Mexican-style Foodservice Operations: Hazard Analyses, Critical Control Points and Monitoring

Hazard analyses critical control point evaluations were made in four restaurants specializing in Mexican-style foods. Time-temperature evaluations were made of beans, meat products, and rice during cooking, cooling, reheating, and hot-holding, and other food preparation procedures were observed during 3 d of operation. A few samples were collected and tested for Clostridium perfringens and aerobic plate counts (APC). Raw beans harbored C. perfringens , but this organism was not isolated from a few samples of garlic powder, cooked beans, cooked chicken meat, cooked chili pork, cooked ground beef, or cooked chimichanga meat. APCs generally were higher as the depth of the refrigerated product increased, in covered pans with refrigerator air circulation blocked by pans above or below and adjacent, or when the product was left unrefrigerated for several hours. Foods cooked in these establishments, with the occasional exception of ground meat, usually reached temperatures that would have killed vegetative forms of foodborne pathogenic bacteria. Foods were usually maintained at satisfactorily high temperatures during hot-holding, except surfaces and regions just below the surface of uncovered foods were frequently below 140°F (60°C). The foods, particularly beans, when put in a traditional manner in pans with lids in refrigerators cooled slowly. Cooling without lids, in freezers, or in pans on top of pans filled with ice led to more rapid cooling. During reheating, products often failed to reach 165°F (74°C). Critical control points in all operations were cooling and reheating. Monitoring of cooling can be done by observing the size and shape of containers, by measuring the depth of product, and by determining whether lids are used during cooling and whether the containers are stored on top of or next to each other. Monitoring of reheating can be done by measuring temperatures at the completion of cooking or during the post-heating temperature rise while products are in steam tables ready for service.