The Importance of Food Safety Education
In my first blog this month, I mentioned that it was National Food Safety Education month. This is an important time of year to remind ourselves, and our teams, about why food safety is so important. Each year in the United States, 48 million people will fall ill, 128,000 will be hospitalized, and 3,000 will die from a foodborne illness. For those of you who, like me, live and breathe food safety, these are common statistics. I often don’t repeat these statistics because I take for granted that everyone knows them. Perhaps this is not always the case, and they certainly bear repeating during the month designated to recognize the importance of food safety education.
Ponder the above statistics for a bit. Forty-eight million people …. that sounds somewhat incomprehensible. When you consider that there are 328.2 million people in the US (as of 2019, anyway), one in every six or seven Americans will suffer from a foodborne illness this year. That number is staggering to me. Especially when you consider that most foodborne illnesses could have been resolved with proper food handling. This is why food safety education is so important. Most of our foodborne illness issues could be resolved with proper handling of food. This is the key reason why the Food Code requires that a person in charge within your operation should be a certified food protection manager.
If we ever expect a manager, employee, etc. to change their food safety behavior, we must lay the foundation. That foundation begins with knowledge.
It is no secret that my research area has been encouraging food safe behaviors among employees. Some of my colleagues and my earliest work showed that there was little connection between knowledge of food safety (i.e., passing a food safety certification exam) and actual behaviors on the job. I am not the only one to highlight that in my research, several authors have also found similar results. So, I am often asked why I am so supportive of food safety education, training, and certification. Simply put, if we expect a manager, employee, etc. to change their food safety behavior, we must lay the foundation. That foundation begins with knowledge. Even though the connection between knowledge and behavior is weak (and this is true across many, many different facets of our lives, not just food safety), if we want our employees (or ourselves) to change behavior, we must know what the correct behavior is. Only then can we begin to change behavior, even if that change is slow and sometimes arduous.
Next month, I’d like to highlight some of the programs available to you to meet this important food code requirement. Many people fall back to the ServSafe program administered by the National Restaurant Association, but there are other options available, too. So be sure to check in and find out what they are.
We do hope you are able to join us this afternoon at 1:00 pm for our September SafeBites Webinar, entitled Using Stories to Change Behaviors of Foodservice Employees. It is not too late to sign-up, and if you happened to miss it – we archive all our content so you can watch on-demand.
In closing, let this month be a yearly reminder to you and your team about the importance of staying up to date with food safety knowledge. Make a vow to improve one food safety-related behavior in your operation. I think it was Confucius who said, “the man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” Risk Nothing.
Are Grades for Foodservice Inspections a Good Idea?
I generally try to stay away from controversial topics in my blog, but this is one I thought it might be interesting to discuss. Occasionally on my travels, I will come across a state or a local jurisdiction that requires foodservice inspection scores be posted in the window of the establishment. The idea is to allow would-be customers the ability to see how the foodservice operation in which they are about to eat scored on their latest health inspection.
Neglected Safety: CDC Report Casts Doubts on the Ability of the Foodservice Industry to Ensure Ill Workers Stay at Home
Early in June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report outlining foodborne illness outbreaks in retail foodservice establishments. The report outlined outbreaks from 25 state and local health departments from 2017 through 2019.
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.