Food Safety Terms

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Cut Leafy Greens

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fresh leafy greens whose leaves have been cut, shredded, sliced, chopped, or torn. The term “leafy greens” includes iceberg romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, baby leaf lettuce (i.e., immature lettuce or leafy greens), escarole, endive, spring mix, spinach, cabbage, kale, arugula and chard. The term “leafy greens” does not include herbs such as cilantro or parsley.

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Critical Limit

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the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical parameter must be controlled at a CRITICAL CONTROL POINT to minimize the RISK that the identified FOOD safety HAZARD may occur.

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Critical Control Point

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a point or procedure in a specific FOOD system where loss of control may result in an unacceptable health RISK.

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aW

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water activity which is a measure of the free moisture in a FOOD, is the quotient of the water vapor pressure of the substance divided by the vapor pressure of pure water at the same temperature, and is indicated by the symbol AW.

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Hazard

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a biological, chemical, or physical property that may cause an unacceptable CONSUMER health RISK.

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Hermetically Sealed Container

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a container that is designed and intended to be secure against the entry of microorganisms and, in the case of low acid canned FOODS, to maintain the commercial sterility of its contents after processing.

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Imminent Health Hazard

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a significant threat or danger to health that is considered to exist when there is evidence sufficient to show that a product, practice, circumstance, or event creates a situation that requires immediate correction or cessation of operation.

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Mechanically Tenderized

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manipulating meat with deep penetration by processes which may be referred to as “blade tenderizing,” “jaccarding,” “pinning,” “needling,” or using blades, pins, needles or any mechanical device.

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Packaged

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bottled, canned, cartoned, bagged, or wrapped, whether PACKAGED in a FOOD ESTABLISHMENT or a FOOD PROCESSING PLANT.

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Person in charge (PIC)

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the individual present at a FOOD ESTABLISHMENT who is responsible for the operation at the time of inspection.

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pH

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the symbol for the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration, which is a measure of the degree of acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Values between 0 and 7 indicate acidity and values between 7 and 14 indicate alkalinity. The value for pure distilled water is 7, which is considered neutral.

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Poultry

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any domesticated bird (chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas, RATITES, or squabs), whether live or dead, as defined in 9 CFR 381.1 Poultry Products Inspection Regulations Definitions, Poultry; and (2) Any migratory waterfowl or game bird, pheasant, partridge, quail, grouse, or pigeon, whether live or dead, as defined in 9 CFR 362.1 Voluntary Poultry Inspection Regulations, Definitions.

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Priority Item

(Denoted with a superscript P)

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a provision in the Code whose application contributes directly to the elimination, prevention or reduction to an acceptable level, hazards associated with foodborne illness or injury and there is no other provision that more directly controls the hazard. Priority item includes items with a quantifiable measure to show control of hazards such as cooking, reheating, cooling, and handwashing.

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Priority Foundation Item

(Denoted with a superscript Pf)

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a provision in the Code whose application supports, facilitates or enables one or more PRIORITY ITEMS. Priority foundation item includes an item that requires the purposeful incorporation of specific actions, equipment or procedures by industry management to attain control of risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness or injury such as personnel training, infrastructure or necessary equipment, HACCP plans, documentation or record keeping, and labeling.

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Ready-to-Eat Food (RTE)

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FOOD that is in a form that is edible without additional preparation to achieve FOOD safety.

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Regulatory Authority

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the local, state, or federal enforcement body or authorized representative having jurisdiction over the FOOD ESTABLISHMENT.

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Reminder

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a written statement concerning the health RISK of consuming animal FOODS raw, undercooked, or without otherwise being processed to eliminate pathogens.

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Re-service

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the transfer of FOOD that is unused and returned by a CONSUMER after being served or sold and in the possession of the CONSUMER, to another PERSON.

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Restrict

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to limit the activities of a FOOD EMPLOYEE so that there is no RISK of transmitting a disease that is transmissible through FOOD and the FOOD EMPLOYEE does not work with exposed FOOD, clean EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, LINENS, or unwrapped SINGLE-SERVICE or SINGLE-USE ARTICLES.

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Risk

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the likelihood that an adverse health effect will occur within a population as a result of a HAZARD in a FOOD.

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Sanitization

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the application of cumulative heat or chemicals on cleaned FOOD-CONTACT SURFACES that, when evaluated for efficacy, is sufficient to yield a reduction of 5 logs, which is equal to a 99.999% reduction, of representative disease microorganisms of public health importance.

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Sealed

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free of cracks or other openings that allow the entry or passage of moisture.