ServSafe sample questions, with worked answers

C: Clostridium perfringens. Clostridium perfringens grows in large batches of cooked meat, poultry and gravy that cool too slowly.

The trap: Picking a pathogen you know well from another topic. Large batches of meat, poultry and gravy that cool slowly point to Clostridium perfringens.

C: Exclude them from the operation. Vomiting, diarrhea and jaundice all mean excluding the staff member from the operation, whoever the operation serves. Jaundice must also be reported to the regulatory authority.

D: Restrict them from working with exposed food, utensils and equipment. A sore throat with a fever means restricting the staff member from working with exposed food, utensils and equipment; if the operation mainly serves a highly susceptible population, exclude them instead. This restaurant does not, so restrict.

B: Use a bun with no sesame, with clean utensils and a clean surface, and tell the server it is ready as an allergy order. Sesame is one of the nine major food allergens. The fix is to prevent cross-contact: a bun without sesame, clean and sanitized utensils and surfaces, washed hands and fresh gloves, and clear handoff to the server.

1. Check the list: sesame is a major allergen (since the FASTER Act).
2. Removing seeds leaves allergen behind, and heat does not destroy it.
3. So swap the ingredient and prevent cross-contact at every step.

The trap: Picking the seeds off. Proteins stay on the bun and the plate; cross-contact is about traces, not visible pieces.

B: Norovirus. Norovirus spreads person to person and through ready-to-eat food and shellfish. Cooking does not help with food a sick worker touches after cooking, so the main control is keeping staff with vomiting or diarrhea out of the operation, plus handwashing.

1. Spread by people and contaminated water: that points to a virus.
2. Of the options, only Norovirus is a virus.
3. Its control is exclusion and handwashing.

The trap: Choosing a bacterium linked to cooling (C. perfringens, B. cereus). Viruses come from people; cooling problems come from bacteria.

B: Cool it quickly to 41°F or lower. Of FAT TOM (food, acidity, temperature, time, oxygen, moisture), temperature and time are the two you control. Cooked rice is a TCS food, and Bacillus cereus spores can survive cooking, so it must leave the danger zone fast.

1. Cooked rice is TCS: moist, neutral, protein and starch.
2. The controllable conditions are time and temperature.
3. So cool it quickly to 41°F or lower.

The trap: Covering it. A lid can slow cooling, and oxygen is not what Bacillus cereus needs to be stopped.

B: Exclude the aide from the operation. A sore throat with a fever means restrict in most operations, but exclude where the operation mainly serves a highly susceptible population, such as a hospital or nursing home.

1. Symptom: sore throat with fever.
2. Population: highly susceptible (a hospital).
3. Rule: restrict normally, exclude for a highly susceptible population. So exclude.

The trap: Answering "restrict" because that is the usual answer. The population changes it.

B: Wet hands and arms, apply soap, scrub at least 10 to 15 seconds, rinse, dry with a single-use towel or dryer. Wet with running water as hot as you can comfortably stand (the sink must supply at least 100°F), apply soap, scrub hands and arms for 10 to 15 seconds, rinse, and dry. The whole process takes at least 20 seconds.

1. Wet first, then soap.
2. Scrub, including between fingers and under nails.
3. Rinse, then dry with a single-use towel or hand dryer.

The trap: Treating hand antiseptic as a substitute. It can only be used after handwashing, never instead of it.

D: 145°F for 4 minutes. Roasts of beef, pork, veal and lamb: 145°F for 4 minutes (other time-temperature options exist).

The trap: Using 145°F for 15 seconds, the rule for steaks and chops. Whole roasts need 145°F held for 4 minutes.

A: Yes: it is at or below the 70°F limit. Food may be thawed submerged under running potable water at 70°F or lower. 70°F is within that limit.

A: 11:00 p.m.. Cooked TCS food must cool from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, and to 41°F or lower within a total of 6 hours. 5:00 p.m. plus 6 hours is 11:00 p.m.

A: 7:15 p.m.. Food held without temperature control must be served or thrown out within 4 hours. 3:15 p.m. plus 4 hours is 7:15 p.m.

D: raw whole turkeys. Ready-to-eat food goes above raw food, and raw animal food is stored by minimum cooking temperature, highest at the bottom: seafood, then whole cuts of beef and pork, then ground meat, then poultry. So the lowest shelf is for the raw whole turkeys.

B: Reheat it to 165°F for 15 seconds and start cooling again, or throw it out. The first stage of cooling is 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours. By 4:00 p.m. the chili should be at 70°F or lower; at 80°F it has missed the limit, so it must be reheated to 165°F for 15 seconds and cooled again, or thrown out.

1. Start: 135°F at 2:00 p.m.
2. First stage: 70°F by 4:00 p.m. (2 hours).
3. At 4:00 p.m. it is 80°F, above 70°F: the stage failed. Reheat and re-cool, or discard.

The trap: Counting only the 6-hour total. Each stage has its own limit, and missing the first one cannot be made up later.

A: March 9. Ready-to-eat TCS food held at 41°F or lower may be kept for up to 7 days, with the day it was made as day 1. Day 1 is March 3, so day 7 is March 9.

1. Day 1: March 3.
2. Add 6 days to reach day 7.
3. March 3 + 6 = March 9.

The trap: Adding 7 days (March 10). The day of preparation already counts as day 1.

C: A pork chop stuffed with bread stuffing. Stuffed meat (and stuffing) must reach 165°F for less than 1 second. Ground beef is 155°F for 17 seconds; salmon and whole-muscle steak are 145°F for 15 seconds.

1. Salmon and steak: 145°F.
2. Ground beef: 155°F.
3. Stuffed pork chop: 165°F, the highest.

The trap: Thinking pork always needs the highest temperature. A plain pork chop is 145°F; it is the stuffing that raises it to 165°F.

B: 5:00 p.m.. Cold food that starts at 41°F or lower and never goes above 70°F may be held without temperature control for up to 6 hours. 11:00 a.m. plus 6 hours is 5:00 p.m.

1. Starts at 41°F or lower: yes.
2. Never above 70°F: yes, so the 6-hour option applies.
3. 11:00 a.m. + 6 hours = 5:00 p.m.

The trap: Using 4 hours. That is the limit for hot food, and for cold food that is not kept at 70°F or lower.

A: At least twice the diameter of the water supply inlet, and not less than 1 inch. The air gap must be at least twice the inlet's diameter and at least 1 inch.

The trap: Remembering only "1 inch". The rule is twice the inlet diameter, with 1 inch as the floor, so a wide inlet needs more.

B: 7. HACCP is based on seven principles.

The trap: Counting the five risk factors instead. HACCP has seven principles, from hazard analysis to record keeping.

A: 1 1/2 inches. An air gap must be at least twice the diameter of the water inlet, and never less than 1 inch. Twice 3/4 inch is 1 1/2 inches, so the gap must be at least 1 1/2 inches.

A: Remake it: it is too weak to sanitize. The right range here is 50 to 99 ppm (the label). 10 ppm is below it, so it will not sanitize reliably.

B: 1 inch. An air gap must be at least twice the inlet diameter and never less than 1 inch. Twice 1/2 inch is 1 inch, which meets the minimum, so the gap must be at least 1 inch.

1. Twice the diameter: 2 × 1/2 = 1 inch.
2. Minimum allowed: 1 inch.
3. The larger of the two: 1 inch.

The trap: Matching the gap to the inlet (1/2 inch). The gap must be twice the inlet, and at least 1 inch.

B: Scrape, wash, rinse, sanitize, air-dry. Scrape or pre-rinse, wash in detergent (at least 110°F), rinse, sanitize, then air-dry. Sanitizer only works on a surface that is already clean and rinsed.

1. Remove food first: scrape.
2. Clean: wash, then rinse off the detergent.
3. Sanitize last, then air-dry.

The trap: Putting sanitize before rinse. Rinsing after sanitizing would wash the sanitizer off before it works, and detergent left on the surface weakens it.

B: No; this machine needs at least 180°F. Hot-water dish machines need a final rinse of at least 180°F, except stationary-rack, single-temperature machines, which need 165°F. The maximum is 194°F. A conveyor machine at 175°F is too cool.

1. Machine type: conveyor, so not stationary-rack, single-temperature.
2. Its minimum: 180°F.
3. 175°F is below 180°F, so the dishes are not sanitized.

The trap: Using 171°F, the rule for hand sanitizing in a sink, or 165°F, which is only for stationary-rack, single-temperature machines.

B: Establish critical limits. Setting the measurable value a critical control point must meet is principle 3, establishing critical limits. Checking the chicken with a thermometer would be monitoring (principle 4).

1. Is it finding hazards? No.
2. Is it setting a measurable limit at a CCP? Yes: 165°F.
3. That is principle 3, critical limits.

The trap: Choosing monitoring. Monitoring is checking against the limit; this question is about setting the limit.

B: Close the affected areas, stop service and contact the regulatory authority. A sewage backup is an imminent health hazard. Service stops in the affected area, the regulatory authority is contacted, and the area is cleaned, sanitized and approved before work restarts.

1. Is it an imminent health hazard? Sewage backup: yes.
2. So service stops.
3. Contact the regulatory authority, then clean and get approval to reopen.

The trap: Treating it as a spill. Sewage can carry Norovirus, Hepatitis A and Shigella; it is not a mop-and-carry-on problem.