Welcome to National Food Safety Education Month!

In September of each year, we not only have the opportunity to celebrate Labor Day, but we also welcome National Food Safety Education Month! It is this time of the year when it is important to remember that Foodborne illnesses are still a major concern in the United States, although I am guessing many Americans don’t think about the safety of the food they eat as they go throughout their daily lives.  The statistics show one in every six Americans will suffer from a foodborne illness each year, for a total of about 48 million cases each year.

Luckily enough, there are thousands of Americans whose job is to help protect the food supply. From the farmer who raises the animals or plants the crops we harvest to sell in grocery stores, to the supermarket managers who monitor the temperature of their frozen and refrigerated display cases each day, to the food service manager who ensures all the proper steps are followed in the preparation of the meals that consumers eat in schools and restaurants across the United States on a daily basis. Along the way, the food is transported, stored, and inspected at various points, but ultimately each one of us bears some responsibility to ensure the food we eat is safe.

… there are thousands of Americans whose job is to help protect the food supply…but ultimately each one of us bears some responsibility to ensure that the food we eat is safe. 

While many of our readers are in the foodservice profession, there are several who I am guessing are not. Those who are not in the profession can play just as much of a role in keeping food safe as a professional, and it all starts at the grocery store. The FDA, CDC, and many state university extension agencies have many different resources to help you keep food safe in your home and ultimately protect your family from a foodborne illness.  Here are a few of my favorites to check out:

As we have discussed many times in these blogs, professionals have an even greater responsibility to protect the food they serve to guests.  In many cases, the food they serve will not just make four or five members of a family sick, but many, in some cases hundreds of people, could fall ill due to mistakes in a foodservice kitchen.  One step I would encourage all managers to undertake during this food safety month is to do an in-depth review of your recipes and incorporate crucial control points into each recipe you have.  This is one step that can have a huge impact on the safety of the food served in your operation and serves as a constant reminder for foodservice employees to cook food to the proper temperature. In most cases, small steps can help you transform your organization and truly set the foundation for a solid food safety culture.  Afterall, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

If you haven’t already checked it out, please check out the latest SafeBites Food Safety Webinar, “Creating Clarity for Exceptional Food Safety Results”, presented by Dr. Brett Horton. This webinar is a bit different than the past ones in that we don’t focus just on food safety but dig into how to create exceptional programs and develop a team. Achieving exceptional results requires trust, appropriate conflict to achieve optimum results, commitment, and accountability by all members of the organization. Of course, we do this while keeping food safety in mind, but the discussion could really apply to multiple aspects of your life. I promise you will learn something, I certainly did! Be sure to drop us a note if you enjoy the webinars or have suggestions for future content that you would like to learn. 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.”