United States
Hong KongFlashcards that work: food on the front, reason on the back
Put the food or situation on the front and the number plus its reason on the back. Cards that ask "what is 165°F for?" train the wrong direction, because the exam always gives you the food and asks for the number.
Flashcards suit this exam better than most, because so much of it is closed recall. They also get built the wrong way round constantly.
The direction rule
Front: the food or the situation. Back: the number and why.
Never the reverse. A card reading "165°F" on the front trains you to recognize a number, and the exam never gives you a number and asks what it is for. It gives you a chicken breast.
Include the reason
Front: ground beef. Back: 155°F, because grinding mixes surface bacteria through the whole product.
The reason lets you rebuild a number you have half forgotten and handle a food that was not on a card. Without it, an unfamiliar food leaves you guessing.
A deck to build
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| Chicken breast | 165°F - pathogen runs through the bird |
| Hamburger patty | 155°F - grinding mixes the surface in |
| Steak | 145°F - contamination is on the surface only |
| Blade-tenderized steak | 155°F - the needles carried it inward |
| Rice held on a steam table | 135°F - plant food held hot |
| Beef roast | 130°F held 112 minutes is permitted |
| Shell eggs in storage | 45°F ambient air |
| Sliced ham in a cooler | 41°F - ready-to-eat cold holding |
| Leftover chilli going into hot holding | 165°F within 2 hours |
| Soup cooling | 135 to 70 in 2 hours, 70 to 41 in 4 more |
| Chicken salad made Monday | Discard end of Sunday - 7 days, prep day is day 1 |
| Chlorine sanitizer | 50 to 100 ppm |
| Quat sanitizer | 200 to 400 ppm |
| Prep station lighting | 50 foot-candles |
| Employee vomiting | Exclude |
| Employee with sore throat and fever | Restrict - exclude if serving a susceptible population |
Sixteen cards. That is most of the recall material on this exam.
Make a card for 130°F and one for 45°F. Both are real numbers in narrow contexts, and both are offered as wrong answers elsewhere. Knowing where they are right is how you know where they are wrong.
How to use them
Short and often. Five minutes several times a day beats forty minutes once.
Say the answer out loud before turning the card. Recognizing an answer is not recalling it, and the difference only shows up under exam conditions.
Move the ones you get right to a slower pile. Time spent on cards you already know is time not spent on the ones you do not.
Paper or app
Either. Paper wins in a kitchen, because an index card in an apron pocket comes out at moments a phone should not.
Common questions
How should food safety flashcards be written?
Food or situation on the front, number and reason on the back. Cards with the number on the front train recognition, and the exam never gives you a number and asks what it is for.
Why include the reason on the card?
It lets you rebuild a number you have half forgotten and handle a food that was not on any card. Ground beef is 155°F because grinding mixes the surface through the product.
How many cards do you need?
About sixteen covers most of the recall material - the four cooking temperatures, holding, cooling, reheating, date marking, three sanitizer ranges, lighting and the exclusion rules.
Should you make cards for the distractors?
Yes. 130°F for roasts and 45°F for shell eggs are real numbers in narrow contexts and wrong answers everywhere else. Knowing where they are right is how you recognize where they are not.
Paper cards or an app?
Either works. Paper has one practical advantage in a kitchen: an index card in an apron pocket comes out at moments when a phone would not be appropriate.