How To Prevent Cross-contamination Taking Over A Hotel Kitchen

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It’s very easy for germs and bacteria to be spread from food or from dirty hands to areas where food is prepped. It’s not limited only to when food is prepped though, equipment, utensils and other things used to prepare food can also get contaminated very easily. With proper hygiene and a good cleaning plan, kitchens can avoid cross-contamination. Following are a few tips that you can follow to keep cross-contamination to an absolute minimum.

Enforce a personal hygiene cleaning program – to reduce the amount of cross-contamination that happens inside a kitchen, personal cleaning policies need to be enforced. These policies can involve proper hand wash and the correct use of gloves. Other aspects of personal hygiene also need to be discussed. for example, wearing hair nets, clean clothes, and certain types of jewelry which is not allowed. The final aspect of personal health has to do with making sure that when someone is sick they do not come to work and spread germs.

Use color-coded chopping boards – by using color-coded chopping boards you are going to greatly reduce the amount of cross-contamination that can take place inside a hotel kitchen. Most of the time cross-contamination happens when a chopping board that has been used to cut raw poultry gets used to cut salad. This leads to direct cross-contamination and has very serious consequences. Also, make sure to prepare foods far away from each other if they are different kinds. For example, you must not prep raw poultry next to the salad ingredients.

Keep floors as germ-free as possible at all times – the floor carries an abundance of germs and bacteria. Often people drop things on the floor and end up putting them back on the table without conscious thought to wiping them down and disinfecting them. Regular cleaning practices such as cotton mops and buckets do not actually remove germs. New and better technologies need to be used such as microfiber technology. Microfiber mops are able to remove germs with the added bonus of not having to use chemicals in order to get the job done. This is going to improve the air quality of the restaurant kitchen and at the same time improve the safety. See options about sizes and types.

The last way that restaurants can reduce cross-contamination is to purchase pre-prepped food. By doing this the restaurant owner will be reducing food handling by reducing the amount of cross-contamination that can take place.

The Moka Pot – What Is It And Why Should You Use It

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Moka Pot – The Stovetop Espresso Maker

The Moka pot is experiencing a rebirth recently, due to the fact that of its capability to produce a thick espresso without utilizing electrical energy or expensive devices

The Moka pot is a stove-top coffee gadget that brews coffee by requiring pressurized boiling water through a puck of ground coffee. In many cases the Moka pot can use electrical energy to boil the water. You’ll usually discover them crafted from aluminium, and sometimes, stainless-steel.

It is a small, eight-sided device, that was developed by the Italians. The Moka pot has actually been the most reputable and treasured coffee machine for the longest time in Italy.

The pot was called after the city of Mocha, and it was engineered by the Italian engineer Alfonso Bialetti in 1933. The Moka pot is many times called stove-top espresso maker.

It’s easy to make use of and produces a full-bodied coffee, with a plentiful scent.

Working Principle

A lot of stove-top espresso maker designs have an hourglass shape, nevertheless there are moka pots in a variety of other styles. In tthe end, they are all based upon the extremely exact same running principle.

Water is warmed in the lower chamber of the pot.
The steam pressure presses the water up through the ground coffee and the filter.
After that eventually gets collected in the upper chamber as brewed coffee.

The Brewing Method and the Recipe

The magic behind the Moka pot is its brew approach. The pot is divided into 3 chambers: one for water, one for coffee grounds and one for the end product.

The pot is put on your range, and the bottom is filled with warm water. As the water starts to boil, the steam pressure presses the water up through the coffee premises. The drawn out coffee is then sent out up through a spout and pushed into the top brewing chamber.

It’s not difficult to see that the Moka Pot approach of developing pressure depends on steam. The steam will not have a full 9 bar pressure as an espresso machine, but rather around 1-2 bar.

The recipe and method are quite simple, but if you want a non-bitter coffee, you need more experience and some tricks.

  • Prepare your coffee beans, the Moka pot, a towel, and a serving cup.
  • In the next step, heat up your water in a kettle.
  • Fill the bottom part of the Moka pot with warm water and make sure you do not let the water touch the pressure valve.
  • Set the filter-funnel in place covering the boiling chamber.
  • Grind your beans and fill the Moka pot basket with them. Do not tamp like you’d do with the other sort of espresso makers.
  • Screw the bottom and the top parts together. (From time to time analyze the gasket to see if it’s intact).
  • Immediately, put the pot on a source of heat, (stovetop) and brew.
  • Remove the pot from the heat when you hear bubbling noises & cool down the pot immediately with the wet towel.
  • Pour the coffee into serving cups right away.

Final Thoughts

Moka pots produce coffee under pressure, comparable to the system for developing espresso. Nevertheless, Moka pots extract at a much lower pressure than espresso devices, so it isn’t precisely an espresso replacement, but rather an alternative.

It does still use a far more concentrated brew than drip or French press, or other developing techniques.

Moka pots need more skills to be acquired by the home barista, and some experimenting time to attain the best brew. However, once you get those, you might love moka coffee more than real espresso.

You have the capability to produce both weaker and stronger brews, and you can prepare near-espresso-quality coffee drinks at home, and at a fraction of the cost.

The Green Coffee: New And Healthier Cup Of Coffee

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Have you ever drunk a cup of freshly brewed green coffee? Have you ever heard of green coffee in the first place? Green coffee is literally unroasted coffee beans.
Green bean coffee is getting popular nowadays. Not for that morning kick of caffeine, almost every person has in the morning but rather as a weight loss drink or supplement. Green bean coffee is seen to be more beneficial than the typical roasted coffee because it’s seen to have plenty of health benefits.

Since I am a freak when it comes to coffee freshness, green coffee is my cup. Sure the taste is completely different from what you are used to, because the beans are not roasted at all. However, if you want to maximize the health benefits of coffee drinking, this is the best way.

Green bean Coffee Benefits
Weight loss
Green Bean Coffee is known to be an effective weight loss supplement. Mainly it is very well-known as an effective supplement to combat obesity. That’s because unroasted coffee beans contain a high amount of Chlorogenic Acid. Chlorogenic acid is quite abundant in coffee and coffee beans. It is said to effectively speed up metabolism.
High Blood Pressure and Type II Diabetes
this comes hand-in-hand because chlorogenic acid is also very effective in keeping your body’s blood pressure and blood sugar at bay. Taking in green bean coffee shows a decrease in blood pressure and it is also highly effective in the long-term prevention of diabetes.

When Did Green Coffee Brewing Start?
Brewing Green Coffee is fairly a new thing. Actually, it didn’t even exist five years ago. And because of that, there aren’t any real technique behind brewing a great cup of coffee. But the science behind brewing a cup of green coffee lies on extracting the most health benefits.
In brewing green coffee beans, you keep the chaffthe paper thin white coating on the coffee beanson. Why? That’s because the chaff contains antioxidants that are about 500x more powerful than Vitamin C.

How to Brew Green Coffee Beans at Home?

  1. Rinse the coffee beans in a colander but don’t scrub the chaff or the silver skin off.
  2. In brewing green coffee beans, use a ratio of 1:3. One cup of green coffee beans is equivalent to 3 cups of water.
  3. Put them in a kettle or teapot with wateryou can also use a saucepan.
  4. Bring the water to a rolling boil.
  5. Reduce the heat and let it boil for about 10 to 12 minutes. Overboiling will extract more caffeine out of the coffee beans causing the bitter taste.
  6. Drain the water into a cup for immediate consumption using a sift to separate the beans. Store in a glass vessel if you want to drink it later on.
  7. Green Coffee is best served cold.

Espresso Vs Drip Coffee

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Let’s all be honest, we all have our own preferences in drinking a sexy cup of coffee every morning. Some would prefer the strong bold hit of an espresso while others would simply go for a nice drip from the coffee maker or go the traditional ritual and brew some coffee.

Espresso, brewed coffee, drip coffee. Every coffee lover will easily know the difference between all of these types of brewing methods. Espresso brews the purest extraction of them all with also the largest amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) coffee.
Drip coffee, on the other hand, has the least amount of TDS because of the use of a fine filter paper and has its own distinct taste. While brewed coffee produces its own unique taste as well. Let’s talk
about the main difference among the three.

Type of Coffee Used

Espresso is the most sensitive out of the three main brewing methods because it prefers finer ground coffee. The finer the ground, the better it is to extract the coffee from the coffee. Drip coffee and brewed coffee uses coarser grounds of coffee but it still depends on the person’s preference. You can still have fine ground coffee on your drip or brewed coffee.

Espresso uses a mix of different types of coffee and different roasts. For that reason, the barista’s ability to concoct a mixture of different coffee for an awesome shot of espresso also produces a variety of tastes.

Drip coffee and brewed coffee are more straightforward because it uses one type of coffee and coffee roast for a wonderful cup of coffee.

Preparation

Espresso is made using an espresso machine. It is pretty complicated since you need to consider the water temperature, atmospheric pressure, tamping, and the coffee grounds. It has the least time of contact between water and coffee.

Drip coffee uses the pour over method. Coffee preparation like the Chemex or the coffee cone method are examples of great drip coffee.

Traditionally brewed coffee uses an immersion method where the coffee stays in longer contact with the coffee grounds. Brewers like the French Press, Aeropress, vacuum pot or siphon, Moka pot, etc. are all brewed coffee.

Taste and Texture

None of these three produce the same taste of coffee ever! Even if you use the same coffee origin, the same roast, and even the same type of grind, the taste always varies. Although the quality of the taste originates from all these three factors, the three types of brewing methods produce a different cup every time.

Espresso has the richest and also the ‘close to sweetest’ taste of coffee you’ ever get. It has a bold strong coffee flavor rich in aroma and full of texture. Espresso is the main ingredient for many coffee drinks.
Drip coffee has its own magic because it also produces a strong bold coffee flavor. It’s not too acidic and not too overwhelming either.
Brewed coffee is strong yet slightly more acidic. It has a kick on the palate but produces a nice warm fuzz of caffeine punch.

Eating Habits that are accelerating your Aging

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You are what you eat, and your ageing process largely depends on your diet as well. Watching what you eat can come in handy in helping stay young, at least for longer if not forever.  That said, there are some foods you really have to stay away from if only you want to slow your ageing down significantly. Keep the carbs, sugar, and meat at bay for as long as you can.

Some carbs: Overeating carbs contributes to wrinkling of the skin because they increase the sugar levels in your body.

Salt: When you cook, try to prepare your meals with little or no salt. This can make you bloated and make you retain liquids.

Caffeine: We are sure some of you will never give up your morning coffee, but you must be careful. This habit can make you look older. It can contribute to dark spots, wrinkles, and discoloration of the skin and it can also dehydrate your skin.

Sugar: There are some sugar substitutes healthier than regular sugar itself. Too much sugar can contribute to belly fat, which is not desirable. Beware of desserts! It is better to only have 5 packages of sugar substitutes a day.

Cold Cuts: These meats contain preservatives like sulfate, which will keep them eatable for longer but can also deteriorate your skin.

Junk Food: Fries, burgers, wings, and all those fatty foods from fast food chains are harmful to your body due to their high levels of trans fat. Your skin can look both fat and greasy as a result.

Sourced From: https://www.yesyoucandietplan.com/blog/6-foods-that-contribute-to-aging

Drinks are an essential aspect of your health. But there are well a number of drinks that you should not befriend that much if at all you really want to stay young. Alcohol, coffee and energy drinks should be reduced from your preference list for your body’s good.

Alcohol

Alcohol is another major contributor to the aging process. Become aware of alcohol bombs that are actually dessert, particularly during the holidays, when eggnog and other creamy drinks are primary culprits. Your best bet, if you drink, is either a dry wine or tequila, says Virgin. Combat dehydration from alcohol by flushing the system with purified water, green and herbal teas, and probiotic-rich drinks like kombucha, says Mary Purdy, MS, RDN. Not only does “flushing” with fluids hydrate skin cells, but it ensures that the liver has to work less to detoxify and gives your gut the support it needs to better absorb nutrients that contribute to healthy skin.

Caffeine

Caffeine really becomes a problem when you use it as a crutch for poor sleep or stress. Become aware of how you metabolize caffeine, and if you’re a slow metabolizer, keep it to morning hours. Coffee raises your stress hormone cortisol, so excessive amounts could keep those levels jacked up when they should be tapering, says Virgin.

Energy Drinks

Energy drinks can really do a number on your smile. These drinks can damage the enamel in your teeth eight times more than soda does, says Ficek. This erosion makes your teeth look yellow, unhealthy, and old.

Sourced From: http://stylecaster.com/beauty/aging-foods/

Time has to tick away, whether you like it or not. Old age will come eventually, and there is definitely nothing you can do about it. But that does not mean you sit back and watch your body collapse to wrinkles and age away. There are so many types of foods you can take to slow down the time, even though you may not be able to turn it back.

Berries

Pick a berry, any berry. The antioxidants they contain are crucial for keeping you young.

Cruciferous vegetables

Cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower help the liver break down and excrete toxins.

Kale

This leafy green veggie is full of vitamin K, potassium and lutein that help maintain healthy bones and vision, and keep blood pressure in check.

Black beans

Keep your pantry stocked with black beans – their slow-digesting plant protein, fibre and high antioxidants will help slow the aging process.

Green tea

This beverage can be enjoyed hot or cold. Either way, it’s full of flavonoids that may protect against heart disease and certain cancers.

Sourced from: http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-eats/healthy-eating/the-top-5-anti-aging-foods/6/

Worst Toxic Foods that you should avoid

admin Food

The thought of toxic food would freak about everyone out enough to the extent of avoiding taking any food they suspect. Understanding some of the elements which cause toxic food can be a bit tough, as these chemicals are not usually addressed in many occasions. Whichever way, any one handling food at any level should prevent any contamination by some of the known notorious chemicals.

Perfluorooctanoic acid, aka “PFOA”

The paper and lining of microwave popcorn bags contain PFOAs. At high heats, like those created in the microwave, PFOAs can vaporize and spread into the popcorn. PFOAs can also be inhaled through the steam given off if the bag of microwave popcorn is opened shortly after heating.  PFOA has been linked to thyroid disease in humans and cancers in animals.  The food industry is mainly complying with the EPA’s 2015 goal of eradicating this chemical.

Benzoate Preservatives, aka “BHT, BHA, TBHQ”

These chemicals are used to help keep fats in foods from going rancid.  They’ve been linked with serious concerns like increasing cancer risk, disrupting estrogen balance, urticarial, asthma and hyperactivity.  Read your packages carefully – it’s often lurking in cereal, nut mixes, gum, butter, meat, dehydrated potatoes.

Bisp

henol-A, aka “BPA”

This estrogen-like man made chemical is pervasive in canned foods.  BPA is linked to a wide array of health concerns like Reproductive problems, cancer risk, and metabolic disorders like obesity, Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, heart disease and neurobehavioral effects like ADHD. BPA is particularly risky in canned tomatoes because the acidity of the tomato can leech even more of this toxin in to the food.

Sourced From: http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/5-chemicals-that-turn-our-food-toxic-and-how-to-avoid-them/

Some drinks are quite risky to your health. With a high level of toxicity, they can adversely affect your health, which is obviously not a favorable reality to settle for. Talk of unpasteurized milk, foru loko, and purple drank; these are drinks you should be very cautious about. Especially when it comes to giving a drink to your kid, any of these and a good number of others should not feature in your preference list.

Unpasteurized Milk

It might be true that pasteurized milk gives you indigestion and rushes kids through puberty before they learn how to tie their shoes, but the alternative is much worse: Before the pasteurization process was discovered during the industrial revolution, milk was a harbor for all sorts of diseases from salmonella to tuberculosis.

Four Loko

Already dubbed “badness in a can” by Harvard University Health Services and the subject of a breathless Frank Bruni essay, Four Loko is a so-called “alcopop” containing up to 12.5 percent alcohol, the equivalent of five cups of coffee, and some nasty fruit-flavored soda. The potent combo has led to several hospitalizations, but we doubt that’ll deter college kids from buying it. After all, who are you going to believe, the administration, or the guys who get you drunk during finals week?

Purple Drank

If you’re familiar with Rich Boy’s “Throw Some D’s,” you might already know about the “S-Y-R-U-P” craze that’s taken hold in the Southern hip-hop community. But just in case: They’re talking about purple drank, a mixture of prescription-strength codeine and promethazine cough syrup flavored with something sweet, like Sprite or Jolly Ranchers. While that may sound intriguing, the drank-related deaths of DJ Screw and Pimp C will hopefully scare the kids into realizing that it is not, in fact, as cool as it sounds.

Sourced From: http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a8841/most-dangerous-drinks-110210/

As much as you may not be able to tell which food is toxic and which is not, you can still avoiding taking unhealthy food if you are careful enough in checking what you eat , knowing what to eat and what to avoid. There are some foods you should steer clear if you are into avoiding toxic foods.

Eat Whole foods

The major source of chemicals and toxins comes from our food. So we’ll repeat this until the cows come home: Look for whole foods free of preservatives, conservatives, and coloring agents. If available, choose chemical-free and organic varieties.

Find your toxic triggers

Toxicity is not a new problem. Long before we added the burden of human-made chemicals to our bodies, toxic buildup could occur from eating too many of the foods that don’t work for you.

Filter your water

Water is a major source of toxins today. A recent study showed that 41 million Americans drink water contaminated with antidepressants, hormones, heart medications, and other prescription and over-the-counter medications that have made it through the water-treatment system. Add to that the chlorine, carcinogens from industrial and agricultural waste, and you’ve got some real messy stuff.

Sourced From: http://fitnessfoods.ca/how-toxins-affect-our-health/

Talking about Wine

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Good wine makes a good occasion. For a beginner it might be hard to join in the conversations where the topic is about the finest or smooth wine. This is why you should be enlightened. Such conversation come in handy when in a party or dinner and you need to network or simply need to impress someone.


Getting Started with Wine Tasting

Learning to taste wine is no different than learning to really appreciate music or art in that the pleasure you receive is proportionate to the effort you make. The more you fine-tune your sensory abilities, the better you’re able to understand and enjoy the nuances and details that great wines express. The time and effort invested in palate training is rewarding—and very, very fun.


How to Taste Wine

The ability to sniff out and untangle the subtle threads that weave into complex wine aromas is essential for tasting. Try holding your nose while you swallow a mouthful of wine; you will find that most of the flavor is muted. Your nose is the key to your palate. Once you learn how to give wine a good sniff, you’ll begin to develop the ability to isolate flavors—to notice the way they unfold and interact—and, to some degree, assign language to describe them.

Sourced from:http://www.winemag.com/2015/01/20/wine-for-beginners/

Good wine and good food go well together. The only problem is that not many people have mastered the art of pairing the two together.


Pairing red wine with food


Barbera

Probably the first red wine that you drank in an Italian restaurant, Barbera goes well with tomato-based dishes and those from the North of Italy.

Fresh lasagne with pesto
Chicken casserole with red wine,ham &
peppers
So-simple spaghetti Bolognese

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Cabernet Sauvignon

A global classic, Cabernet Sauvignon tends to be medium or full bodied, and is a great match to hearty dishes such as roast lamb and beef, and more complex dishes such as coq au vin.

Slow-roast lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus

Beef fillet with beetroot & horseradish
Coq au vin with plump prunes

Sourced from:http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/match-red-wine-food

As an adult most of times you enjoy taking your wine while having dinner but unfortunately there is someone who is watching you and they are getting mixed signals. First of all you say alcohol is bad and then you come home and drink it in front of them. What do you tell kids about your wine?

As parents we should start the “drink conversation” when children are nine or 10, says GP Dr Sarah Jarvis, medical adviser to Drinkaware. Answer their questions (‘Have you ever been drunk, Mum’; ‘Can I have a sip of your wine?’), while stressing that alcohol is for adults only and can be damaging to young bodies and brains. “If you engage in this kind of conversation at 11 they are more likely to accept what you say,” explains Dr Jarvis. “Don’t wait till 13 when they think they are already an adult and you know nothing.”

It’s also worth remembering that children do as we do, not as we say. So think before saying you’re desperate for a glass of wine after a hard day’s work, don’t let them overhear stories of drunken nights out, and set a good example with your own consumption (a sobering survey by Drinkaware last month revealed that nearly half of all children aged 10 to 14 had seen their parents drunk).

“I think we all need to be more careful what we say and do in front of children,” says Dr Jarvis. “It’s strange how parents worry so much about children at secondary school and issues like bullying, but they don’t worry about alcohol. They should.”

Sourced from:http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/444725/How-dangerous-is-alcohol-for-children-How-to-educate-them-about-drinking