Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)

Completing the self-assessment questions in the open learning module is a valuable way of testing your own understanding.  To help you with this we have extracted all of the SAQs from the hygiene open learning module so that you can print them out without having to print the entire module.

Ideally you will bring along your completed SAQs to your food hygiene exam.

  SAQ23

Write in the spaces provided what you think the words mean.

Check your answers with mine after you’ve finished.

a.	Hygienic
b.	Clean
c.	Bacteria
d.	Dirty
e.	Harmful

a.		

b.		

c.		

d.		

e.		

  SAQ2	
a.	How do bacteria multiply and reproduce?	
b.	How many bacteria would it take to fill a space the size of a 	pinhead?
	1,000,000
	10,000,000
	500,000,000
c.	If 500 million bacteria could divide every 20 minutes, 	how many would there be after one hour?	

a.	

	
b.	
	
c.	

Now try and answer these questions.  
SAQ 38	
Write down whether you agree or disagree with the following      statements and give your reasons for your answers:	
	
a.	Bacteria only multiply under ideal conditions.	

b. Bacteria need special foods and conditions before they can multiply	

c. Bacteria drown in water	

d. Food poisoning bacteria are naturally found on food.	

	
e. Food poisoning is caused by bad luck.	

  SAQ4	
Write down four ways of preventing bacteria from multiplying to large numbers.	

	

	

  SAQ16	
What are the two main differences between poisoning due to bacteria that poison by multiplying in the body after eating food and bacteria which produce a toxin in the food before it is eaten? (You'll probably need to look back and work this one out.)	
	
i.	
ii.	
SAQ26	
Above what storage temperature does mackerel develop Scombrotoxin?	

  SAQ30	
What are the main effects of bacteria on fish (as far as people are concerned)?	

	

  SAQ6	
Where, and about how many times is fish exposed to possible contamination by handling between catching and eating?	

	

SAQ36	
What guarantees does the customer in a restaurant have that the food they are about to eat is not a danger to their health?	

	

  SAQ10	
How is personal hygiene different from other areas of clean food handling?	

	

  SAQ1	
a.	Why did we say that people are bacterially dirty?
b.	Why is it impossible to clean people satisfactorily?	
	
a.	
	
b.	

  SAQ53	
Why is routine cleaning better than cleaning either when required or when you feel like it?	

	

SAQ32	
a.	Why is handwashing the single most important part of personal hygiene?
b.	How often should you wash your hands?	
	
a.	
	
b.	

  SAQ20	
a.		What are the requirements for protective clothing?
b.		What should you do about your hair?	
	
a.	
	
b.	

  SAQ13	
a.		What should you do about cuts, grazes and boils?
b.		What should you do if you have diarrhoea, vomiting or 	discharges?	
	
a.	
	
b.	

SAQ31	
Try and summarise the important general features of the following:
a.	Rooms and equipment used for handling fish;
b.	Materials used in construction of rooms and equipment;
c.	The layout of rooms and equipment.	
	
a.	
	
b.	
	
c.	

  SAQ42	
Why should floors have a slope built into them?	

	

  SAQ18	
Is it permissible to have toilets and waste water draining into the same sewer?	

	

  SAQ27	
Where should cleaning materials be stored?	

	

  SAQ47	
Why can gloss paint be a problem as a wall covering?	

	

  SAQ21	
What are the advantages of chlorinating water?	

	

  SAQ11	
Why should machinery be either flush to the floor or raised 25cm, or more, above it?	

	

  SAQ9	
a.	How often should offal be removed:
i.	From the handling room?
ii.	From the outside store?
b.	What features should offal bins have?	

	

	

  SAQ35	
If you are a food handler, when should you wash your hands?  
List the appropriate times.	

	

	

  SAQ44	
If you are producing cooked products what precautions do you need to take?	

	

	

  SAQ8

What is the difference between visually clean and bacterially clean?

	

  SAQ34

What does sanitising or disinfecting mean?	

	

  SAQ22 
If you wash a surface that is visually clean, what happens to the bacteria on the surface?	

	

  SAQ33
What are the three general methods of keeping bacterial numbers down (from a cleaning point of view)?	

	

  SAQ51

What should be established in every workplace and what should every employee have, in order to create an effective cleaning programme?	

	

  SAQ3

a.	What is the difference between residual and non-residual disinfectant?

	Residual disinfectants are ____________________ based.
	Non-residual disinfectants are __________ or _______ based.

b.	Name an area where each can be used.

i.	Residual	________________________________
ii.	Non-residual	________________________________	

Check your answers with ours at the back. If you got some answers wrong don't despair, read the section again. This is a difficult section and you might have to read it a few times to understand it properly.

  SAQ25
How does a detergent make water more effective for cleaning purposes?	

	

  SAQ41 
What is the most important thing to do when using a detergent?	

	

  SAQ12 
When is cold rinsing a useful thing to do?

	
	
   SAQ45 
What happens to cleaning equipment when you use it?

	

  SAQ50
Write down a general cleaning schedule, but only use a few words for each stage.

	

  SAQ14

Why can people sometimes be classified as food pests?

	

  SAQ52

If you have any sort of food pest infestation, what should you do?

	

  SAQ24

What is the common feature of all food pests?

	

  SAQ40

Which insecticides are absolutely safe to use around food?	

	

  SAQ17

How would you know you’d got an infestation of rats or mice?	

	

  SAQ15

Try to list four basic ways of avoiding infestation by food pests.	

	

  SAQ49
What is the most common danger from:
a.	Birds;
b.	Dogs;
c.	Insects.	

a.	
	
b.	
	
c.	

  SAQ54

1.	Give two examples of how fish can be polluted before landing.
2.	How does fish become tainted?
3.	What are the three main types of contamination after fish is landed.	

1.	
	
2.	
	
3.	

  SAQ29

What kind of food do food safety laws apply to?	

  SAQ5

Who has the power to enforce the legislation?	

  SAQ43

What are you required to do with outdoor clothing?	

	

  SAQ37

How does an EHO tell if a food is responsible for food poisoning?	

	

  SAQ48

What aspect of personal hygiene does the law give most attention to?	

  SAQ19

Why should seafood not be held between 5oC and 63oC?	

	

Keep the completed SAQs somewhere safe and bring along to your exam as part of the proof that you completed the online study programme.