Recent outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli illness from products as varied as peanuts, spinach, tomatoes, pistachios, peppers and cookie dough, have spurred fears about food safety and serve as a reminder to clubs to remain constantly aware of their food sources and product recalls.
New proposals, recommended by a working group that President Obama created earlier this year, emphasize prevention, enforcement and improving the government’s response time to incidents involving food recalls and related illnesses. Since September is National Food Safety Education Month, it’s an ideal time for clubs to examine their food safety practices and procedures.
Created by the National Restaurant Association in 1994, National Food Safety Education Month features a new theme each year, and provides training activities and posters for the restaurant and foodservice industry to help reinforce proper food safety practices and procedures. This year’s theme is “Food Safety Thrives When You Focus on Five.” Each week will focus on one of five food safety barriers: purchasing food from unsafe sources, failing to cook food adequately, holding food at incorrect temperatures, using contaminated equipment, and practicing poor personal hygiene.
The first week focuses on avoiding purchases of food from unsafe sources. Food and beverage managers should be aware that the first step they can take to ensure food safety is to make sure that the food arriving at the club is coming from a safe source. Make sure suppliers are safe and meet all requirements for food safety. Additionally, arrange deliveries so they arrive one at a time during off-peak hours. Have enough trained staff to promptly receive, inspect, and store deliveries. Provide thermometers and train employees on how to use them to carefully inspect deliveries. Checking food when it is received will help ensure it is safe. Check all shipments when they arrive, before putting them away in storage.
Here’s what to look for:
- Cold food should be received at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, and hot food should be received at 135 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
- Frozen food should be received frozen. Reject it if there are ice crystals, fluids or water stains.
- Reject food if it has an abnormal color, or smells wrong or unpleasant.
- Packaging should be clean and in good condition. Reject food if boxes are broken or cans are swollen or dented.
- Reject food if there are signs of pests, the use-by date has passed, of if packaging is damp, water-stained or leaking.
Week two of National Food Safety Education Month focuses on cleaning and sanitizing correctly. Food can easily be contaminated if the facility and equipment are not clean and sanitized. Surfaces that touch food must be cleaned and sanitized the right way and at the right time. Cleaning removes food and other dirt from a surface. Sanitizing reduces pathogens on a surface to safe levels.
Managers should be aware that time pressure can make it difficult for employees to properly clean and sanitize food contact surfaces. Providing resources such as having multiple sets of cleaned and sanitized utensils available can help busy employees handle food safety during peak hours. In addition, setting up a master cleaning schedule can help ensure that food contact surfaces will not contaminate food.
The third week focuses on preventing cross-contamination. Disease-causing pathogens can be transferred from one surface or food to another. Pathogens can spread from food or unwashed hands to prep areas, equipment and utensils. To encourage employees to prevent cross-contamination, be sure that raw seafood, meat, and poultry is prepped in a separate area, away from ready-to-eat food. If both kinds of food need to be prepped on the same table, schedule ready-to-eat food to be prepped before raw seafood, meat and poultry. A few simple ways to prevent cross-contamination include:
When storing food:
- Wrap or cover food before storing it, and store food only in containers intended for food.
- Store food only in designated food-storage areas, and always store ready-to-eat food above raw seafood, meat and poultry.
- Store food and non-food items away from walls and at least six inches off the floor.
When prepping food:
- Make sure workstations, cutting boards and utensils are cleaned and sanitized, and clean and sanitize them between each product.
- Do not let ready-to-eat food touch surfaces that have come in contact with raw meat, seafood or poultry.
When serving food:
- Do not touch the parts of the dishes or glassware that come in contact with food, and do not hold utensils by the parts that come in contact with food.
- Never scoop ice with bare hands or a glass.
- Never use towels intended for cleaning food spills for any other purpose.
Week four focuses on avoiding time-temperature abuse. Some food requires time and temperature control to keep it safe. It is called TCS food (Time and Temperature Control for Safety). Disease-causing pathogens can grow well in TCS food when it is kept at temperatures between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit—the temperature danger zone. If TCS food is kept at these temperatures for more than four hours, pathogens can grow to levels high enough to make someone sick.
Having the right thermometer for the job can encourage employees to check product temperatures. For example, providing employees with digital thermometers allows them to quickly check products. In addition, be sure policies are in place for monitoring temperatures. Identify what food items should be checked, how often, and by whom. Then, assign duties to employees in each area.
The fifth week of National Food Safety Education Month focuses on personal hygiene. Managers should lead by example. Being a role model and having good personal hygiene practices has a positive impact on employee behavior.
Since September is National Food Safety Education Month and the National Restaurant Association has made a number of food safety resources readily available, now is the perfect time to examine your club’s food safety procedures and remind staff of the importance of safe food handling.