Cross-Contamination Prevention

Cross-contamination is the transfer of harmful organisms from one surface to another. It occurs in three ways: (1) Direct—raw food touches ready-to-eat food (raw chicken juice drips onto salad in the refrigerator). (2) Indirect—a contaminated intermediate transfers organisms (a cutting board used for raw chicken, then for slicing tomatoes without sanitizing). (3) Personnel—food handlers transfer organisms via hands, clothing, or hair (touching raw meat then assembling a sandwich without washing hands). Cross-contamination is the leading preventable cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants and is entirely avoidable through proper workflow design.