E. coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes…oh my!

Last month, I blogged a bit about the human factor in food safety. In the foodservice management realm, I do think the human factor is our biggest challenge, day in, day out. While the human factor is a major contributor to most foodborne illness outbreaks, we can’t forget about the microbial enemy we face on a daily basis. Late in April, the International Journal of Infectious Diseases published a report from a group of researchers in the United Kingdom. The report outlined the results of an investigation of a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 outbreak between August 3 and August 16, 2020 in the United Kingdom. While we don’t often focus on outbreaks in other countries, this was of particular note, because it was...

The Human Factor and Food Safety

A few weeks ago, we discussed the top five causes of foodborne illness, 1) Improper hot/cold holding temperatures of time and temperature control for safety foods; 2) Improper cooking temperatures of food; 3) Dirty and/or contaminated utensils and equipment; 4) Poor employee health and hygiene; and 5) Food from unsafe sources. As I noted, all of these items are not in the direct control of your staff, but most can be.  For the second blog this month, I wanted to discuss a bit more about the human factor in our food safety programs. Whenever you walk into any foodservice operation as a customer, you will often see the obligatory wall of food safety certification certificates, assuring customers of the commitment the managers and employees have...

What is the Greatest Threat to Food Safety?

What is the Greatest Threat to Food Safety? Last week, I sat in on a webinar about the future of the foodservice industry, post-COVID.  Of course, most of it is speculation, but it was interesting to hear the different perspectives on where the industry is heading and how the impact of COVID will be felt for years to come.  One common theme discussed was whether working from home would become more prevalent. This, in turn, can have a profound impact on the traffic patterns in most operations, including quick service and fast casual restaurants. Of course, as operators, you would welcome them back at any time of the day – as long as they come back!  As more and more individuals receive the COVID vaccine,...

Food Safety Considerations for the “New Way” of Dining, Part II – Back-of-house

In our first blog this month, we discussed the importance of front-of-house practices as we emerge from the pandemic this summer and into fall.   Making your guests feel safe will be an important point as we welcome them back to our establishment.  The safer they feel, the more likely they are to revisit and this could, in turn, be a competitive advantage for your business. For this blog, I’d like to focus on more of what we might do in back-of-house operations. Frankly, this is a much harder blog to write, because most foodservice operations already have a solid food safety program and most of these common food safety practices will help protect our guests and ourselves from the Coronavirus.  But, as we emerge from...

Food Safety Considerations for the “New Way” of Dining

Spring is my favorite time of year, as we head out of the winter months, welcome warmer weather, and increase the daylight hours.  As such, we turnover a new leaf and welcome new life as our grass, trees, and perennials come out of dormancy. This year as the Coronavirus vaccine continues its roll out and we welcome a third vaccine onto the market this morning, perhaps this spring we are turning over a ‘new leaf’ in a much more profound way, as we see light at the end of the Coronavirus tunnel. If you work in a school, restaurant, or other on-site foodservice operation, much of your last year has been figuring out ways to serve your customer through carry-out, curbside delivery, or via at-home...

Developing Good Food Safety Habits

Good habits and habit development are something that has fascinated me for several years. If you’ve attended any the training programs or presentations that my colleagues and I have conducted through our Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs, you’ve likely heard me opine about the importance of habits and how habits are created. Many times, in foodservice operations we wonder why our staff don’t follow the food safety practices we have established in our operation. Perhaps they don’t wash their hands when they are required, perhaps they just don’t use the proper method of handwashing, or perhaps we find that they don’t complete our HACCP logs as often as our program dictates should occur. And while we can stomp our feet and say...

Getting Started with Building the Infrastructure

Hopefully in our first January blog, we convinced you of the importance of establishing an infrastructure within your operation to support a safe food culture. So, how does one go about doing this? Well, like any major project, break it into small bites. In our opinion, having a written guide for employees that documents expectations related to food safety basics of employee health and hygiene, temperature controls, and cleaning and sanitizing is the first step. Having this documentation serves as a reference for training and helps fulfill the mission of most foodservice operators which is to serve safe, quality food. We suggest working on one section at a time. For instance, gather materials currently used with staff that address employee health and hygiene measures. Take...

Food Safety Resolutions for the New Year

Finally, 2020 is in our rearview mirror and we can all turn the page to 2021! Resolutions for the new year might be more of the same from prior years (lose weight, exercise more, less screen time, etc.) OR you may have identified new practices to implement in your operation. If the latter, likely goals included some practices related to food safety – especially given the turmoil of 2020 and heightened concern by customers. It is our philosophy that attention to safe food handling practices is a win-win for any operation because of the direct relationship between food safety and food quality, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. This past year has also demonstrated that attention to safety can affect the bottom line. Thus,...

To Toss or Not to Toss? That is the question.

Our first blog for the month emphasized the basic safe food practices needed to keep you and your guests healthy (and happy!), especially during these times of COVID. The impact of foodborne illness can range from an uncomfortable few days to hospitalization or death. Foodborne illness IS preventable and the steps taken to keep food safe also maintain quality of food, and ultimately profitability. Think of attention to food safety as part of quality control and a win-win business strategy. Knowledge about food safety can be helpful when controlling costs as making wise decisions when determining the fate of unserved food can affect the bottom line. “When in doubt, throw it out”. You’ve likely all heard this old adage one too many times. This saying...

Holiday Food Safety Controls

In case you have not noticed - the holidays are here! We have seen store decorations up since mid-September and early bird deals advertised for several weeks, stretching the typical Black Friday deals throughout the month as retailers strive to ensure market share, while following increasingly stringent mandates for physical distancing Typically, foodservice operations are very busy during the holiday season, catering parties and hosting gatherings. With reduced capacity allowances, limits on gatherings, and social distancing, chances are this stream of revenue will be less than in previous years. As operators, regardless of type of foodservice, the focus continues on safety, quality, and ultimately profitability. And with the COVID pandemic still in full throttle (although it appears a vaccine may become available later this month),...