Halfway Gone, A Mid-Year Food Safety Check-up for your Foodservice Business

July is often a time when a portion of us in the foodservice business are at our prime.  In many areas of the country, we are in the midst of our busiest season of the year. Yet, for those in other foodservice operations it is a slower time of year, where we can spend time refocusing on the busy season ahead. Whatever the case for you, as we cross over the halfway point of 2024, it is an ideal time to conduct a thorough food safety check-up.

As we all know, ensuring food safety isn’t just about meeting regulatory standards, it’s about safeguarding your customers’ health, protecting your reputation, and maintaining operational excellence. So, this is a great time of year to take a step back and conduct a comprehensive inspection and walk through of your entire operation from receiving to service and evaluate areas of concern. While not a comprehensive list, here are some things to pay particular attention to.

  1. Storage and Stock Rotation:
    • Check coolers and freezers to ensure they maintain the correct temperatures for storing perishable items. If you haven’t developed temperature logs to track this daily, now is the time to start doing this – at FoodHandler, we’ve even created a log especially for this and it is available for free on our FoodHandler website. It could help prevent the loss of inventory in the future – and potentially save you lots of money should a cooler or freezer go down this summer.
    • Ensure your dry storage room meets your cleanliness standards and is free of evidence of rodents and/or pests.
    • Check to ensure your stock rotation practices are being followed by employees to prevent expired or spoiled goods from being used.
  2. Kitchen Cleaning and Sanitation:
    • Assess the cleanliness of the kitchen as a whole. Most foodservice operations do a fairly good job at keeping the daily food preparation areas cleaned, but what about areas we don’t get too every day? The floor areas under standing equipment, the outside of ovens, the exhaust system in the kitchen? Have these been kept up to your standards?
    • Schedule a professional pest control inspection to prevent infestations that could compromise food safety.
    • While all personal hygiene standards are important, perhaps none more so than handwashing. Reinforce proper handwashing practices among staff and be sure to follow up on this every day.
  3. Staff Training:
    • Verify that all staff members have received adequate training in food handling, hygiene, and safety protocols. If they have not, start planning a training session now, don’t wait.
    • Ensure certifications for food safety are up to date for all relevant personnel.
  4. Supplier Relationships:
    • Review the quality assurance measures in place with your suppliers to ensure they meet your food safety standards. Be sure to discuss this with the individual who receives your food and checks in the orders – they may not be telling you of recent issues they may have noticed.

… this is a great time of the year to take a step back and conduct a comprehensive inspection and walk through your entire operation from receiving to service and evaluate areas of concern.  

After you’ve done your inspection, make sure you document what actions you took as a result.  While I hope you never have to defend yourself in a food safety lawsuit, the fact is that documenting things now not only helps you keep up with your overall food safety program, but it also could help provide documentation for an affirmative defense in a lawsuit.

As a result of the inspection, you may notice that the policies and procedures you had implemented may not be performing as well as you had hoped.  Update these now while the issues are fresh in your mind.  Be sure to also note a day to do a follow-up inspection. Depending on what you discovered during this inspection, that may be a week from now, two weeks from now, or two months from now – whenever it is, schedule it in now and stay on top of your food safety program. Remember, consistent monitoring helps maintain high standards and promptly address any emerging issues.

A mid-year food safety check-up can be a solid proactive measure to protect your customers and your business. By investing time and resources into thorough inspections, staff training, and updating policies and procedures, you ensure that your foodservice establishment continues to operate at the highest standards of food safety. 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.”