Chapter 25 — Self-Check Quiz
Twenty-four questions. Answers in the collapsed block at the bottom. All temperatures follow the FDA
Food Code's model framing — verify against your own jurisdiction's adopted code.
Multiple choice
1. The temperature danger zone, in the FDA Food Code's framing, is:
a) 40°F–140°F b) 41°F–135°F c) 45°F–140°F d) 32°F–165°F
2. Time spent in the danger zone is:
a) counted separately for each episode b) reset whenever food is refrigerated
c) cumulative across the food's entire life d) only counted during service
3. Whole poultry must reach a minimum internal temperature of:
a) 145°F b) 155°F c) 158°F d) 165°F
4. Two-stage cooling requires the food to go from 135°F to 70°F within:
a) 1 hour b) 2 hours c) 4 hours d) 6 hours
5. A batch of stock reaches 82°F at the two-hour mark. Under the model code's framing, it has:
a) passed, because it is under 135°F b) passed, because six hours have not elapsed
c) failed stage 1 d) failed stage 2
6. In the walk-in storage order, ready-to-eat food goes:
a) on the bottom, away from drips b) on the top shelf
c) beside raw poultry for efficiency d) wherever there is room, if covered
7. Quaternary ammonium sanitizer is typically used at:
a) 12.5–25 ppm b) 50–99 ppm c) 200–400 ppm d) 1,000–5,000 ppm
8. Quat sanitizer is neutralized by:
a) cold water b) anionic detergent — soap c) stainless steel d) sunlight
9. The Big Six pathogens are grouped together because they are:
a) the six deadliest b) the six most common in restaurants
c) readily transmitted by infected food workers d) resistant to standard cooking temperatures
10. An employee reports a sore throat with a fever. Under the model code they are:
a) excluded b) restricted c) unaffected d) excluded for 24 hours only
11. "No ambient thermometer in the reach-in" is best classified as:
a) a priority item b) a priority foundation item c) a core item d) not a violation
12. A CCP is distinguished from an ordinary control point because:
a) it is written down b) a manager monitors it
c) no later step will catch the failure d) it involves a temperature
13. Under the FDA's process approach, a stock cooked Tuesday, cooled, stored, and reheated
Saturday is:
a) Process 1 b) Process 2 c) Process 3 d) exempt
14. Sesame became the ninth major U.S. food allergen by way of:
a) FALCPA b) the FASTER Act c) the Food Code d) state law only
15. Cross-contact differs from cross-contamination principally because:
a) it only occurs in the front of house b) cooking does not destroy allergens
c) it is not regulated d) it requires a written HACCP plan
16. Which of these is most likely to close a restaurant the same day?
a) a torn walk-in door gasket b) loss of hot water
c) an uncertified new hire d) an unlabeled squeeze bottle
17. When an imminent health hazard exists, the model code requires that:
a) the inspector post a closure notice b) the permit holder cease operations and notify the authority
c) the operator finish the seated tables first d) the landlord be notified within 24 hours
18. Restaurants (NAICS 722) and OSHA recordkeeping:
a) must keep the 300 log like everyone else b) are fully exempt from all OSHA requirements
c) are partially exempt from routine 300-log recordkeeping but must still report severe injuries
d) report only to the health department
19. A work-related in-patient hospitalization must be reported to OSHA within:
a) 8 hours b) 24 hours c) 72 hours d) 30 days
20. A workers' compensation experience modification factor of 1.15 following a claim typically
affects premium for:
a) the month of the claim b) one year c) about three years d) permanently
Short answer
21. A cook probes a hearth-roasted chicken in the breast and reads 168°F. Why is that not the
reading that matters, and where should the probe go?
22. A two-gallon sanitizer bucket dosed at 200 ppm is topped up with plain water when it falls to
one gallon, twice over a shift. What is the concentration at the end, and what is the correct
practice instead?
23. Bellwether runs a 22-item menu against nine allergens. How many cells are in the allergen
matrix, and roughly how many cell-verifications a year does a four-times-a-year menu change plus
three monthly substitutions generate? What does that imply about update cadence?
24. Explain, in three sentences, why a refrigeration temperature log is worth more than the food it
protects on the morning a walk-in is found at 46°F.
Answer key
**1.** b — 41°F to 135°F. Older materials and some adopted codes say 40°F–140°F; use your
jurisdiction's numbers, and note the tighter number is never wrong.
**2.** c — cumulative. This is why "it was only out twenty minutes" is an incomplete answer; the right
follow-up is "since when?"
**3.** d — 165°F, instantaneous, for whole and ground poultry, stuffed items, and stuffing containing
meat, fish, or poultry.
**4.** b — 2 hours for stage 1, then a further 4 hours to reach 41°F, six hours total.
**5.** c — failed stage 1. The gates are sequential; being under 135°F is irrelevant, and passing
stage 2 later does not cure it. The corrective action your written procedure specifies — commonly
reheat to 165°F and restart the clock once, or discard — applies.
**6.** b — top shelf. Storage order runs by minimum internal cooking temperature, lowest on top, so
that anything that drips lands on food that will get hotter than the thing that dripped.
**7.** c — 200–400 ppm, per the manufacturer's label, roughly 30 seconds of contact at about 75°F.
**8.** b — soap. Quats are cationic; anionic detergent neutralizes them, which is why a poorly rinsed
bucket makes expensive water. Hard water above roughly 500 ppm also knocks them down.
**9.** c — transmissibility by food workers, which is why the Code attaches reporting, exclusion, and
restriction requirements to them. It is not a ranking of frequency or severity.
**10.** b — restricted: may work, but not with exposed food, clean equipment, or single-service items.
Vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice are exclusions.
**11.** b — priority foundation. The thermometer does not control temperature; it enables the
monitoring that does. A Pf violation is a P violation waiting to happen.
**12.** c — a critical control point is the last place the hazard can be controlled. Calling everything
critical is how a plan becomes theater.
**13.** c — Process 3, complex food preparation: it crosses the danger zone more than once (cook, cool,
reheat), which is where the outbreaks are.
**14.** b — the FASTER Act, effective January 1, 2023.
**15.** b — there is no kill step for an allergen, so the only control is separation, from receiving to
the plate.
**16.** b — loss of hot water. Without it there is no compliant handwashing and no warewashing, so
every downstream control fails. The other three are violations, not hazards.
**17.** b — the duty falls on the permit holder to immediately discontinue operations and notify the
regulatory authority. Closure is something you are required to do, not only something done to you.
**18.** c — partially exempt from routine injury-and-illness recordkeeping, but every employer must
report a fatality within 8 hours and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye
within 24 hours. Exemption from paperwork is not exemption from the duty.
**19.** b — 24 hours. A fatality is 8 hours.
**20.** c — about three years. That is what makes a single claim more expensive than the claim: on a
\$12,035 premium, a 1.00 → 1.15 mod is \$1,805.25 a year, roughly \$5,416 over three.
**21.** The breast comes up first and reads high; the thigh is the last part to reach temperature, and
bone reads hot and will lie to you. Probe the thickest part of the thigh, not touching bone, and hold
until the display stops moving.
**22.** 200 ppm in one gallon spread through two gallons is 100 ppm; repeat and it is **50 ppm** —
below the label range and doing essentially nothing while looking, smelling, and feeling identical.
Correct practice: **change the bucket, never top it up** — dump and remake at least every four hours
or whenever visibly soiled, test at every change-out, initial the log, and keep the strips on a string
next to the bucket.
**23.** 22 × 9 = **198 cells.** Four menu changes replacing ~9 items each is 36 × 9 = 324 cells
rewritten; ~3 substitutions a month is another 36 items × 9 = 324 cells re-verified; about **648
cell-verifications a year on a 198-cell document** — roughly 3.3 turnovers a year, meaning something
changes more than once a week. Seasonal updating is therefore not enough: the matrix must be updated
in the same change-control step that triggers a re-cost, by one named owner, versioned and dated.
**24.** At 46°F the only question is how long the food has been out of temperature control. Product
with documented recent history at or below 41°F is frequently salvageable by rapid re-cooling;
product of unknown duration is not, and in the modeled Bellwether case that distinction is worth
\$1,501.80. A log costs about nine dollars a year in paper and ninety seconds a shift, which makes it
the highest-return document in the building on exactly one morning — and you never know which morning.