Red Seal Cook exam · Area A

Hygiene, sanitation and safety

13 of the 150 questions on the Red Seal Cook exam. Workplace safety, personal hygiene, and the food safety practices that keep guests safe.

What this area covers

In the Red Seal Occupational Standard for Cook, hygiene, sanitation and safety is major work activity A. Its 2 tasks carry these shares of the exam, according to the official exam breakdown:

A-1 Safety and hygiene

5 questions

Safe work environment, PPE and safety equipment, WHMIS, fire safety, safe lifting, and personal hygiene.

Workers also have duties: follow safe procedures, use the PPE provided, and report hazards and injuries.
Long shifts on your feet are a strain too: wear supportive non-slip shoes, use anti-fatigue mats where available, and change position often.

A-2 Food safety procedures

8 questions

The danger zone and temperature monitoring, rapid cooling, re-thermalizing, preventing cross-contamination (including allergens), cleaning and sanitizing, and HACCP.

Time and temperature are the two factors a cook controls on every shift.
Ground meat needs a higher temperature than a whole steak because grinding spreads surface bacteria all through the meat.

Free hygiene, sanitation and safety practice questions

Try these exam-style questions, then open each one to check your answer and read why it is right.

Question 1 · Task A-1
Occupational health and safety laws across Canada give workers three basic rights. What are they?
- A.The right to know, the right to participate, and the right to refuse unsafe work
- B.The right to choose their own PPE, to set their own breaks, and to refuse any task
- C.The right to know, the right to participate, and the right to refuse any task they dislike
- D.The right to a safety inspection, to paid sick days, and to choose their own PPE
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Answer: A. The right to know, the right to participate, and the right to refuse unsafe work
Workers in every Canadian jurisdiction have the right to know about hazards, the right to participate in health and safety, and the right to refuse work they believe is unsafe. The right to refuse covers unsafe work only, not any task a worker does not want to do, and the refusal is reported to the supervisor so the hazard can be checked.
Question 2 · Task A-2
What is the temperature range of the danger zone used in Canadian commercial kitchens?
- A.0°C to 50°C
- B.4°C to 60°C
- C.10°C to 70°C
- D.-18°C to 4°C
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Answer: B. 4°C to 60°C
The danger zone is 4°C to 60°C, where bacteria grow fastest. Cold food is held at 4°C or below and hot food at 60°C or above. -18°C is the frozen storage standard, not a danger zone boundary.
Question 3 · Task A-1
During a busy dinner service, a cook knocks a container of fryer oil onto the floor of the line. What should the cook do?
- A.Put a side towel over the oil and clean it up after service
- B.Ask the dishwasher to mop it at closing
- C.Warn others, put out a wet-floor sign, and clean it up right away
- D.Keep working carefully and step around it until the rush is over
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Answer: C. Warn others, put out a wet-floor sign, and clean it up right away
A spill is a slip hazard the moment it happens, so the cook warns coworkers, places a wet-floor sign and cleans it up immediately, using an absorbent and a degreaser for oil. A towel over the spill still leaves a slippery surface, and waiting until later leaves the hazard in the busiest part of the kitchen.
Question 4 · Task A-2
A cook has 20 L of beef stock at 90°C to cool for tomorrow. Which method cools it most safely?
- A.Put the covered stockpot directly into the walk-in cooler
- B.Leave it on the stove with the burner off until it reaches room temperature
- C.Divide it into shallow containers, set them in an ice bath and stir
- D.Put the stockpot in the freezer overnight
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Answer: C. Divide it into shallow containers, set them in an ice bath and stir
Shallow containers in an ice bath with stirring remove heat fastest, which is what the two-stage cooling limits require. A full, covered stockpot cools far too slowly, even in a walk-in or freezer, and raises the temperature of the food around it. Leaving it on the stove keeps it in the danger zone for hours.
Question 5 · Task A-1
The label on a new oven cleaner shows a WHMIS pictogram of liquid pouring onto a hand and onto a metal bar. What does this pictogram warn about?
- A.The product is flammable
- B.The product can burn skin and eyes and damage metal
- C.The product is a gas under pressure
- D.The product can cause long-term health effects such as cancer
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Answer: B. The product can burn skin and eyes and damage metal
This is the corrosion pictogram. Corrosive products such as oven cleaners and degreasers can cause severe skin burns and eye damage and eat into metal, so the cook wears chemical-resistant gloves and eye protection. Flammable products show a flame, and long-term health effects are shown by the health hazard pictogram of a person with a starburst on the chest.

Red Seal Ready Cook Course

Master hygiene, sanitation and safety for the exam

The course has a full lesson for every task in this area, a practice set with an explanation for every answer, and a timed unit test with the same number of questions as the real exam. One topic in every area is free to try.

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