Trade Guidelines on Safe Production of Chinese Cold Dishes
This set of guidelines is intended for food businesses that prepare and sell Chinese cold dishes at premises. It aims to help food trade implement food safety measures in their operations in order to produce and sell wholesome and safe cold dishes.
Introduction
In Hong Kong, the world’s gourmet paradise, various regional Chinese cuisines such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chiu Chow and Canton are available. Local premises usually offer a wide variety of cold and hot dishes for consumers.Chinese cold dishes can be prepared in different ways, e.g. some may involve cooking, some are just prepared from raw ingredients, and some are mixed with both cooked and raw ingredients. Being cold dishes, they may be prepared in advance and stored at room temperature for a period of time before serving and they are not usually reheated before consumption. These factors may affect the safety and hygienic quality of the products.A variety of microorganisms such as mould, yeast and bacteria may naturally be found in raw ingredients. If the ingredients are cooked thoroughly, most microorganisms are destroyed. However, some bacterial spores e.g. Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens spores may survive cooking. Prolonged storage of ready-to-eat food under room temperature may allow microorganisms to grow and spores to germinate, multiply and may even produce heat-stable toxin. In addition, unhygienic handling of food may also result in contamination by dangerous microorganisms e.g. Staphylococcus aureus which may be present on human skin.
In order to ensure food safety, it is important to implement food safety measures in the production of Chinese cold dishes.
