Food Truck food safety for large events

Posted on 07/16/2022 by FTB

Food Trucks could pose a greater risk to food safety than brick and mortar restaurants. Not because they are dirtier than restaurants or because they aren't held to the same safety standards, but rather because the more the food is handled or transported, the greater the risk of bacterial contamination. Food Truck owners must maintain a close eye on staff to ensure safe food handling procedures are followed at all times to prevent difficulties with consumers contracting a food-borne illness. In this blog, we offer a few guidelines that any Food Truck can use to protect their patrons and uphold food safety at huge gatherings.

FOOD SAFETY PROCEDURES

For larger Food Truck events, the majority of the food is either prepared in advance at a central location and then carried to the event or, if one is available, prepared on-site. In either case, cooking all food at the suggested temperatures is necessary to keep food at a safe temperature.
- Ice: Ice used to chill food or beverage bottles must always be kept apart from ice used to make drinks. Display ice has the potential to absorb bacteria and other pollutants from the objects it comes into touch with, contaminating beverage ice and a customer's beverage.
- Insulated food carriers:Depending on the size and duration of a Food Truck event, there is a good chance you may have to reload your food truck with products to prepare and sell. Both hot and cold foods need to be kept at the appropriate temperatures when being transported to the event. The only way for Food Trucks to assure hot foods are kept hot and cold foods cold while in transit is by using insulated food carriers.
- Temperature & Time:In the case of potentially dangerous foods, the two-hour guideline still holds true. For proper food safety, all hot food must be maintained above 140 °F and all cold food must be kept below 40 °F. Food must be thrown away if it is outside of this range for longer than two hours.
- Heat up foods:Make sure that any food products that were cooked off-site and then chilled for transit are reheated adequately to preserve food safety. The FDA Food Code states that any food that needs to be reheated must reach an internal temperature of 165 °F for 15 seconds to be deemed safe.
- Cover your food:Wind, insects, and other pests are potential concerns for these outdoor events. The greatest defense against these risks is to cover any food that is on show, put all garbage in a trash can with a lid, use wind guards on windy days, and set up the food tables beneath a tent.