Food Allergy Training Resources

Earlier this month, we discussed the importance of being proactive in accommodating customers and staff with allergies.  If you read the post, hopefully the message about the importance of training staff on ways to protect guests was loud and clear!  Therefore, we devote this blog to discussing some resources available to assist in training staff about food allergies – some are free, and others cost a nominal fee. 

Most everyone involved with management of restaurants or other foodservices are aware of ServSafe® educational offerings. While it is not required, and it does cost a nominal fee, the ServSafe Allergens training program offered by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation could be a worthwhile investment for key staff.  Requiring employees to pass this assessment provides an industry-recognized way to ensure staff have learned the knowledge needed to protect guests.

There are also several reliable free resources available to help train your staff and managers about food allergies. Cathy created a publication entitled, Food Allergy Alert – What Restaurant Managers Need to Know to Train Staff, when she was with Iowa State University Extension that is available free of charge and includes an assessment that managers can use to document staff knowledge. Kevin’s colleagues at Kansas State University have developed numerous resources to help train staff about food allergies. These tools effectively communicate the emotional impact of not following procedures which helps staff understand WHY correctly following developed protocols is so important.  

One of these resources available from Kansas State is a video called Caroline’s Story, which portrays the tragic consequences when allergies were not handled properly in a restaurant; sadly, this was based on a real situation.  Another video, Caitlin Remembered, was developed by Kansas State’s Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition programs and has a similar approach with the setting in the school environment.  While neither of these videos are intended to teach everything your staff needs to know about handling food allergies, they do present a powerful and emotional reminder about the importance of properly handling requests from customers related to allergies which can encourage employees to modify their behaviors to follow proper practices related to allergens. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also developed for free publication you can download entitled, Voluntary Guidelines for Managing Food Allergies In Schools and Early Care and Education Programs.  This is a great resource, even if you are not in the school foodservice environment. The Food Allergy Research and Education or FARE organization also has helpful resources.

If you do handle allergen training in-house, be sure to include an assessment, just as is done with the ServSafe® program.  The assessment provides proof that staff have learned what they needed to learn.  And just as we would recommend with all training, document who attended, how long the training was, what was covered, and employee achievement on the assessment tool utilized.  As we discussed in our April blog, a positive food safety culture must be established in order to support these changes.  Training is useless if the employee returns to an operation that does not support the best practices which they just learned.  Encouraging behavior changes after training and having this change supported by everyone in the operation contributes to success of the foodservice. Food or material allergens are common in foodservices. Having a plan to effectively handle these and then providing training to support implementation of the plan are steps in mitigating risk.  Risk Nothing! 

Meat Color and Doneness: Persistent Pinking

Late in June, my family and I were able to visit the Black Hills, an area of the country in which I have not had the opportunity to spend much time.  One evening, as we dined at a local restaurant, I observed a table across the dining room sending back a dinner.  While I couldn’t hear the entire conversation and I certainly wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, it was apparent that the customer was unhappy with the cooking of their hamburger and was sending it back because it was too pink in the middle.  That immediately brought to my mind the phenomenon known as persistent pinking.  A term I became familiar with because of work done by some colleagues here at Kansas State, which they present each summer to a group of foodservice operators who join us on-campus for an in-depth week-long look at all things food safety.

Quat Binding – Why this Can Have a Disastrous Impact on Your Sanitation Program.

In June, I had the opportunity to represent FoodHandler and speak on food safety behavior for customers of Martin Bros. Distributing in Waterloo, Iowa.  One of the questions that was asked caught me a little off guard. The question was about quat binding.  It caught me off guard not because it was a bad question, but only because it was not something I had previously been asked nor had not yet been exposed to the phenomenon. However, I soon learned that in certain jurisdictions, it is resulting in changes to how sanitizing cloths are to be stored in sanitizing buckets (or not) in the foodservice industry. When I returned home from the trip, I had to dig into it to learn about what quat binding is and how it might impact foodservice operations.

Are Grades for Foodservice Inspections a Good Idea?

I generally try to stay away from controversial topics in my blog, but this is one I thought it might be interesting to discuss. Occasionally on my travels, I will come across a state or a local jurisdiction that requires foodservice inspection scores be posted in the window of the establishment.  The idea is to allow would-be customers the ability to see how the foodservice operation in which they are about to eat scored on their latest health inspection.