it is a good idea to use clean tongs or slice meat straight onto a plate

Meat slicers need careful cleaning and disinfecting to prevent dirt building up and to stop harmful bacteria growing, in particular on the slicing blade.Hands can easily spread harmful bacteria onto food.

WHAT TO DO IF THINGS GO WRONG?

• If you think that a food delivery has not been handled safely, reject the delivery.

• If ready-to-eat vegetables, fruit or salad ingredients have not been washed properly, wash them following the advice on the first side of this Safe method and clean any work surfaces etc. they have touched.

• If ready-to-eat food has been prepared on a work surface or with a knife that has been used for raw meat, poultry, fish, eggs or unwashed fruit and vegetables, throw the food away.

• If ready-to-eat food has not been chilled safely, throw the food away.

HOW TO STOP THIS HAPPENING AGAIN?

• If you do not think a supplier handles food safely, consider changing to a new supplier.

• Review the way you receive deliveries.

• Review the way you store and prepare ready-to-eat food.

• Train staff again on this safe method.

• Improve staff supervision.

Think Twice 

You should not use the same equipment, such as vacuum packing machines, slicers and mincers, for both raw and ready-to eat food. These are complex pieces of machinery with lots of moving parts and it is very difficult to clean them sufficiently, so bacteria from raw food could easily be transferred to ready-to-eat food.

If you are preparing both raw and ready-to-eat food, you should make sure where possible this is done in separate clean and disinfected areas. If this is not possible, surface and utensils used must be thoroughly cleaned and then disinfected between tasks.

Make sure staff wash their hands thoroughly between tasks, especially when working with raw and ready-to-eat food. 

This stops bacteria and allergens being spread onto foods, surfaces and equipment.

Important Info:

Is ready to eat food healthy?

Processing rids food of most essential nutrients, making them devoid of any real nutritional benefits. Consuming ready to eat food means that you are essentially eating empty calories, which not only provides no health benefits, but also won't keep you satiated for too long.

How quickly do ready to eat foods need to be eaten?

A container of refrigerated, ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food prepared and packaged by a food processing plant must be marked to indicate the date by which the food must be consumed or it must be consumed or discarded within 7 calendar days after the original package is opened in a food establishment.

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