Safe Food Handling Starts with your Employees

Week two of National Food Safety Education Month is well underway. This week’s topic includes tips on proper food handling by employees. The free training activities offered at www.ServSafe.com/NFSEM teach employees how to avoid touching their bodies and then touching food, and how to use gloves correctly.

This week kicks of National Food Safety Education Month. If you haven’t checked out the free resources available from the NFSEM’s website, you really should. You can download free posters and materials to help remind your staff of the importance of safe food handling.

The weekly ten minute training activities are a great way to reinforce food safety education. The activities are great to incorporate into your establishment’s training program and since they are designed to be completed quickly they are also ideal for refreshers during staff meetings.

This week’s exercise deals with the proper way to handle a visit from the health inspector. Be sure to download your free activity sheet today!

Stay Safe with Products from Serv-U

In honor of National Food Service Education Month, I thought it would be good to highlight a few of our more popular food safety-related products.

Saf-T-Ice® Tote
With a new and improved design, this durable polycarbonate container is intended for the sanitary transporting of ice while controlling cross contamination.

Saf-T-Scoop™ System
This ice scoop features a germ guard to prevent contact between hands and food.

Food Rotation and Storage Labels
Never guess on the age of something in your refrigerator or storage room. When used properly food storage labels will let you know when an ingredient or product is no longer safe to use or serve.

Color Coded Cutting Boards
Reduce the risk of cross-contamination by taking the guesswork out of using the right board during food preparation.

Kleen Pails™
Color-coded pails allow you to distinguish between pails for soap and cleaning solutions and sanitizing solutions.

Lessons Learned from the Health Inspection

September is National Food Safety Education Month, and this year’s theme is “Lessons Learned from the Health Inspection”. The National Restaurant Association is kicking off a month-long initiative to encourage restaurant and foodservice operators to renew their commitment to food safety by raising awareness of the importance of education and training.

National Food Safety Education Month was created in 1994 to heighten awareness about the importance of food safety education. Each year a new theme and free training activities and posters are created for the restaurant and foodservice industry to help reinforce proper food safety practices and procedures. Visit the NFSEM website for more information on how you can implement this year’s activities and materials in your foodservice establishment.

Food safety is the one of the top priorities in the food service industry. Nothing can destroy a restaurant faster than food borne illness as a result of poor food safety techniques. Here at Serv-U, we strive to not only supply our customers with top quality restaurant equipment, bar supplies, restaurant supplies, and bar equipment, but we also recognize the importance of sharing food industry information. Today we present the eleven rules for improving food safety in your restaurant. You’ve seen them before, but they are well worth repeating:

1. Educate all employees in the technique of proper hand washing. Provide a soft nailbrush to clean fingertips and instill the importance of washing hands for twenty seconds. Keep track of your employees’ hand washing techniques and encourage proper hand washing practices.
2. Require strict personal hygiene practices. Every employee should have a clean uniform and proper hair covers. Items such as jewelry and false nails should not be worn in the work area and any crew member that is ill should be removed from any task that would require them to handle foods.
3. Encourage a policy of not using bare hands when in contact with prepared food. Instead invest in restaurant supplies that will promote this policy; such as disposable gloves, clean utensils or paper wraps to handle all ready-to-eat foods.
4. Obtain food and restaurant supplies from reputable approved sources. Food should be inspected for spoilage and temperatures should be checked during all stages of preparation. This includes when food is received from the supplier, is placed in cold storage and is being prepared on the prep tables. If there is any question that food or restaurant supplies have been contaminated, properly dispose of them immediately.
5. Identify all potentially hazardous foods on your menu and keep them as cold as possible during storage and preparation. An internal food temperature ranging from 35 to 38°F is optimal; never higher than 41°F. Keep frozen food at a temperature of 0°F. Safely thaw foods a day in advance under refrigeration.
6. To prevent cross-contamination observe time & temperature guidelines when storing and handling prepared food. Label prepared foods with product, preparation date and time, and optimal temperature.
7. Keep foods out of the danger zone (41° to 140°F). Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold! Teach all restaurant employees to use temperature charts and a stem thermometer. Check food temperature in two places -- the thickest portion and the center. Sanitize the thermometer stem before and after each use with the proper restaurant supplies such as an alcohol swab.
8. Cook and heat-process food to above recommended minimum temperatures (usually 145°F, 155°F or165°F depending on the food). Memorize your minimum cooking temperatures. Post a chart in an easy to locate place for all your restaurant employees.
9. Rapidly chill hot food to below 41°F within 4-6 hours! Techniques to reduce cooling time include using an ice bath or shallow pans, cutting or reducing food, stirring food and keeping food uncovered. Be sure to check local regulations.
10. Reheat food to 165°F + within 2 hours and hold at this temperature for 15 seconds. Hold hot foods at 140°F.
11. Avoid cross-contamination of raw and ready-to-eat foods by hands, utensils and restaurant equipment. Wash, rinse and sanitize all food that comes in contact with restaurant equipment. Keep raw products separate from ready-to-eat foods.

If you would like to learn more about how Serv-U can help you improve your restaurants food safety techniques, please call us at 1-800-797-3788 or chat with us online by clicking the “live chat” icon in the upper left hand corner of each page.

It’s an unfortunate fact that holiday season coincides with flu season. If you’ll be feeding the crowds this year, it’s important to put a focus on safe food handling so that diners leave your restaurant still feeling festive.

One of the best ways to prevent food poisoning is placing an emphasis on proper hand washing. Taking time to train your employees in technique could save you from contributing to the spread of food borne illness. Here are a few tips and tools to ensure healthy handling:

-Employees should wash their hands after using the washroom, touching their hair or clothing; sneezing or coughing; eating, drinking or smoking; taking out the trash; or busing tables.

-Crank up the heat on your sink. Use water as hot as you can comfortably stand, ideally 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

-Soap dispensers should be well stocked and employees should aim for a quarter-sized amount of liquid soap.

-Apply lots of friction to your palms, fingers and fingertips and don’t forget to scrub your forearms.

-Wash for about 20 seconds, or the amount of time it takes to sing 2 choruses of Happy Birthday.

-Rinse the soap off your hands and wipe them thoroughly with clean paper towels.

-Use the same paper towel to turn off the faucet and promptly discard it in the trash.

Enforce the rule of no bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods and the practice of hand washing by hanging up signs to remind your employees.

Even the cleanest hands are not as safe as disposable gloves. Investing in a box may be the best way to ensure that your employees are not spreading food borne illness to holiday patrons.

Ask any restaurant owner what their top five concerns related to the operation of their business is and you’ll most likely hear food safety come up as one of those items. So why is food safety so important? The obvious answer is; so the customers don’t get sick. While that is one of the main reasons that food safety is so important but making sure health inspector visits go smoothly is also toward the top of the list. Food safety may seem like an overwhelming task, but with these eight easy suggestions you’ll quickly be on the right path:

1. Store cooked and ready-to-eat foods above raw food

2. Prepare food in batches

3. Replace or sanitize buffet utensils every 1/2 hour

4. Never thaw at room temperature

5. Use products such as blast chillers and cooling paddles to cool food, not freezers and refrigerators

6. Create a daily cleaning and maintenance checklist and schedule

7. Have frequent employee training sessions on food safety

8. Ask your foodservice equipment and supply dealer for help. Many dealers have received formal training on food safety. They can provide cost-effective products that support a HACCP program as well as valuable information on constantly changing safety rules and regulations

If you have additional questions regarding food safety, feel free to contact us via phone at 800-797-3788 or click the picture of the customer service representative at the top left corner of each page of the site to launch a live chat.

Without a quality kitchen thermometer, speculation is your only option when attempting to serve your guests succulent beef roasts and tender turkey.  If you no longer want the chef playing a guessing game, waiting until the arbitrary timer buzzes or cutting into breast meat to determine if the dish is "done," then it’s time to invest in the essential kitchen tool—a meat thermometer. There are a wide variety of thermometers available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

When picturing a food thermometer, the image that typically comes to mind is a dial thermometer. Though the least expensive option, it can be a challenge to get a correct reading from the face of these thermometers. Temperature is taken through a probe inserted 2 to 2 ½ inches into the food, which means that dial thermometers are ideal for juicy roasts and thick cuts of meat.  

Some dial thermometers can be inserted into the meat before it goes into the oven and keep a constant read. These oven-safe thermometers show temperature in 1 to 2 minutes, but are sometimes accused of causing false high reads due to heat conduction of the metal steam.  A waterproof model may be a good investment in a steamy environment. Other dial thermometers are instant-read for a quick and easy method of monitoring temperature, within 15 to 20 seconds of poking your food product. Be careful to make the distinction between oven-safe and instant-read to avoid serving your lamb with a topping of melted thermometer.

Digital thermometers provide better readability and can improve the accuracy of your cooking and perfect the pot roast. Many have Quick Tip technology on the end of the 1.5 millimeter, FDA-recommended probe. This means that the tip is sensitive enough that you can take the temperature by just inserting the probe ½ an inch into your bird. Shallow reading makes the digital thermometer conducive to use on thin foods.

The screen of a digital thermometer is also easy to wipe clean, so you can keep up with the health inspector’s sanitation requirements. No matter which style of thermometer you are using, it is essential to clean the probe thoroughly between uses. Probe wipes can be a great tool to make this process quick and simple.

For an extremely precise reading in the quickest time, the best option is a thermocouple thermometer. Thermocouple needle probes bring you the temperature of your beef practically instantaneously and are NSF listed. Waterproof models are ideal for use in harsh wet and steam-filled kitchens. Though this is a more expensive option, it is also the most professional thermometer on the market.

Once you have narrowed it down to the proper model, your next concern is making sure the thermometer you buy will be accurate. The number one issue of health inspectors is food temperature.  The fastest way to have your business closed, other than by a heath inspector, is lawsuits and lost business from a mass food poisoning.  Unfortunately, most of us in the foodservice industry know someone who was negatively impacted by a food poisoning issue.  All this can be prevented by carefully calibrating your thermometer using one of these two techniques:

• Ice Point Method: Fill an insulated container with a mixture of crushed ice and water to create a 32 degree environment. Insert the thermometer to the appropriate immersion depth, and wait for a Fahrenheit temperature model to read 32 degrees. Adjust the thermometer accordingly if it is inaccurate. Be sure to hold the stem of the instrument at least one inch away from the bottom and sides of the container to avoid error. Your thermometer can be calibrated to within 0.1 degree using the ice point method.
• Boiling Point Method: Bring a container of water to a complete rolling boil then insert the thermometer to the appropriate immersion depth. Allow a two-inch clearance between the bottom and sides of the container and wait for a Fahrenheit temperature model to read 212 degrees. You should be able to adjust your thermometer accordingly to within 1.0 degree accuracy when tested with the boiling point method.

Now you are ready to test the temperature of your dish! In order to get an accurate reading, most health inspectors require the core temperature of the food to be measured, avoiding bones, which heat faster than the meat and will throw off your reading.

By purchasing a quality meat thermometer you are making an investment in the success of your restaurant. Just one food safety scare could have you closing your doors for good. So keep the salmonella, E. coli and other disease-causing bugs at bay, and order that meat thermometer.

For this fine Friday, we'll keep this short and sweet. 

First, news you need to know:
Tomatoes are officially on the safe-list (finally)!--But watch out for jalapenos and serrano peppers (dangit...they're my faves).

Things you might want to know:
Looking for some new ideas to drive traffic to your restaurant?  Skimming this California news article will offer you more than a few.  But be sure to check out the comments at the end of the article, too; it seems some people find the article to be more “sensationalism” than realism.  What has your experience been for the past few months?  Is the economy really dragging your business down—or is it the usual competitive foodservice climate?

Stuff that you absolutely don't need to know, but just might like:
Now, if you’re just not in the mood for economics, skip the news article and visit this site, iJam, instead.  I found a mention of it on Chowhound, and I’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty hilarious.  Have a great Friday!