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.
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.
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, the topic of our first SafeBites webinar for 2021 is on the topic of the return on investment of food safety, it is scheduled for January 20, so register now and please plan to attend.
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.
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
