Five remarkable Ways certified food planners can beat the heat

Five Remarkable Ways Certified Food Managers Can Beat The Heat

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Summer temperatures can be brutal on kitchen staff, and certified food protection managers need to find ways to keep their staff healthy without sacrificing food safety. Since we’re nearing the dog days of summer, let’s take a look at a few ways certified food managers can beat the heat.

Five Remarkable Ways Certified Food Managers Can Beat The Heat
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Tips for Certified Food Managers to Surviving Summer Heat in the Kitchen

We all have our horror stories about the hottest kitchen we’ve ever been in, but before your current one becomes the next inferno, you may want to look into better ways to cool your kitchen. We’ve talked to many certified food protection managers, and we’ve compiled the top five ways to keep your staff cool:

  • Air curtains
  • Better fan locations
  • Frequent break times
  • Clean hood vents
  • Adequate hydration

Simply propping open an exterior door can provide some airflow to kitchen areas but may allow for insects to intrude, especially after dark when moths, flies and gnats are attracted to the light. Installing an air curtain over your doorways will allow for fresh air, but keep bugs away.

Fans are the most common way to introduce airflow into the kitchen and cool staff down, but beware about where you place them. Make sure that any fans placed in the kitchen do not blow air onto preparation or cooking surfaces. Fans can suck in dust and other contaminants, spray microscopic particles off of raw food onto other surfaces and potentially introduce other contamination hazards to the force of blown air. To prevent this, many certified food protection managers supply fan stations away from the line in non-food areas for a brief respite or place them at ground level to offer some air circulation.

Many times, kitchens overheat due to the ventilation system not functioning properly. Before the summer heat begins to melt your line cooks, make sure that hood vent filters are cleaned regularly and the system is in good working order.

Our last tip doesn’t necessarily involve a cooling method, but dehydration can raise the human body’s internal temperature causing overheating. Certified food managers can also beat the heat by ensuring your staff drinks plenty of water, or provide them with an electrolyte-fortified drink to prevent dehydration from becoming an issue.

Useful Idea for CFPMs- Bolster Staffing with Culinary Students

Useful Idea for CFPMs- Bolster Staffing with Culinary Students

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We’ve heard reports from some certified food protection managers CFPMs that the industry seems to have a shortage of applicants for open positions, and many food businesses are scrambling to bolster their staff to keep the kitchen fully staffed. Where help-wanted signs and ads on popular job websites may not be working, perhaps a call to your local culinary school would help fill vacancies, at least in the short term. We’ve talked to a few culinary instructors and found that they’re also looking for food businesses and CFPMs who have staffing opportunities to help their students gain real-world experience.

Useful Idea for CFPMs- Bolster Staffing with Culinary Students
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How Culinary School Students Can Help Solve a Staffing Crisis for CFPMs

Over the past few decades, culinary schools have become more popular and have spread beyond exclusive schools for future high-end chefs to local technical and junior colleges for those looking to get their foot in the door in the industry. There are even programs at some larger high schools where students can earn future college elective credits by taking culinary classes, so while there may be a shortage of seasoned food-service professionals, there’s no shortage of those interested in learning about the industry.

CFPMs who need to fill staffing vacancies can take advantage of the culinary education sector by contacting these programs and searching for possible candidates for open job positions. These candidates may be raw when it comes to real-world experience, but they’ll have the desire to grow and learn. Many of these programs even require an internship or work-study, so your business’ interest in hiring a culinary student helps them to graduate and earn their degrees.

For the most part, internships and work-study programs aren’t exactly the beginning of a full-time career path for applicants in your company, but CFPMs can temporarily alleviate the staffing shortage for a set amount of time. These programs have a certain number of required work hours, so you’ll have a good idea as to an end date for your new temporary hire, and who knows, you could find a passionate professional who loves working in your food business and decides to stay if the option is available.

Has your certified food protection manager considered looking into hiring interns from a Minnesota culinary school?

Food safety advice for visitors in the kitchen

Food Safety Advice For Visitors In The Kitchen

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The kitchen of most food businesses can be a busy place, and often you may have vendors, maintenance staff and other non-food service personnel either working or passing through your kitchen. Since these guests are not technically food-service workers, is there any outlined food safety management training necessary for these individuals? Food safety managers are obligated to cover every foodborne illness risk, and this may mean taking the time to assess what steps need to be taken for non-staff kitchen visitors in your establishment.

Food Safety Advice For Visitors In The Kitchen
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Food Safety Precautions for Visitors in Food Preparation Areas

Before we take the time to discuss precautions, it may be important to outline who should and should not be visiting your kitchen. There are many individuals who have business there, but before we invite grandma and the neighbors to hang out on the line there should be some ground rules.

When considering outside visitors, kitchen managers need to ask staff to respect the boundaries of the kitchen. If visitors don’t have a business-related purpose in food preparation areas, they should be asked to wait in public spaces. It’s not that we’re against friends and family stopping by; it just adds potential safety risks and possible foodborne-illness hazards to have untrained personnel in the kitchen.

Outside individuals who may have business in your establishment may include:

  • Vendor representatives
  • Delivery personnel
  • Maintenance staff
  • Corporate managers

Your vendors and food service suppliers should already have some situational awareness in the kitchen and may know better than to get in the way in a busy environment. However, if they’re handling food that is being inspected, sampled or delivered, it’s best to ensure bare-hand contact rules are followed. The same goes for delivery drivers. Most of these types of kitchen visitors have already been trained in some respects for food safety, but it’s always prudent to keep an eye out for potential contamination risks.

If you have planned maintenance whether it’s hood vent cleaning, equipment repair or any other type of work being done in your kitchen that does not involve food preparation, take steps to ensure that all food product is removed from areas where work is being done. Even if it’s something as simple as having new shelving installed in dry storage, the potential for contamination can be high in these situations.

Finally, larger food businesses, especially those with multiple locations, may have corporate higher-ups stop by. Most of these types may not have had food safety management training but may look to get involved in some food preparation activities during their time in your kitchen. Be prepared to respectfully ask them to not handle food if that is not the nature of their visit.

How do you deal with visitors to your establishment?

MN CFPM Rules

What To Know If You Are Suddenly Left Without A MN CFPM

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All Minnesota food businesses are required to employ a certified food protection manager (CFPM), but what happens if a restaurant or other food facility loses theirs without warning? Do they have to shut down temporarily until they hire or train a new one? Fortunately, the MN food code isn’t that strict and does give some leeway for replacing a certified food manager who departs suddenly.

MN CFPM
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The Certified Food Manager Training Window

The good news is that the regulations for hiring or training a new certified protection manager in Minnesota allow for 60 days from the departure of one CFPM to the date they are replaced. Food protection certification is not transferable from one staff member to another, so be proactive in scheduling training or hiring a new CFPM as soon as possible.

If you’re looking to promote from within, there are two training options when it comes to gaining certification, online and in person. If you’ve lost a MN CFPM suddenly, online certified food protection manager classes may be the quickest and most convenient method of gaining certification. Online food certification classes can be taken at any time and contain all the materials necessary to pass the exam. In-person classes do happen rather frequently if you prefer to engage with an industry professional with experience running certified food protection manager courses. With instructor-led courses, you’ll also be able to take the exam on the same day as the training where online course study and food certification exam scheduling may have a gap.

The 60-day grace period doesn’t just apply to losing a CFPM suddenly, new establishment openings and re-openings after a temporary closure also receive this same grace period.

We never like to see sudden management departures, but do you have a plan if your MN CFPM has to depart on short notice?