Hygiene concept for your snack bar: order in the food truck

As a caterer who brings street food to the people with his snack trailer, you naturally sell and process food – which means you are subject to EU hygiene law. What this entails, which hygiene guidelines you have to take into account, how you can best implement a hygiene concept for your snack bar and what else you are obliged to do as a restaurateur, you can read in our article.

If you would like more detailed information about the regulations for your food truck hygiene and the legal situation, you can find an overview of the regulations and laws that apply at European and national level at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

What is hygiene?

Apart from the legal requirements that the legislator places on you as a restaurateur, you yourself should of course also be concerned with the implementation of certain hygiene standards. You protect yourself, your employees and above all your guests if you avoid hygiene deficiencies in gastronomy.

In brief, hygiene refers to all measures that contribute to preventing the spread of viruses, germs and bacteria and thus help to avoid illness. Of course, this includes more than regular hand washing and clean dishes. For the sake of clarity, we will divide the individual hygiene areas.

Which hygiene areas are there for your hygiene concept?

In the following, we distinguish between food hygiene, operational hygiene and staff hygiene. This helps you to keep an overview and to define clear processes for your hygiene concept for your snack bar.

Food hygiene rules: What you should observe when handling your products

Hygiene begins with the purchase or receipt of your goods. In order to maintain the quality and freshness of your food, it is essential to ensure an unbroken cold chain, especially for perishable foods such as meat, fish and dairy products. Apart from protecting your guests from spoiled food, you also reduce your costs. After all, you will have to dispose of less food. You should also pay a lot of attention to the quality control of the products. Be especially attentive: Is the packaging intact or damaged? Do the ingredients smell fresh or are they already spoiled? This is the only way to guarantee the shelf life and integrity of the products. Here are our tips at a glance:

• Buy fresh produce as often as possible
• Consume your products quickly
• Ensure a closed cold chain
• Store durable and perishable ingredients separately (meat, fish and poultry separately from fruit and vegetables).
• Heat products sufficiently when cooking
• Staff hygiene rules: hygienic staff as a figurehead

Personalhygiene Regeln: hygienische Mitarbeiter als Aushängeschild

Your staff and you are the figureheads of your street food business. For this reason alone, you should ensure a hygienic and well-groomed appearance. Above all, you will be in contact with food and dishes. To avoid the risk of contamination with viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, special attention should be paid to hygiene. If you notice anything negative here, be sure to point it out to your co-workers. The following points serve as a guide:

• Proper personal hygiene
• Clean and trimmed fingernails
• Wearing a hair net
• Washing and disinfecting hands regularly
• (especially after contact with high-risk food, such as fresh poultry)
• Industrial hygiene rules: Clean environment for a clean product

Betriebshygiene Regeln: Sauberes Umfeld für ein sauberes Produkt

In addition to personal hygiene and the hygiene of your goods, the working environment in your food trailer should also meet certain standards. Clear procedures and routines help you to maintain order and cleanliness even during stressful periods. Put away utensils that are no longer needed and clean your workplace directly after each use. At the end of the day, you will be done with the final cleaning of your kitchen. If you are on the road with a food trailer, this is even more important. After all, your customers can see right into the kitchen. If it’s unhygienic and untidy, it’s immediately noticeable and leaves a bad impression. For a better overview, you can use the following points as a guide:

• Keep your fridge clean and tidy
• Clean your waste bin at regular intervals
• Dispose of rubbish as soon as it is produced
• Change rags and towels as often as possible.
• Always make sure there are plenty of fresh dishes
• Equipment and utensils that come into direct contact with food should be cleaned immediately after use.

Below you will find a specific list of what you should clean and how often.

Control and verification – A HACCP / self-checking system

According to Article 5 of the Food Hygiene Regulation 852/2004, all food businesses are obliged to use and prove such a concept. But what exactly does an HACCP concept contain?

A HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) concept is used to monitor your own business processes and to ensure the safety of the food you process. The legislator has formulated some minimum requirements for this. These include, on the one hand, the structural equipment of your food service trailer, but also the condition of your work equipment, such as refrigeration units or the ventilation possibilities of your workplace. You can read about the requirements your snack bar trailer should meet in our article on this topic. Furthermore, there are requirements for transport, water supply, handling of food and waste and hygiene of the staff.

The HACCP concept serves as an aid for your hygiene concept for your snack bar. Ask yourself where there are risks in your operations that could endanger the safety of your food? Is there a possibility of contamination, non-compliance with cold chains or possible risks of pest infestation? Once you have identified critical points in your operation, the next step is to determine appropriate inspection and intervention measures. This is often done in the form of a checklist. It can be used, for example, to document which employee disinfected and cleaned a certain area of your business at what time on which day. In this way, you can minimise potential hazards step by step. Such documentation is not required by law, but we recommend it in any case for reasons of verifiability. This way you are on the safe side vis-à-vis the health authorities.

Templates for checklists and a detailed definition of the HACCP concept can be found on the website of the Stuttgart Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Kitchen hygiene in the catering trade: what, how often to clean and disinfect?

Now to the practice: This is how you proceed when cleaning and disinfecting.
Use hot drinking water and suitable cleaning agents for cleaning. Coarse dirt is easiest to sweep up, vacuum or remove with water. For surfaces that come into contact with food, make sure to rinse with clean water. This will prevent residues of the cleaner from getting on your products.

Cleaning in the kitchen

You should clean daily:

• Floors
• Washbasins
• Sinks
• Door handles
• Work tables
• Counters
• Tools and machines
• Collecting containers for food
• Cutting boards
• All surfaces that come into contact with meat, fish, eggs and poultry should be cleaned immediately afterwards.
• Waste containers
• Refrigeration equipment
• Freezer units

Monthly or as needed you should clean

• Doors
• Bonnets
• Filters
• Ventilation grilles

Disinfect in the kitchen:

You should disinfect daily:

• Work surfaces
• Work tables
• Counters
• Door handles
• Cutting boards
• Tools and machines
• Wash basins
• Collecting containers for food
• All surfaces that come into contact with meat, fish, eggs and poultry should be disinfected immediately afterwards.
• Wash basins
• Waste containers (daily or after emptying)

Disinfect monthly or as needed:

• Doors
• Floors
• Bonnets
• Filters
• Ventilation grilles
• Refrigeration equipment
• Freezer units

Conclusion

Since proper hygiene in your food trailer is in the interest of your guests and the law, it should also be a top priority for you. What looks like a lot of work at the beginning can be turned into easy-to-follow routines with the right concept. This even saves time and money in the end.