Food Safety Doesn’t Just Happen!
No, food safety in retail foodservices doesn’t happen by accident—it is well planned and executed. It is controllable and foodborne illnesses are preventable! While food workers implement correct food handling and cleaning practices, the operators (managers, supervisors, or the person-in-charge) play a key role in making sure that safe food handling practices are known to all and actually followed. Today, we are introducing you to the term active managerial control and what it means in your operation. In the next blog, we will talk about how it is implemented in foodservice operations.
What is active managerial control? It is a proactive approach to food safety where procedures and systems are in place to identify potential food safety issues, and allow you to address them before they become a problem. For example, a supervisor reviews temperature logs and sees that one refrigerator has been higher than 41o F. A repairman is quickly called in to repair the refrigerator. This approach to managing food safety means that potential problems are identified, and procedures to prevent or quickly address are in place. Not only does this control against any threats to the safety of food, it also reduces the possibility of receiving a violation when the inspector visits. We believe that there should be NO surprises with a health inspection—a good manager will know the results before the environmental health specialist provides the report. With that being said, there should not be
violations because you are identifying problems and making changes to correct them!
Now think about that. If we wait for an inspection to identify problems, then a lot of time may pass with no mitigation of the problem. In many jurisdictions, health inspectors only visit once a year. Active managerial control provides for day-to-day oversight and increases the odds that problems are identified and corrected before anyone is impacted. A manager who practices active managerial control reinforces good food handling practices that mitigate food safety problems.
How can active managerial control impact foodborne illness? In a nutshell, foodborne illness can be reduced when managers implement active control. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified five broad categories of risk factors for foodborne illness:
- Food from Unsafe Sources
- Inadequate Cooking
- Improper Holding Temperatures
- Contaminated Equipment
- Poor Personal Hygiene
How many of these five risk factors can we control in our kitchen? Well, if you said “all of them” you are correct! After all, we control how we buy food and how we handle it once it is delivered to our operation. Who is that “we”? Well, it is every employee in the operation. With so many fingers on food safety, how do we know when something is not done correctly? That is really what active managerial control is all about! We have to have systems and procedures in place to ensure that our standard operating procedures are being followed. Let’s say that we have a fairly new cook in our operation who used to work at a local restaurant and who has been cooking all his life. Because of his experience, he was given the recipe book, the menus, and the production forecast, and sent off to do his job. After a half a dozen complaints from customers that the chicken was not cooked enough, the manager begins to investigate. She looks at the temperature logs and finds he is not recording them. Come to find out, he doesn’t take temperatures because he has cooked so long he just “knows” when food is done. What went wrong? Is that an example where having a manager more involved would have prevented the situation? In the mid-1980’s Drucker wrote a book on management that talked about “managing by walking around.” Isn’t that what active managerial control really is? Supervision is key to making sure that employees know how to do their jobs, and that safe food handling actually occurs. We’ll talk more later in the month about steps to implementing active managerial control.
Risk Nothing!
Keeping Food Safe While Serving Outdoors
This afternoon I met some friends for lunch and as I drove through our beautiful downtown area in Manhattan, KS, I noticed that many people were taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and dining outside with friends. For our local community - outdoor dining is one of the remnants of COVID that we actually have come to enjoy on beautiful days. With spring in full swing and summer just around the corner, many foodservice operations are taking advantage of the warm weather by offering outdoor dining options.
The Importance of Air Gaps in Providing Safe Food to All
Late last month, I was exploring job tasks that are important for entry-level foodservice managers to understand related to food safety. The usual items that you would suspect were on the list were certainly included – foodborne outbreaks; temperature danger zone; physical, biological, and chemical contamination; personal hygiene and proper glove use; HACCP systems, etc. But one thing I noticed was missing that really is integral to protecting the food supply in any foodservice operation is air gaps.
Flour Safety: Don’t Let E. coli become the Secret Ingredient in your Cake.
Earlier this month, we started to see information coming out about a foodborne illness outbreak from an unlikely source – flour. As of early-April, 12 people had fallen ill, and three people had been hospitalized as a result of flour contaminated with Salmonella. While the outbreak is still in its early stages, no individuals have died because of their illness. A specific source has not yet been identified in the outbreak, but all who have fallen ill have reported eating raw batter or dough due before developing symptoms – and flour has been identified as the only common ingredient in these batters and doughs.
Be Proactive and Don’t End Up in Food Safety Jail!
Ok, I admit – there really is no food safety jail. But there is jail and, while it is uncommon, you can be sent there for not practicing food safety. Just the other day, I ran across a news report about two individuals in Wales who were sent to jail (albeit a suspended sentence) for “failing to take action to protect food from the risk of contamination; placing unsafe food on the market; failing to comply with a Remedial Action Notice and operating the business without approval after permission to supply seafood was suspended.”
