Reflection ( Isaac loke)

After reading through the post made by my friends, I feel that I have a more in depth knowledge about the kitchen and personal hygiene and also the reason for doing it. I also feel that in the future I can equip myself with more knowledge so as to serve not only good food to the customer but also clean food that would not harm their body because of my carelessness or lack of knowledge. I am now confident in preparing food that are up to the strict hygiene standards of Singapore and not let my friends, instructor and lecturers down after all those things they taught me. I feel that everyone should have at least a basic idea of this hygiene practices as it will only benefit them in the near future.

Disagreement
Rishi- I personally disagree with rishi when he said and I quote "Cleaning the tables in the kitchen is a good cleanliness practices because it does not give a messy look to the kitchen. " not having the messy look is not the primary reason on why I decided to clean the table, it was as I mentioned in the post to prevent any cross contamination to the food and ingredients as there are no different tables to spate cooked food or raw food. We use the same table for both of them, so the chances of cross contamination is very high in this case

Agreements- I agree with what Hui Huang said and I quote "Cleaning the table is another cleanliness practices that we have to practice.After using a work station for cutting/cooking purposes,it is essential to clean up so that the next person who use the work station to cut his/her food will not get the food contaminated." this is the same thing that I have said to explain why I disagreed with Rishi's statement/comment on my post.

In conclusion personal and kitchen hygiene is of absolute importance when working in a kitchen and it is what every person working in the kitchen or have in contact with or near food should know and practice

Reflection of blog by wang Miao

From these post, personal hygiene and cleanliness are very important for the chefs.There are three major hazards contribute to the food if chefs do not have a good practice for personal hygiene and cleanliness. These hazards can be physical hazards, chemical hazards and microbial hazards.

Physical hazards may occur during preparation. This may lead to foodbone illness or food poising. To prevent these happens, good personal hygiene and cleanliness are very important.
Chemical hazards occur when utensils, cooking wear contaminate with detergent or any other chemicals that may lead to illness.

Microbial hazards due to the bacteria in the food or contaminated utensils. Bacteria will grow in certain temperature. There are store food at proper temperature is very important. Foods must store in the chiller to prevent bacteria grow. Foods that are ready to eat must clean wrap then store in chiller. These also prevent bacteria grow.

In conclusion, good personal hygiene and cleanliness are the most important practice during cooking!

Reflection (Rishi)

Through this, i learned good hygiene and cleanliness practices and most importantly, understood the importance of them. In the kitchen, always clean as you go. If you don't then it will consume time as you need to clean everything and you do not have the time to do it. Cleaning your work station prevents the presence of pests which might bring in viruses and bacterium leading to food borne illnesses. Therefore, i agree with Hui Huang's comment. ( I agree with what rishi had said.Cleaning the ktichen floor help to prevent contamination,keeping the kitchen clean and most importantly to ensure safety in the kitchen).


Not only the environment, as a chef, it is important to keep yourself clean. Cutting finger nails is a must when you are working in the kitchen. We may not know what is trapped under our nails as we cannot see it. Therefore washing / rinsing your hands for 10-15 seconds with soap will prevent this. Therefore i agree with Hui Huang's comment. ( It is important to have short and clean nails.Sometimes,dirt might trap in the nails and we may not see the dirt.once we touch the food with our bare hands,we are directly inviting bacteria into the food which will cause foodborne illness.)

Reflection of Blog posts (Tay Hui Huang)

I learnt some of the important hygiene purposes through this actitvity.It is always important to practice good hygiene.Personally,i feel that becoming a chef is not just being able to cook but is always being able to practice good hygiene in the kitchen.
I agree with what isaac has commented on my blog: Good job on using a pair of gloves when handling cooked food or ready to eat food. In this case a fruit, the lemon. I also realised that you use cling film to wrap the zucchini when placing on the table, preventing dust particles or any pest from coming in contact with the ingredients.In conclusion,when handling cook food,always wear a gloves to prevent any contamination and never use the same pair of glove to touch a raw food as this will cause cross-contamination too.
I do not agree with my Rishi has commented:Using a pair of gloves is a good personal hygiene, especially when handling cooked food. Sometimes we will forget to wash our hands as we are busy. Therefore using gloves will be more hygienic and convenient.In conclusion,as a chef no matter how busy we are,we must not forget to wash our hands after handling any food.IT is always important to keep our hands clean or free from bacteria to prevent foodborne illness.

I also learnt some of the cleanliness issue from this activity.It is always important to keep our work area,utensils clean as they might be contaminated from pests etc.

I agree with what julina has commented : This is important to prevent pathogens from entering food as well as food borne illnesses from happening. This can also keep the kitchen neat, providing a clean environment to work in.In summary,keeping the kitchen not only prevent contamination but also allow the food handlers to work in a clean and safe environment.

I agree with what rishi and isaac has commented.Isaac: This is important as the kitchen equipment are crucial part of preventing food contamination as even if your food ingredients are not contaminated but your equipment are dirty you will still contaminate the food     
Rishi: Storing kitchen equipments at proper places is important as it prevents the contact of pests because we are using them to handle/prepare food.

Reflection of blog posts (Julina Tay)

Through this whole process of elearning, I have learnt food safety issues on poor personal hygiene, the importance of food safety and the costs of foodborne illnesses, (forexample, loss of customers and sales, lowered employee morale and closure of food establishment). I have also leant about foodborne hazards, prevention of health risks and potentially hazardous foods, which are milk and milk products, sliced melons, meat and poultry and etc. These are foods that are able to support the rapid progressive growth of microorganisms than others. Through this, i have learnt to be more careful while handling potential hazardous foods in the future, as well as maintaining proper personal and kitchen cleanliness to prevent microbes from growing and to prevent foodborne illnesses from happening. 

I could have include more and better pictures in my blog posts to illustrate my points. Furthermore, i agree with what Huihuang had commented "Kitchen is the area when chef or any food handlers prepare their food in.It is essential that the kitchen is kept clean at all times to prevent pests like rats,lizards etc. from contaminating the utensils that is used to prepare food." In summary, HuiHuang meant that we should always keep the kitchen clean and free from pests. This is to keep food poisoning at bay and prevent biological hazards in food.

For my personal hygiene blog post, i could have include better pictures which illustrate show pipe-in warm water. I also agree with what Wang Miao had commented, "It is a good habit and good personal hygiene by washing hand before starting all the work in the kitchen. Hands carry many bacteria. If handling food without clean hand, the bacteria on the surface of hand will spread or transfer to the food and lead to cross contamination. This may lead to food poisoning also. keep this good habit" In summary, she meant that we should always have clean hands when we handle with food in the kitchen as our hands contain a lot of bacteria which may lead to cross contamination. 

Personal Hygiene ( Rishi)

It is important to keep your nails short and clean. It is because when your nails are long, germs can get trapped under it and will get transferred to the the food (raw) when you are handling with it. This could be dangerous as the consumer may get food poisoning after eating the food.

Cleanliness ( Rishi)

Mopping and cleaning the kitchen floor is important because it helps to ensure that there is no bits and pieces of raw food on the floor which will attract pests. When pests get into the kitchen the bring in bacterium and viruses which might be contagious. And also cleaning the kitchen will give keep it neat and give a professional look to it.

Cleanliness by wang miao

Always keep station clean. It is important to keep working station clean always. It is easy for us to manage the work area, and looks professional. There is lesser chance to get food cross contamination. Messy station will easy for bacteria to grow. If customer eat contaminated food, they will get food poisioning. And this will effect the reputation of the store/restaurant.
Always fold cloth nicely before use. So that, it has more area can use for cleaning and lesser chance of bacteria grow inside the cloth.

Cleanliness Issue ( Tay Hui Huang)

It is very important for us to keep our equipment clean and neatly place in the container.This way it can prevent pests like cockroaches,lizards to lay eggs on the equipments, prevent dusts from entering..If the equipments are not kept in porper storage,it will cause foodborne hazards eg.biological hazrds.To prevent foodborne hazards from happening,one should properly clean and sanitize equipments before and after use.Always maintain cleanliness in the kitchen.

Personal hygiene by wang miao

                                           never wear glove when handling cooked food
                                                                          Posted by wang Miao
This is a bad personal hygiene. It is important to wear glove when handling cooked food. Cooked food means it is ready to serve to customer. Our hand contains many kinds of bacteria. when handling cooked food by naked hands, it will lead to food contamination because some bacteria may transfer from hand to the food. The worest is customer get food poisioning. It is a very serious act. MUST wear glove when handling cooked food in kitchen. It is good for us and customers.
we need to practise this to be a good habit everyday in the kitchen by wearing glove when handling cooked food. This is encourage us to be a good/professional chef.

Area clealiness

Wiping the table is more important then you may think. The table is our work station, we do every there from cutting to slicing to prepare ingredients and cutting cooked food. Therefore the chances of cross contamination of bacteria is very high. So we must make sure our table is clean and dry every time.
As what chef randy always says, clean up as you go. This way we have a cleaner table to prevent any cross contamination from happening in the kitchen and also the overall cleanliness of the tables as it makes up a huge part of the kitchen itself

Personal Hygiene ( Isaac Loke)

Wearing the chef hat is not just an identity marker to a chef/cook or someone working in a kitchen. There are logical reason for the usage of the gear often seen wore by chefs.

1st reason: The kitchen is a very hot and humid place, with water boiling and steam going into the atmosphere. Not to mention the heat coming from the naked flame itself and also several kitchen equipment like the salamander, oven and grill just to name a few. There also a lot of movement and with the claustrophobic space in the kitchen, chefs will tend to sweat. Coming to my point why chef hat are needed, pardon me for my long windedness but explanation has to be done. The hat helps absorb the sweat that may be tickling down your head to your neck and maybe into your food, so by the time the sweat is released the hat helps to absorb the sweat into the food that will contaminate the food you took the entire day of hard work to prepare.

2nd reason: The hair act as a filter as I would call it, by preventing any hair from dropping into the food and cost unsightly sight and most importantly contamination. You wouldn't want to serve a dish with hair all over the plate to a customer.

Hygiene Issue ( Tay Hui Huang)

One important hygiene issue is to wear gloves when handling cooked food.If one do not wear gloves when handling cooked food,it might cause cross-contamination and cause foodborne illness and thus increase the risk of food poisoning.By wearing gloves while handling cooked food,it helps to prevent foodborne illness from containing living disease causing microorganism in eating food.To execute good hygiene practices,one should always wear gloves when handling cooked food.Never wear the same gloves to handle a raw and cooked food.Always wash your hands properly after using the restroom.Never touch food when there is cuts or scratch sores and always wear a mask when one is sick.

The rationale of a good personal hygiene is to prevent illness and diseases from contaminating the food by executing some measures.Here are some of the measures: always wash your hands before entering the kitchen.Raw food and cooked food should be handled separately.

Cleanliness of premises (Julina Tay)

It is important to maintain cleanliness in the kitchen to prevent pests from entering the premises and contaminate foods and to prevent the growth of pathogens, increasing risks of food poisoning. The major sources of microbial contaminants in food are through human, equipment or utensils, raw foods, insects and animals, and through environment, hence, it is essential for us to ensure that the kitchen is clean at all times. 

If the cleanliness of the kitchen is not maintained, food borne illness may occur, through infection and intoxication. Infection is caused by consuming food that contains living disease causing organism. One example would be salmonella in eggs and poultry. Intoxication is caused by eating food that contains a harmful chemical or toxin produced by bacteria. 

Cleanliness of the premises can be maintained by throwing all waste products in the waste bin and not by throwing rubbish anywhere. It can also be maintained by cleaning the floors of the premises daily.

Personal Hygiene Issue (Julina Tay)

One hygiene issue is to wash your hands thoroughly before handling food items or before entering the kitchen. This can prevent biological hazards by introducing bacteria to raw foods and this can inhibit growth of pathogens. If one does not wash his hands properly before entering the kitchen, he may increase the risk of food poisoning. To ensure proper hygiene one should wash his hand regularly and thoroughly before handling food, after visiting the washroom, in between handling of raw and cooked food and after handling waste food. In addition, one should wash his hand in warm water (45 to 49°C) with non-perfumed liquid soap, then dry properly with a paper towel.


The rationale of good personal hygiene is to prevent the direct contamination of food by carrying out certain measures. Some measures are washing hands regularly, having clean hands with short fingernails, ensuring that one does not wear personal jewellery and to be dressed in  proper kitchen attire. Furthermore, uninfected wounds should be completely covered with detectable (green or blue) water proof plasters.To maintain personal hygiene, one should not open bags or pick up sheets of wrapping paper with wet fingers, pick his nose while handling food in the kitchen, taste foods with an unwashed spoon, scratch his head, and cough on to hands and handle food without washing of hands.

Introducing Us

Group Member Names: Julina, Huihuang, Wang Miao, Rishii, Issac