Communicating Food Safety Messages: The Follow-Up
Earlier this month, we posted our first SafeBites Webinar of 2022, Getting the Word Out: Communicating Your Organization’s Food Safety Practices, presented by Dr. Catherine Strohbehn. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it, please do. It is full of useful information on the who, what, when, and where of effective communication.
You may be asking yourself, why is it important that we communicate food safety messages with your customers? Look no further than your own perceptions of your local restaurant. Have you ever gone into an unkept bathroom in your local restaurant that is void of the soap or paper towels necessary for effective handwashing and wondered how the employees are washing their hands adequately? Or observed an employee handling ready-to-eat food items in a restaurant without gloves on their hands and wondered how safe your food really is?
As much as we’d like to think that those situations do not occur in each of our establishments, these situations are the exact reason that we need to communicate with employees how much time and effort we put into serving safe food. And let’s be real – the amount of time and effort that we do put into the service of safe food when translated into actual dollars is quite substantial, so use that to your competitive advantage!
… isn’t all about messaging to consumers, you must follow through on the promise of safe food. Remember that customers view your operation from a different lens than you or I….
Studies have shown that consumers place a great deal of trust in the industry to provide safe food and when a business fails to provide safe food and this results in a foodborne illness outbreak, the consequences can be devastating to your business. So, spend some time in the coming months determining what your communication strategy will be relative to food safety. While we realize this will not be your only message, including food safety messaging into your social media and print advertising campaigns can help build trust with your customers.
But it isn’t all about messaging to consumers, you must follow through on the promise of safe food. Remember, customers view your operation from a different lens than you or I who are in the industry will. Years ago, I remember my mother accompanying the 4-H group she was leader of on a tour at a local restaurant. The restaurant was one of the top restaurants in Eastern Iowa at the time. I don’t recall much of her comments, but I do remember she was dismayed at how dirty the kitchen was. When digging further, I realized she was upset with how dirty the floor was. Being in the industry at the time, I attempted to convey to her that while the floor was important, it was more than likely mid-shift and it would generally be swept and mopped between shifts and that it was more important to look at actual food handling behaviors and work surface cleanliness, than it was the floor. But, she kept going back to the floor cleanliness because that is what was important to her and I think she compared it to her own kitchen. Her lens was vastly different than mine and it is important to remember that with your consumers, too.
Consumers who visit your establishment and don’t see food safety practices they perceive as most important will almost always side with what they witness, versus what you say you might be doing. Check out our infographic on What Consumers Think, which outlines some visible food safety behaviors that positively influence your customers. The top behavior that inspires the most consumer confidence in food safety? Wearing clear disposable gloves! Over 55% of consumers leave more confident in your food safety behaviors if they see food handlers wash hands and change gloves.
It is important to remember that effective communication is achieved only when the customer trusts that you are knowledgably, but it must also be backed up with sound practices in the establishment. Otherwise, communicating food safety will be a fruitless endeavor. Risk Nothing.
Refrigeration Tips to Keep Your Food Safe
A refrigerator is one of the most important pieces of kitchen equipment for keeping foods safe. In a food service environment, our existence depends on the cooling equipment. The science of refrigeration has evolved from prehistoric times when man found his wild game would last longer packed in the coolness of a cave or packed in snow. Our ancestors harvested ice to keep food cold. Now, if the power goes off, we are instantly reminded of the refrigerator’s importance to our daily life, at home and certainly in a food service facility.
Food Service Hand Hygiene: Basic Handwashing – Part II
Ignoring handwashing as a priority is easy until faced with a crippling lawsuit. Your risk of transmitting a foodborne disease via a food workers hands will never be zero, but the good news is training your crew about handwashing is not complicated. Molding behavior to do it at the right time, using the correct method is the tough part. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says the single most effective way to stop the spread of infection is through handwashing. Last month’s article was on the physical equipment to help get better handwashing compliance. The most important part is the practice of the basic handwashing steps:
The Physical Elements of Food Service Hand Hygiene – Part I
September is National Food Safety Education Month and the theme has a rhyme to it – “Keep Hands Clean with Good Hygiene”. Hand washing is one of the public’s best defenses against the spread of both common and rare, even life-threatening, diseases including those caused by food, and against gastrointestinal infections caused by such organisms as the Norovirus, which plagues the cruise ship industry and food service in general.
The Incredible, Edible Egg Safety Quiz
This nutritious, delicate food is a part of many food service menus as a main course and one of the most common ingredients. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture says Americans consume an average of 234 eggs per person per year. Eggs have also been the source of some significant foodborne outbreaks in the U.S. from one specific type of Salmonella. While eggs are an important source of protein in the diet, an estimated 1 in 20,000 eggs in the U.S. supply will contain the SE (Salmonella Enteritidis) bacteria and can cause illness if eaten raw in foods or not thoroughly cooked before consumption.
