Environmental Health and Safety

Food Safety

If you are planning to have an event with food, you must register the event with Campus Event Planning (staff and faculty) or the Office of Student Engagement (students). When serving food to members of our community, it is important to follow food safety protocols. Please follow the guidelines listed below in order to continue being able to run events like this one. 

• Everyone touching food must wash their hands constantly. Before preparing any food, wash hands with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds. Anyone preparing food should be wearing gloves at all times. Change out gloves in between each task to help avoid cross-contamination.
• Keep food preparation areas, including countertops and cutting boards, as well as cooking utensils clean and sanitized.
• Potentially Hazardous Foods (PHF), which includes dairy, eggs, mayonnaise, poultry, meat, sour creams and yogurt must be kept refrigerated until prepared or served. Make sure all meats & poultry have been cooked to the appropriate temperature prior to serving.
• Person(s) consuming the food being served must be made aware of all the potential allergens. These allergens include “The Big 8”; milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy. 
  • To best protect everyone, both those that are consuming, as well as the person(s) preparing, the allergy guidelines strongly recommend the blanket notification that the food being prepared may have any of the above allergens. 
• Transport food with care. Cover all dishes and maintain temperatures. 
• Hot food must be kept in chafing dishes and cold food must be kept over ice to keep food at a safe temperature.
  • Cold food needs to stay cooler than 40°F.
  • Warm/hot food needs to be warmer than 140°F.
  • Bacteria begin to grow at temperatures between 40-140°F - dispose of food if it is in this range.
• Take the food temperature as soon as it arrives at the event venue
• Keep a thermometer on hand to monitor food temperatures during the event. Log the temperatures taken in this format:
  • Time temp taken:
  • Temperature:
  • Initials:
• Food cannot sit out at room temperature for more than 2 hours if it is not kept in a chafing dish or over ice. If left at room temperature, food must be discarded or refrigerated after 2 hours. 
• At the end of the event, food should be disposed of since it has been sitting out.
• Label potentially hazardous foods (dairy, nuts, meats, eggs, shellfish, soy, gluten) to avoid potential food allergies.