Personal hygiene, kitchen hygiene and food hygiene are three different points. Name the habit and why it protects the food.
The idea
Wash your hands before you touch food, and again after handling raw meat or using the toilet. Keep raw food apart from food that will not be cooked again. Cross contamination is how microbes move from one food to another, often from raw meat to a salad or to a board that is then used for bread. Keep hot food hot and cold food cold. A kitchen answer also names safety: wipe spills, keep handles turned in, and keep a knife on the board. Personal hygiene is the person. Kitchen hygiene is the room and the tools. Food hygiene is the food itself.
Food spoils when microbes, enzymes, pests or poor storage act on it. Preservation slows that. Drying and a high sugar or salt content reduce the water microbes need. Freezing makes them inactive. It does not kill all of them. Canning uses heat and a sealed container. Smoking dries the surface and adds compounds that slow spoilage. Say which method you mean and what it does. Do not invent a storage time, and do not name a chemical you have not been taught as a home method.
The Food and Nutrition tips guide sets out the papers, the practical, and the mistakes that cost marks. WASSCE Food and Nutrition tips
What earns the marks
Three hygiene points that are really the same sentence earn one mark. Separate the person, the kitchen and the food. A preservation method needs its effect on water or on microbes. Freezing is not the same as canning. An invented number of days is not a mark.
Practice questions
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
1Question 1
4 marks
(a) What is cross contamination? (2 marks)
(b) State two habits that reduce it in a kitchen. (2 marks)
Model answer
(a) Cross contamination is the movement of microbes from one food to another, often from raw meat to a food that will not be cooked again.
(b) Use a separate board for raw meat. Wash your hands after touching it, before you touch other food.
Mark scheme
Microbes move from one food to another1 mark
A likely path, such as raw meat to a ready to eat food or a shared board1 mark
One habit that breaks that path1 mark
A second habit, different from the first1 mark
2Question 2
2 marks
Explain how drying preserves food. (2 marks)
Model answer
Drying removes water. Microbes need that water to grow, so they cannot multiply in the dry food.
Mark scheme
Water is removed1 mark
Microbes cannot grow without that water1 mark
3Question 3
2 marks
State one difference between freezing and canning as ways of preserving food. (2 marks)
Model answer
Freezing makes microbes inactive by cold, and they can grow again if the food thaws. Canning uses heat in a sealed container, so the microbes are killed and new ones cannot enter.
Mark scheme
Freezing: cold makes microbes inactive, or they can grow again after thawing1 mark
Canning: heat and a seal, so microbes are killed or kept out1 mark
Practise Food and Nutrition with Anna
More questions on this topic are inside glearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Microbes moving from one food to another. Raw meat on a board, then bread on the same board, is a common path. Separate boards and washed hands break that path.
Does freezing kill the microbes?+
Freezing makes them inactive. Many can grow again when the food thaws. Canning uses heat and a seal. Say which method the question asked about, and what it does to the water or the microbes. All WASSCE Food and Nutrition past questions