FDA has released the newest version of the Food Code
Blog by Lori Stephens based on the new FDA Food Code release.
The FDA has released an updated version of the federal Food Code – Food Code 2017.
What is the Food Code?
The Food Code is a set of requirements based on science for preparing and serving food.
The Food Code documents the best ways to prevent foodborne illness and injury. It provides guidance for restaurants, retail food stores, vending operations and food service operations, including those in schools, hospitals, nursing homes and child care centers. By following the requirements in the Food Code, these operations can eliminate the most important factors that can cause food safety hazards.
The FDA provides this document to the food industry as a tool. It is a very important fact that the FDA does not require that the Food Code be followed by local health departments and similar organizations – they describe it as “model regulation”. It can be adopted fully, or parts can be used. The FDA allow alternative requirements that offer an equivalent level of food safety.
Why the Food Code important is Important to You
This is important to our business because this document prescribes the use of single-use gloves for handling ready-to-eat food. It is the main regulatory reason restaurants and food service operations use gloves.
A ton of work goes into revising the Food Code
The FDA writes the food code with input from regulatory officials (USDA and CDC), industry, academia, and consumers at an industry meeting of the Conference for Food Protection (CFP).
The Food Code used to be updated and published every two years, the process to develop a Food Code revision is really time consuming. Due to the amount of input, edits, and science involved, the document is now revised every four years.
The effort to create this new revision started in mid-2106 and the document was just published last week. It is called the Food Code 2017 because the contents were agreed on in 2017, even though it was published in 2018. The last revision is called Food Code 2013.
What has changed in the Food Code 2017?
According to the FDA’s statement, significant changes to the Food Code 2017 include:
- Revised requirement for the “Person in Charge” to be a Certified Food Protection Manager
- New section addressing the use of bandages, finger cots or finger stalls
- Harmonized cooking times and temperatures for meat and poultry to ensure uniformity with guidance from the USDA
- Updated procedures during an extended water or electrical outage
If you want to read the Code, or share it with one of your customers, it is available on the FDA website at http://www.fda.gov/FoodCode.
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
