Sanitary ServSafe Procedures for Curbside Pick Up

Sanitary ServSafe Procedures for Curbside Pick Up

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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 Procedures for Curbside Pick-up

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?

Certified-Food-Managers-Donate-Food-During-Covid-19

Certified Food Managers Can Donate Excess Food During the Covid-19 Slowdown

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Now that restaurants, bars and other food producers have been asked to close dining rooms and only offer takeout and delivery, certified food managers are finding that they are not using as much inventory as they once had. What can local businesses do to prevent excess produce, meat and other ingredients in their refrigerators from going to waste? The Minnesota Department of Health has suggested that restaurants and food businesses can donate excess product to charities and programs that provide meals to those in need. So how do certified food managers get in touch with these programs to donate food during the COVID-19 outbreak?

Certified-Food-Managers-Donate-Food-During-Covid-19

How Certified Food Managers Can Help by Donating Food during the COVID-19 Crisis

Donations can not only be a great way to reduce your waste during this time, but also give back to your community. Potential guests will see your willingness to sacrifice during hard times and may order from your establishment once they see your charitable nature.

Beyond raw ingredients, there are a few organizations look for prepared meals whether packaged for reheating or hot and ready to go. Charities such as Hunger Solutions have begun compiling maps of businesses providing free meals for children who would normally rely on schools for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. Besides Hunger Solutions, there are also many other local organizations looking for help from restaurants, too many for us to specifically name here. The Department of Health has provided a list of contacts to help certified food managers find charities in their area who are looking for increased donations during the COVID-19 slowdown.

If you’re considering donating product, meals or even kitchen space, here are a few links to get you started:

Have you considered joining other certified food managers who donate food, labor or kitchen space during the COVID-19 shutdown?

A Minnesota Certified Food Protection Manager's Response to flattening the curve of COVID-19

A Minnesota Certified Food Protection Manager’s Response to COVID-19

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At Safe Food Training, we recognize that we’re now in unprecedented times. Government mandates call for reduced service, including a statewide appeal to restaurants to close dining rooms and offer takeout or delivery only. MN certified food protection managers must now respond to the COVID-19 threat and flattening the curve as well as keeping food safe for customers.

A Minnesota Certified Food Protection Manager's Response to COVID-19
Image credit:CDC/The Economist

Lessons for Minnesota Certified Food Protection Managers Taken from West Coast Response to COVID-19

Over the course of our years of food safety training, we’ve been fortunate to not only make contacts with foodservice professionals in our state but keep in touch with contacts elsewhere. With the current situation involving the coronavirus, we’ve been in touch with a friend and colleague who currently resides in the Seattle metro area. If you’ve been following the news, Washington State has the unfortunate distinction of having some of the first cases of the virus, as well as being one of the leaders in the United States in positive cases and fatalities. We’ve reached out to learn more about how the restaurant industry is responding in an effort to see what they can do in our state to help slow this epidemic.

As you are already aware, the Governor of Minnesota has already asked restaurants to limit access to restaurants and bars by closing dining rooms and providing takeout service, drive-thru or delivery on March 17th. Washington State issued a similar edict taking place on the same day. This should be good news for Minnesota restaurateurs. Not waiting until exposure levels of COVID-19 reach Washington State levels gives us the potential to return to business as usual sooner rather than later. At the time of our conversation with our connection in Washington, Minnesota has only one COVID-19 fatality among 137 positive cases. Washington has over 1,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 83 deaths, with more cases expected daily. Our Seattle colleague is hearing that due to the delay in action, restaurants in some counties are preparing to close longer than their mandated 14 days.

So how should certified food protection managers process these COVID-19 statistics? Granted, we are not Washington State, but we’re talking about a virus that currently has no vaccine or FDA approved treatment. We should be very concerned with the health and wellbeing of our customers and their families. The sooner we see results and a decline in cases, the sooner we can get our restaurants open and profitable again.

It’d take quite some time to cover everything in our discussion with our friend in Seattle, but we hope to break some of that information down to share with you soon. Here are some of the things health inspectors and foodservice business owners in the Pacific Northwest are currently recommending to stem the tide of COVID-19 :

  • Increase handwashing frequency
  • Increase the frequency of sanitation, especially at pick up counters guests may visit
  • Take social distancing seriously
  • Provide curbside pickup unless impossible
  • Take credit card information via phone to limit contact
  • Close when necessary or reduce hours of operation to only cover dining hours; mainly breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • Reduce menu options to reduce waste

Safe Food Training will do whatever we can to update and provide as much information as we can to help certified food protection managers navigate these tough times caused by COVID-19. How are you dealing with the new restrictions on food service during this outbreak?

ServSafe Managers and Sprouts

ServSafe Managers and Sprouts

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The danger of serving fresh spouts has once again come to national attention as the FDA has recently issued a warning letter to the national sandwich chain Jimmy John’s. Sprouts have often been the culprit in foodborne illness outbreaks, and this recent warning should serve to alert all ServSafe managers to the dangers of serving this popular vegetable.

Servsafe Managers and sprouts on a sandwich

Can ServSafe Food Managers Safely Serve Fresh Spouts?

The FDA’s warning to Jimmy John’s came after 22 people in Iowa were stricken with E.coli after including sprouts as an ingredient in their sandwich. This wasn’t, however, an isolated incident involving one location as sprouts served to customers from several different franchise locations have sickened customers in the past.

This specific sandwich franchise has been implicated in more than its share of outbreaks involving sprouts and E.coli or salmonella. Most recently, the chain was implicated in s February 2019 E.coli outbreak in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and in the past was blamed for a six-state outbreak in 2014 and an 11-state outbreak in 2012. As a result, the company has taken steps to stop the outbreak by removing sprouts as an offering at all of their locations.

With such a variety of locations and circumstances, but the same ingredient, what steps could have been taken to prevent the spread of illness?

In cases such as these involving such a sensitive ingredient, ServSafe managers should first look to where they source their ingredients from. Sprouts are commonly contaminated where they are grown and many times rinsing and washing cannot remove the bacteria before the ingredients have been served to guests.

If it’s so hard to prevent the spread of illness from sprouts once the ingredient reaches your establishment, what should ServSafe managers do to keep this ingredient safe?

The first step is to know your source. Keep an eye on recalls and outbreaks from farms and other companies that supply sprouts. If your provider has a track record of shipping contaminated product, you may wish to search for a sprout supplier that hasn’t been implicated in any foodborne illness cases.

Finally, make sure you inspect all incoming spouts and look for signs of contamination. Some signs may include traces of dirt or other contaminants, brown or sickly looking roots and musty smells. These are three common signs that your sprouts may be contaminated or not as fresh as they claim to be. With an ingredient such as fresh sprouts, you’re better off not serving them rather than taking a chance on a shipment that has the potential of sickening your guests.

Do you, as a Servsafe manager, serve sprouts in your establishment?