ServSafe Food Handler Practice Test 7: Service & Special Situations

Questions, answers (marked ✓) and explanations are below. For the interactive version, enable JavaScript.

1. A restaurant serves hamburgers cooked to order (some undercooked). The menu must include:

   • A photo of the burger
   • A consumer advisory about the risk of eating raw or undercooked food
   • A spicy-food warning
   • Nothing extra

   When an operation serves raw or undercooked animal foods (like a rare burger), the menu must carry a consumer advisory, a reminder disclosure and a note that these items can raise the risk of foodborne illness.

2. Which food may be re-served to another customer?

   • Bread from the bread basket
   • An unopened, prepackaged bag of crackers
   • Salsa left in a ramekin
   • A garnish that wasn't eaten

   Only unopened, prepackaged food in good condition (like sealed crackers or condiment packets) may be re-served. Anything unwrapped, plated or exposed to a customer must be thrown out.

3. Which TWO protect food at a self-service or salad bar?

   • Sneeze guards (food shields) over the food
   • A clean plate for each return trip
   • A shared serving spoon left in each pan overnight
   • A tip jar on the counter

   Self-service areas need sneeze guards to block contamination from customers, and guests must take a clean plate each time they return, reusing a dirty plate carries pathogens back to the food.

4. Ice that was used to keep a container of food cold can then be:

   • Used in a customer's drink
   • Not used as an ingredient or in drinks, it must be discarded
   • Reused if it still looks clean
   • Saved in the freezer for later

   Ice used as a coolant is never used as food. Once it has chilled containers of food or drink, it must be discarded, not scooped into someone's beverage.

5. The water used in a food operation must come from:

   • Any nearby well
   • An approved, drinkable (potable) source
   • Collected rainwater
   • Bottled water only

   All water for food prep, cooking, ice and handwashing must be from an approved, potable source. Unsafe water can contaminate everything it touches.

6. A customer vomits in the dining room. The correct response is to:

   • Wipe it up with a napkin
   • Follow the operation's written clean-up procedure for vomit and diarrhea
   • Spray air freshener and continue
   • Ignore it if it's small

   Vomit and diarrhea can spread norovirus explosively. Operations must have a written procedure, contain the area, use proper PPE and disinfectant, and discard exposed food, and staff must follow it.

7. Garbage containers in food prep areas should be:

   • Made of cardboard for easy disposal
   • Leak-proof, with tight-fitting lids, and cleaned regularly
   • Left open for quick access
   • Stored on the prep table

   Indoor garbage containers must be leak-proof, pest-proof (tight lids) and cleaned often, and removed before they overflow, otherwise they attract pests and contaminate the area.

8. To read accurately, a bimetallic stem thermometer should be inserted into the food up to its:

   • Very tip
   • Dimple (the mark on the stem)
   • Base near the dial
   • Halfway, regardless of the food

   A bimetallic thermometer senses temperature along the stem up to the dimple, so the stem must be inserted at least to that mark, into the thickest part of the food.

9. Ready-to-eat TCS food that will be held longer than 24 hours must be:

   • Frozen immediately
   • Date-marked with a use-by date
   • Labeled with the cook's name
   • Salted

   Ready-to-eat TCS food held more than 24 hours needs a date mark showing when it must be used or discarded, no more than 7 days at 41°F, counting the prep day as day 1.

10. Which TWO practices are unsafe?

    • Touching ready-to-eat food with bare hands
    • Tasting food with a spoon that's returned to the pot
    • Wearing a clean hair restraint
    • Washing hands before putting on gloves

    Bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food is not allowed, use gloves, tongs or deli tissue. And a tasting spoon must never go back into the food after it touches your mouth; use a fresh one each time.