Maintaining your Equipment: Is it the Missing Ingredient in your Recipe for Food Safety?
Although I am no longer in day-to-day operations, between our students and foodservice lab at the university and my volunteer activities in my local church, I keep a close hand in food production. This past week, I had the opportunity to lead a group of men at our church in preparation of a luncheon for 100 women who were attending a spirituality retreat. Over the course of the morning, I realized our main cooler in the kitchen was not functioning properly and was about 10˚F above the required temperature. While we do have a commercial kitchen, we do not routinely log temperatures, so when the unit started to malfunction is questionable. Even more concerning was not the lunch we were preparing for, but the dinner that was served the night before for 300+ families in the parish.
I am certain stories like this are commonplace in foodservice operations across the country. I can think of several instances when I was in day-to-day operations that were similar. While we (and I especially through my research focus) tend to focus on employee behavior and developing the culture of food safety we have discussed several times before, including our last blog, the truth is that properly functioning equipment are really the backbone to our food safety plan.
It all starts with our food storage equipment – as soon as food arrives in our restaurant, many items are placed in refrigerated storage. While there are several issues that can arise with coolers that I would not advise you to repair yourself, there are several things we can do to help ensure the units function properly and keep them in peak condition. It doesn’t take any experience to clean; the heavier the use of the unit, the more frequently it should be cleaned. Cleaning the inside and outside with hot soapy water is not only sanitary, but it helps your staff to inspect the units to spot potential issues before they become a major concern. Excess condensation, unusually loud condensers, bad gaskets are all easy to notice and repair if your staff is familiar with the equipment.
With all equipment, visit with your local repair technicians to help you decide on a preventative maintenance program that is right for your business. It is hard to have a clear-cut, adaptable plan for each business since the production and volume of businesses vary so much.
Your food production equipment should also be kept in good condition. While I think we all would like to believe this is done in our operation, when was the last time you calibrated the fryer to ensure it was actually heating to the temperature you believe it should be? What about your oven, range, or grill? Equipment that is too hot will char the outside while leaving the inside raw, while a unit that is too cool while take a longer time to cook the product than what you may have anticipated. Be sure to clean these items, too. While we all know the importance of cleaning food contact surfaces, it is also important to clean the underside, sides, and back of the units to maintain peak performance. A cleaning plan developed for the business should always include these areas and be sure to follow-up with your staff on these items.
Last, but not least, be sure your dishwashing equipment is functioning properly. This has even been more important in the last few years with COVID than it has ever been. Your staff should verify that the machine is operating at the required wash and rinse temperatures often during their shifts. They should also be trained to recognize when equipment is not functioning correctly – and this is something that can be difficult with high staff turnover. I recall one instance in our business where the machine was using a container of detergent every two hours. My first shift dishwasher was new and oblivious top the fact that this was way too much. It wasn’t until later in the day when my night shift employee caught the issue – which had already cost us hundreds of dollars.
With all equipment, visit with your local repair technicians, they can help you decide on a preventative maintenance program that is right for your business. It is hard to have a clear-cut, adaptable plan for each business since the production and volume of businesses vary so much. Most of these companies want to be a good partner for your business because they want to have a long-term relationship with you. Remember a little spent on preventative maintenance each year will help alleviate major repairs down the road and ensure your food is kept safe along the continuum of food production.
In May, we will release the second SafeBites Webinar of 2022, so be on the lookout for it. Be sure to reach out if you have any questions about food safety or have a topic you’d like to learn about in an upcoming SafeBites Webinar or if there is something you’d like me to address through our blogs. Risk Nothing.
Foodborne Illness Myths & Facts
“It must have been something I ate.” That’s the typical statement when a person develops some relatively minor symptoms from food. Maybe not severe enough to go to the doctor so you choose to tough it out without medical care. Sudden onset of flu-like symptoms such as onset of stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and fever could possibly mean you are the victim of a foodborne illness. The illness is sometimes referred to as “food poisoning”, but it’s often misdiagnosed.
Don’t Compromise: Clean and Sanitize
The subject is cleaning and sanitizing. Chefs, food service directors, managers and staff try to practice safe food-handling at every turn in the kitchen. Don’t let that effort go down the drain by slacking off on the many aspects of sanitation. That includes dish and ware-washing techniques (pots, pans, equipment), and cleaning all the areas that give us that “neat as a pin” appearance in your customers eyes. Customers seldom fail to bring that soiled silverware or glass with lipstick on it to the attention of the manager or wait staff. Improperly cleaning and sanitizing of food contact equipment does allow transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to food and ultimately our customer.
The Route to Safer Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Although fruits and vegetables are one of the healthiest foods sources in our diet, we continue to have foodborne disease outbreaks of significance from produce, sometimes affecting large groups of people in multiple states because of their wide distribution. The CDC estimates that fresh produce now causes a huge number of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. Produce needs our continued food safety efforts at the restaurant level as well as at the stages in agricultural production. Occasionally, fresh fruits and vegetables can become contaminated with harmful bacteria or viruses, such as Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, Norovirus, and Hepatitis A. This contamination can occur at any point from the field to our table. If eaten, contaminated fruits and vegetables can cause foodborne illness.
Be Cool, Chill Out, Refrigerate Promptly!
The Cold Chain -- Keeping perishable foods at proper cold holding temperatures (between 28°F and 41°F maximum or 0°F for frozen food) from your food producers / manufacturers to your customers has to be one of our strongest links to safe food and high quality. Sometimes that is referred to in the food industry as “maintaining the COLD CHAIN”. Any slip ups in the cold chain, and we have a weak link. Most all of our state food regulations require 41°F as a cold maximum, but colder is a “best practice” policy to maintain.
