415A food safety, sanitation and kitchen safety practice questions.

Five free practice questions on food safety, sanitation and kitchen safety: block A of the Red Seal 415A Cook exam, about 13 of its 150 questions. They are in the exam's format: four options, one correct answer. Answer each one before opening the explanation. No account, no email.

01The questions

1. Procedural · Prevents cross-contamination

   A hotel's walk-in cooler has one shelving unit left for cooked ham, beef striploins, ground pork and raw chicken. What order, top shelf to bottom, is correct?

   1. Cooked ham, raw chicken, ground pork, beef striploins
   2. Raw chicken, ground pork, beef striploins, cooked ham
   3. Cooked ham, beef striploins, ground pork, raw chicken
   4. Cooked ham, ground pork, beef striploins, raw chicken
   Show the answer

   C. Correct. Ready-to-eat food goes on top, then items by increasing required cooking temperature: whole cuts (63 °C), ground meat (71 °C), and raw poultry (74 to 82 °C) on the bottom. All covered, labelled and dated, and off the floor.

   Why not the others

   A. Putting raw chicken near the top lets its drip reach the ground pork and striploins. Raw poultry, with the highest cooking temperature, always goes on the bottom shelf.

   B. This is the reverse of the rule: raw chicken on top would drip onto everything below, including the ready-to-eat ham. Poultry goes lowest.

   D. Ground meat needs a higher cooking temperature (71 °C) than whole cuts (63 °C), so it sits below the striploins. Its drip would otherwise land on the whole cuts.

2. Procedural · Uses personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety equipment

   While cleaning an oven, a cook in a hospital kitchen gets a splash of alkaline oven cleaner in one eye. What is the correct first action?

   1. Rinse the eye with diluted vinegar to neutralize the alkali.
   2. Blot the eye with a clean, dry side towel and keep working.
   3. Flush it at the eye-wash station for at least 15 minutes.
   4. Flush it briefly at the hand sink, then carry on and report it later.
   Show the answer

   C. Correct. The eye-wash station is RSOS safety equipment for exactly this: hold the eyelids open and flush with tepid water for at least 15 minutes (longer if the SDS says so), then get medical attention and report it. Goggles would have prevented it.

   Why not the others

   A. Never try to neutralize a chemical in the eye; the reaction produces heat and more damage. First aid for chemical splashes is plain flowing water at an eye-wash station.

   B. Blotting leaves the chemical in contact with the eye, and alkaline cleaners keep damaging tissue until they are washed out. The eye is flushed with running water right away.

   D. A short rinse does not remove an alkaline chemical, and a hand sink is not designed for eye flushing. Use the eye-wash station for the full time, then report and follow the SDS first-aid section.

3. Critical · Cools food rapidly

   A catering kitchen's cooling log shows four batches, each at 60 °C at 13:00. Which batch met the two-stage standard (20 °C within 2 hours, then 4 °C within 4 more hours)?

   1. Soup: 20 °C at 15:00, 7 °C at 19:00
   2. Gravy: 18 °C at 14:30, 4 °C at 19:15
   3. Rice: 19 °C at 14:45, 4 °C at 18:30
   4. Chili: 24 °C at 15:00, 4 °C at 18:00
   Show the answer

   C. Correct. The rice reached 19 °C in 1 h 45 min (stage 1 met) and 4 °C 3 h 45 min after that (stage 2 met, within 4 hours). Cooked rice is a Bacillus cereus risk, so this is exactly the product that must pass.

   Why not the others

   A. The soup made the first stage right at 2 hours, but after 4 more hours it was still 7 °C, above the 4 °C limit, so it failed stage two.

   B. The gravy passed stage one in 1 h 30 min, but took 4 h 45 min to go from 18 °C to 4 °C, more than the 4 hours allowed. A fast first stage does not buy extra time for the second.

   D. The chili was still at 24 °C after two hours, so it failed the first stage even though it reached 4 °C soon after. Both stages must be met.

4. Procedural · Maintains personal hygiene

   A cook in a hospital kitchen nicks a finger while trimming vegetables. The bleeding has stopped. How should the cook return to preparing food?

   1. Wrap it in paper towel and go on working bare-handed.
   2. Cover it with a waterproof dressing and wear a glove over it.
   3. Leave it uncovered so it dries, and wash hands more often.
   4. Pull a glove over the cut with no dressing underneath.
   Show the answer

   B. Correct. The RSOS criterion is that exposed cuts are covered. A waterproof dressing (often a brightly coloured or detectable one so it can be found if lost) seals the wound, and a glove over it holds the dressing in place and keeps it out of the food.

   Why not the others

   A. Paper towel soaks through, falls off into food and does not seal the wound. An open cut can carry Staphylococcus aureus, so it is sealed with a waterproof dressing and a glove.

   C. An open wound is a source of bacteria, and handwashing does not seal it. Cover it with a waterproof dressing and a glove before handling food.

   D. A glove alone can tear, and the wound weeps inside it; when the glove comes off the cut is exposed. The cut is dressed first, then gloved.

5. Procedural · Re-thermalizes foods

   A hospital tray line needs yesterday's chilled cream of mushroom soup for noon service. How is it brought up for service?

   1. Put it cold into the steam-table well so it heats before noon.
   2. Reheat it on the range to 74 °C, then move it to the steam table.
   3. Heat it in the combi-oven until the edge of the pan reads 74 °C.
   4. Heat it on the range to 60 °C, the hot-holding minimum.
   Show the answer

   B. Correct. Reheat rapidly with a stove, combi-oven or other cooking equipment to 74 °C, stirring, confirm with a probe, then transfer to hot holding at 60 °C or higher. Holding equipment is never used to reheat.

   Why not the others

   A. A steam table is holding equipment. It heats slowly and leaves the soup in the danger zone too long. Reheat on the range first, then hold.

   C. The edge heats first; the centre can still be cold. Reheating is verified by probing the centre, or the thickest part, of the product.

   D. 60 °C is enough to hold hot food, but cooled food must first be reheated to 74 °C. Only then does it go to the steam table at 60 °C or higher.

02Answer key

03What block A covers

This block covers keeping the kitchen, the food and the people in it safe. It includes WHMIS and safety data sheets, PPE and fire extinguishers, slicer lockout, handwashing and personal hygiene, the temperature danger zone, safe cooking and holding temperatures, two-stage cooling, reheating, receiving checks, cross-contamination and allergens, and cleaning and sanitizing with test strips and dishwashers.

The Red Seal Occupational Standard names this block “Hygiene, sanitation and safety”. It carries 8.7% of the exam, about 13 of the 150 questions, split across two tasks. The share column is each task's weight within the block, as the standard publishes it.

04What the questions turn on

The danger zone and reheating

The danger zone is 4 °C to 60 °C, so cold food is held at 4 °C or lower and hot food at 60 °C or higher. Leftovers are reheated rapidly on the range to 74 °C, never in holding equipment.

Two-stage cooling

Cooked food goes from 60 °C to 20 °C within 2 hours, then to 4 °C within 4 more hours. Large batches are split into smaller containers and chilled in an ice bath with an ice wand, stirring.

Cooler shelf order

Ready-to-eat food sits on the top shelf, then raw items by rising cooking temperature: whole cuts, then ground meat, then raw poultry on the bottom. Frozen poultry thaws in its wrap on a tray on the bottom shelf.

Sanitizer strength and rinse

Rinse after washing, because detergent and soil weaken the sanitizer. Ontario's regulation sets quat at 200 ppm, chlorine at 100 ppm or hot water at 77 °C, for 45 seconds. A dishwasher final rinse below 82 °C means sanitizing by hand.

05The other blocks

The 415A exam has 13 blocks. Each has its own page of free questions:

The 415A Cook practice exam page describes the full question bank. How these questions are written and checked: how our questions are made. Found a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.