Get it Right! Using Risk-Based Inspections to Your Advantage
Our August and September blogs have emphasized the importance of following food handling behaviors that will reduce risks of foodborne illness in your operation, and contribute to positive guest experiences. The checklists we provided can help you in analyzing your operation for strengths and weaknesses—and in the long run improve the safety of food served.
Your state’s health agency may give a letter grade, a numeric score, or a green/red/yellow at the end of your inspection. Whatever grading scheme is used, you are aiming for the top score—an “A”, a 100%, or a green light for go! But you need to remember, the facility inspection by external reviewers only provides a snapshot of what is going on that particular day in your operation. You are there almost every day so of course, you have a better sense of what really happens with food handling practices. You have a much more complete picture! That is why active managerial control, which we blogged about in March, is so important.
There should be no surprises when the inspector visits your operation. Demonstrate that active managerial control is practiced with documentation of the operation’s policies and procedures, temperatures, and other practices. Also be prepared to answer questions that the inspector may pose—yes, they will be quizzing you with food safety related questions!
Here are the “big” things the inspector will be checking as part of his/her site visit:
- Demonstration of knowledge by the person in charge and staff
- Safe food sources and receiving temperatures
- Equipment and potential for cross contamination
- Cooking temperatures
- Holding time and temperatures and date marking
- Reheating for hot holding
- Cooling
- Personal hygiene, hands as a vehicle for contamination, and implementation of employee health policies
- Compliance with approved procedures
- Special requirements for highly susceptible populations
- Labeling, storage, and use of poisonous and toxic chemicals
- Compliance with consumer advisory
While the list may be a bit overwhelming, you can be prepared! Having at least one certified food protection manager on staff, having written policies and procedures to guide employees’ actions, training staff members on following policies and procedures and engaging them in positive food safety practices are just a few action steps that can be taken. One way to engage staff is to involve them in documentation that safe practices are followed with completion of the two checklists addressing back and front of house items that keep food safe and contribute to a quality operation leading to positive guest experiences. As a manager, you no doubt are always looking for ways to continually improve the operation. Think of the inspector (environmental health specialist) as your partner in improving food handling and minimizing risks of food borne illness. Look at these internal checklists as a way to involve all staff in accomplishing your Mission Safe Food and external risk-based inspections as another set of eyes (and knowledge) to help you improve practices!
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
