Emergency Preparedness and Responding to a Disaster with Food Safety in Mind
As I write the first blog this month, the realities of the devastation in Florida are coming to light as we also deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, which impacted Puerto Rico late in September. Recent news has been focused on the recovery efforts for all who have been impacted. Thus, I thought it would be fitting this month to discuss emergency disaster planning resources in our first blog and delve into recovering from a disaster in our second blog later this month.
We’ve certainly discussed being prepared for disasters in previous blogs, but times like this can be a great reminder to update your emergency plan or begin to get your plan on paper if you haven’t already.
The simple fact is that if you are in business long enough, you WILL be impacted by an emergency or disaster. It is only a question of when it will happen. These situations, even if they do not disrupt your operation, can certainly make serving food in a safe manner challenging. Further, some of our businesses, especially schools and healthcare operations, must continue feeding and do not always have the ability to close during emergency situations. Thus, having a solid plan is imperative to protecting our guests, students, and/or patients.
…your plan should be developed with your operation, your employees, and your area of the country in mind.
Power outages, lack of potable water, flooding, sewage backups, and fires are all issues that might impact any of us. Giving each of these situations some thought ahead of time alleviates the confusion and simple mistakes that can be made if you are responding ‘on-the-fly’ to these types of situations. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” and those words can certainly ring true in emergency planning.
If you are new to emergency planning and/or haven’t given much thought to your emergency plan in recent years, start today! Each foodservice business is unique, so it is important that you develop a plan for YOUR operation. Yes, there are many resources available on the topic from which you can start, but don’t just download one and call it good. These resources will give you some things to think about that may not have crossed your mind previously. But your plan should be developed with your operation, your employees, and your area of the country in mind.
Here are a few resources to checkout:
- Emergency Action Plan for Retail Food Establishments
- An in-depth resource developed by the Emergency Preparedness Committee of the Conference for Food Protection with a very detailed guide that will provide you with lots of details from the food code on how to develop your plan.
- Food Safety Emergency Response Pocket Guide: Disaster Edition.
- Developed by the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service Office of Food Safety and the Institute of Child Nutrition, specifically for child nutrition programs, the guide is applicable across all segments of foodservice and is a resource from which to start.
- Food Safety Guidance for Operators During an Emergency.
- Developed by the Alaska Division of Environmental Health Food Safety and Sanitation program, this guide provides a good roadmap for how to plan and how to reopen following an emergency.
- Emergency Action Planning Guidance for Food Production Facilities.
- Published by the New Jersey Department of Health, this resource provides some great information on the issues you might face during an emergency and what alternative procedures might be for you to pursue. It is about 10 years old now, but it is still a good starting resource.
Now is the time to start planning. Don’t wait until you’re in the eye of a storm to start thinking about it. It is human nature to think that it won’t happen to us, but the statistics lead us to believe that it will, it is just a matter of time. When you are facing an emergency situation, you will be glad you spent some time in 2022 developing your plan.
We are in the midst of planning our next SafeBites Webinar for the 4th quarter of the year. If you have any topics, you’d like to see address, please reach out and let us know. Likewise, if you have any food safety questions, we are just a quick email away. Risk Nothing.
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.
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.
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 “it is their job, they should just do it”, it really isn’t that simple. We can’t order people to change, although if we could, business and human resources would be so much simpler.
Getting Your Playbook for Food Safety Organized
As anyone who has ever worked in a foodservice operation knows, from the time food is received in your establishment to the time it is served to your customers, following proper food safety practices is crucial. What many don’t often think about is this time really should extend from the time the manager places their orders with their suppliers (including which purveyors you utilize), through the time the food is consumed – even if that consumption occurs off your premises and days after the original order was picked up by the guest. This is something that has certainly been highlighted by the pandemic as customers across the nation are utilizing take-out, curbside to go, and third-party delivery options more so now than ever before.
