Buffet Catering and Waste Management

The provided assignment delves into various aspects of buffet catering and food safety. It highlights the risks associated with cross-contamination and the need for proper temperature maintenance to prevent illness among customers. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of presenting food in an appealing manner using crockery and cutlery, as well as responsible waste management practices such as recycling and composting.

Running head: HYGIENE IN BUFFET
Hygiene in buffet
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1HYGIENE IN BUFFET
Executive summary
The following report focuses on hygiene and handling of food at the buffet. The food that is
displayed should be hygienic and temperature should be maintained with proper refilling of food
and water. The self-service at the buffet gives rise to cross-contamination issues from person to
person due to touching food items with unclean hands. In addition, staffs should use disposable
materials that can be recycled being biodegradable in nature. Therefore, maintaining strict
quality measures at the buffet is important for safe food handling practices.

2HYGIENE IN BUFFET
Table of Contents
Displaying of food (chilled / hot and ambient)................................................................................3
Hot foods.....................................................................................................................................3
Cold foods....................................................................................................................................3
Ambient foods.............................................................................................................................3
Self service and refilling of food.....................................................................................................4
Hygiene in the buffet area................................................................................................................5
Contamination issues.......................................................................................................................5
Crockery and cutlery........................................................................................................................6
Disposable materials used................................................................................................................6
Disposing the waste material...........................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

3HYGIENE IN BUFFET
Displaying of food (chilled / hot and ambient)
Buffets displays cold, hot and ambient foods kept at room temperature where it is
essential to keep a close eye on the temperature and time.
Hot foods
The hot foods should be kept at an internal temperature of 60 degree Celsius or 140° F or
warmer. The food is served hot in slow cookers, chafing dishes and warming trays by using a
food thermometer for checking. The temperature should be checked every 2 hours by using a
calibrated food thermometer. It should be noted that some warming trays can hold food only at
110°F to 120°F and therefore, it should be checked that trays could hold foods up to 140°F or
warmer that keep away the bacteria called Temperature Danger Zone. Egg and related dishes like
soufflés or quiches require re-heating temperature to 165°F before serving (Ali 2014).
Cold foods
It is important to serve cold foods in buffet at 40°F or colder and keep them refrigerated
until it is served. If any food item is going to be displayed on buffet table for more than 2 hours,
the plate containing cold foods should be placed on ice to retain the chillness. Cold foods in
buffet should be kept cool enough to avoid growth of bacteria or harmful pathogens on it. Ice
serves as the best way to keep buffet foods cool. The proteins need to be kept cold like beans,
meat and dairy products (Fda.gov 2018).
Ambient foods
Shelf-stable foods need to be stored safely at room temperature in sealed container. These
foods are normally stored in refrigerator, however they can be processed to store them safely at

4HYGIENE IN BUFFET
ambient or room temperature for long shelf life. The ambient temperature glass cabinets or
display cases are used to store ambient food items like sauces, breads and other condiments.
Self service and refilling of food
In context to self-service in buffet, the food staff should monitor the way customers or
clients use self-service equipment for checking that food is not being contaminated. Controls and
monitoring is important in self-service, as food should be served quickly after preparation. The
staff who supervise self-service at displays should possess appropriate knowledge and skills for
the tasks. One staff must be assigned for monitoring guests and eliminating food safety threat
like reusing utensils and plates. The supervision should be maintained in a way that customers
should not feel alarmed or uncomfortable. The customer service skills should be good enough to
ensure that staffs are not intrusive. There should be separate clean utensils to take food on
display and should monitor that customers use them so that contamination is minimized. The
single-use items should be kept in dispensers as it minimizes contamination and reduce waste.
There should be hand sanitizer in dispensers at self-service buffet and sanitize surfaces by
separate cloths and sanitizing solutions (Skov et al. 2013).
The refilling of water at buffet is done when the container is less than one-quarter and old
container should be removed replacing it. The food should not be combined between new and
old containers and place enough drinking filled glasses at all times. Buffet inserts should be
refilled in pantry or kitchen and not in the outlet and refills should take place until 15 minutes
before closing of buffet so that presentation is up to standard in regards to food cost (Sakaguchi,
Pak and Potts 2018).

5HYGIENE IN BUFFET
Hygiene in the buffet area
Buffet offers variety of dishes and food for gratifying palate of customers with assorted
preferences. However, food at buffet is exposed to environment and face difficulty in controlling
food temperature. Therefore, it is important to maintain hygiene and quality while enjoying
sumptuous meal at the buffet.
The buffet area should be cleaned three to four times at the pre opening and after closing
of buffet. It is important to sanitize the surface areas like tabletops, bar tops, crockery and cutlery
that customers comes in direct contact. At the buffet, there should be safe handling of food by
staff by using proper gloves, clean clothing and hairnets that maintain overall hygiene. There
should be proper hand washing and sanitizing by employees after every three hours on duty. The
unused and leftover for more than 2 hours should be thrown away from buffet facility and
remove utensils that become contaminated and replenish with fresh ones (Oyewole 2013).
Contamination issues
Cross-contamination is the biggest issue in buffet when an individual touches food item
or utensil with unclean hands that results in spreading viruses or bacteria to others who is
exposed to that particular utensil or food. The self-service buffet greatly invites cross-
contamination issues that transfer disease-causing microorganisms through food via direct
contact or dripping contaminated liquid on food. In addition, there should be proper food
temperature maintenance as temperatures between 40 F and 140 F cause bacteria or virus to
grow and multiply rapidly increasing chances of illness to customers (Hattersley and King 2014).

6HYGIENE IN BUFFET
Crockery and cutlery
Presentation is essential in buffet catering and crockery helps in complimenting the food
at display. The combination of interesting colours and shapes gives an exciting experience
through ceramic, wood and glass materials in the catering crockery. The centre dishes have
maximum effect and use of rubber pedestals on elevated dishes adds alternate heights to buffet
table. A range of cups, plates, tableware and bowls that is used extensively at the buffet table.
Buffet display equipments comprises of display baskets, chafing dishes and display trays that
help to present food to customers in a professional and stylish manner (Andrews 2013).
Disposable materials used
The materials comprises of tabletop disposables, paper napkins, plastic plates, stirrers and
straws, foam and paper disposables, cardboard, foil, paper and drink containers that goes to
recycle bin. Recycled paper and plastic products should be used that are biodegradable in nature.
Disposing the waste material
Food waste can be recycled depending on its nature as vegetable and fruit peelings,
leftovers at buffet and post-consumer are recycled. Grease-trap sludge and meat cut are not
generally accepted. Aerobic windrow composting or hot composting is used in Australia where
food waste is mixed with organics like paper or wood chips forming windrows. In-vessel
composting is also used for aerobic decomposition that is similar to windrow compositing
(Reynolds, Piantadosi and Boland 2015).

7HYGIENE IN BUFFET
References
Ali, F.A., 2014. Food serving assembly. U.S. Patent 8,869,789.
Andrews, S., 2013. Food and beverage service: A training manual. Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
Fda.gov. 2018. Serving Up Safe Buffets. [online] Available at:
https://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm328131.htm [Accessed 26 Feb.
2018].
Hattersley, S. and King, R., 2014. Catering–How to Keep Allergic Consumers Happy and Safe.
In Risk management for food allergy (pp. 189-200).
Oyewole, P., 2013. Multiattribute dimensions of service quality in the all-you-can-eat buffet
restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 22(1), pp.1-24.
Reynolds, C.J., Piantadosi, J. and Boland, J., 2015. Rescuing food from the organics waste
stream to feed the food insecure: an economic and environmental assessment of Australian food
rescue operations using environmentally extended waste input-output
analysis. Sustainability, 7(4), pp.4707-4726.
Sakaguchi, L., Pak, N. and Potts, M.D., 2018. Tackling the issue of food waste in restaurants:
Options for measurement method, reduction and behavioral change. Journal of Cleaner
Production.
Skov, L.R., Lourenco, S., Hansen, G.L., Mikkelsen, B.E. and Schofield, C., 2013. Choice
architecture as a means to change eating behaviour in self‐service settings: a systematic
review. Obesity Reviews, 14(3), pp.187-196.