As you are aware of by now, the State of Minnesota has asked all food service establishments to close dining rooms and reduce service to takeout or delivery only. This presents some new challenges for ServSafe food managers who are used to maintaining food safety procedures in dining rooms rather than in the parking lots. With these new challenges, we’d thought we’d provide a brief guide on how to not only keep your food safe from the normal foodborne pathogens but from the emerging threat of the Coronavirus.
ServSafe Tips for Curbside Pickup
We have a few simple steps you can take to protect your guests and staff during these trying times:
- Eliminate all bare hand contact
- Increase handwashing frequency
- Offer ways for customers to pay in advance
- Provide curbside service rather than allowing guests in your facility
Managers already know that ready-to-eat foods cannot be handled with bare hands, but we suggest taking this one step further until our state returns to business as usual. ServSafe procedures should require staff to wear food service approved gloves when handling cash or cards and even consider wearing gloves when delivering curbside takeout to your customers. This will prevent bare hand contact with contaminates on money and give your drive-up guests the sense of security that you’re taking their health very seriously.
Handwashing is now more important than ever. Wash your hands after every personal interaction or contact with cash. Remember to wash for 20 seconds with plenty of soap and hot water. For timing purposes, you can sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice, or find other catchy tunes that last for at least 20 seconds.
Some of your guests and staff may be leery about spending too much time in close proximity to strangers. You can help reduce the amount of time your employees and customers must interact by providing a method of prepayment by credit card either on your web page or by telephone.
Finally, the best way to ensure that the COVID-19 virus doesn’t enter your facility would be to close the inside areas altogether. Change your ServSafe procedures to meet your customers or at the curbside as much as possible with a quick handoff of their order. Providing a phone number for them to call or text once they arrive will smooth the delivery process.
Are you taking extra steps to keep your guests safe during this crisis?