Food safety principles and the FAT TOM acronym

Food safety principles and the FAT TOM acronym

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Vegetable garden cook

When I was in culinary school, one of my first tasks was becoming a ServSafe certified cook. The most memorable thing I took away from that course was the FATTOM acronym (because Fat Tom is so easy to remember), and I am going to share it with you now. Each letter represents a critical factor in food safety.

F–stands for food. Especially protein rich food, such as meat, eggs, milk. But any type of calorie can contribute to pathogens in food.

A–stands for acidity. Most pathogens require relatively neutral acidity to grow. Unfortunately for us, most of our food also has a neutral acidity.

T--stands for time. Organisms need time to grow, and in the case of bacteria, they divide. The longer the food sits around prior to being consumed, the more likely it is to have more bacteria that have developed.

T–stands for temperature. Organisms rapidly multiply at temperatures that are inside of the temperature danger zone, which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Note that refrigerating or freezing will only slow down pathogens–not stop them.

O–stands for oxygen. Most organisms will produce in oxygen rich environments (the big “except” rule on this one is botulism, but botulism is very sensitive to acidity).

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