Proper Cooling: Your Food-Safe Culture Demands It

Last week, we had a great webinar presented by Dr. Paola Paez from the Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs at Kansas State University.  If you were not able to join us, please feel free to go back and review the webinar to learn some valuable ways in which you can implement safe cooling practices in your foodservice operation.

In a perfect world, if any amount of cooling of food products within your operation was done, there would be a blast chiller.  Blast chillers are designed to expel hot air from the environment, whereas a regular cooler is only equipped to keep cold air, cold.  But, they are an expensive investment (estimate of $5,500 – $10,000 for counter model!) and once you invest in one, you still must find physical space and a workable location in the operation. So, we know it isn’t always feasible financially, especially in the middle of a global pandemic which has impacted our industry so profoundly.  As we noted in our last blog and was discussed by Dr. Paez in her presentation, correct cooling procedures don’t have to be difficult or expensive, but make sure the practices identified for your operation work for you and your staff, both in terms of the usability of the methods to making sure the method chosen cools products effectively.  Moreover, be sure to communicate and train staff accordingly.

 …together we keep OUR food and OUR customers safe. Together we implement and follow safe cooling practices. Together we excel.

We so often find that managers and supervisors go through the process of training staff on the correct way to cool food, but if the importance of the practice isn’t internalized and that practice isn’t enforced by managers, why would employees continue to do it?  As managers, demonstrate the importance of correct cooling to your employees by developing the proper infrastructure to support it, including the use of written standard operating procedures and/or logs to document that cooling practices have met Food Code standards. Yes, we know, this is easier said than done, and we realize all the demands that are placed on a foodservice manager.  This is why we stress the importance of developing that food safety culture in your organization – so it isn’t all on your shoulders as a manager.  Cooling, as well as other food safety practices, should be ingrained in the life of the operation with every employee being accountable, and providing oversight, that safe practices are followed.

There are templates readily available to use in creating a standard operating procedure for cooling, so you don’t need to start from scratch. Iowa State University Extension has SOPs throughout the flow of food that can be customized to your operation (for instance, you can modify to reflect operational specifics or add the organizational logo). These were developed for different sectors of the foodservice world: child care; assisted living; restaurants; and schools. There are also cooling logs that can help document that Food Code standards were met in during the two-stage cooling process.

Yes, the manager has responsibilities and is the leader of the operation, but once that safe food culture is ingrained in every employee, it becomes a team effort – ‘we’ instead of ‘me/I’, ‘us’ instead of ‘them’ – together, we keep OUR food and OUR customers safe. Together, we implement and follow safe cooling practices. Together, we excel. Risk Nothing.

Remembering the Importance of Food Safety During Food Safety Education Month

In the foodservice industry, every plate that leaves your kitchen carries not just flavors and aromas, but also the responsibility of providing safe and wholesome meals to customers. Celebrated each September, National Food Safety Education Month provides a platform for foodservice professionals to reaffirm their commitment to food safety. It's a reminder that excellence in foodservice operations must always be accompanied by excellence in food safety; a reminder that any great meal begins with safe food as the foundation.

Embracing Technology for Enhanced Food Safety in Foodservice Operations

Technology.  We love it, we hate it. I’ve always been fascinated by technology; I remember getting my first Blackberry in the mid-90s and thinking it was the pinnacle of technological advances.  Before that, I remember ordering a dictation program in college that was going to revolutionize the way I “typed” my assignments. Looking back, it really wasn’t worth the box that the program came in.  Now, we have ChatGPT that will write the entire paper for us!

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.