Every restaurant and public kitchen is held to a very specific safety standard due to foodborne illnesses. Foodborne illnesses cause sicknesses in 48 million Americans each year and leads to 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. With foodborne illnesses being common and easily introduced into the kitchen, food safety is the most important thing a restaurant can do.
The common mistake made in food safety that causes food borne illnesses is cross contamination. An example of cross contamination is using a cutting surface to cut a raw meat such as chicken and not properly sanitizing the surface and then using that same surface to cut raw vegetables. Doing this will get the bacteria of the chicken onto the vegetables, which will most likely cause food poisoning.
