CFPMs and In-House Grown Herbs

CFPMs and In-House Grown Herbs

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Springtime is here, and with it the fresh aromas and flavors of the new season. Flowers are blooming, and fresh herbs become more readily available. That got us to thinking about CFPMs and In-House Grown Herbs, what’s to prevent them from adding some of that freshness to their menu by growing their own herb gardens in-house?

CFPMs and In-House Grown Herbs
Image credit: Max Pixel

CFPMs and In-House Grown Herbs Use

It should first be noted, that growing herbs at your facility should only really be done on a small scale. Mass production may be outside of the realm of certified food protection managers’ abilities, but growing live plants can help cut down on costs and help you ensure that your ingredients are fresh. Here’s a few things to think about if you’re considering growing your own herbs:

  • Keep herb boxes and gardens away from the production floor
  • Avoid soil additives such as fertilizer, manure and pesticides
  • Always wash picked herbs before using

We’re in no way suggesting you plant a garden in the middle of your kitchen, so an herb garden may not be for every facility. When considering an in-house herb garden, look for locations outside and away from the kitchen. Some restaurants make this a feature for their guests to see, either in front of the restaurant or guest pathways leading to the facility. This implants the idea of fresh ingredients before they’ve even viewed your menu. For some, a garden may not be possible, but smaller box style planters around the facility allow you to grow commonly used ingredients.

Certified food protection managers need to be very aware of contaminates and unnatural pathogens when using freshly grown herbs. For this reason, we’d recommend using pure soil rather than adding any fertilizer or compost. Many gardening supply stores have special mixes that would help grow savory herbs without additives.

Some jurisdictions may have different rules about growing herbs or other produce onsite, so if you need help with local rules, don’t hesitate to contact your local health inspector.

Would you consider growing any type of ingredients at your restaurant or other food production facility, or do you prefer bringing it in from your suppliers?

CFPMs Manage Questionable Product

How CFPMs Manage Questionable Product

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In your role as a certified food protection manager, have you ever had a staff member ask, “Does this smell ok to you?” or, “Do you know when this clam chowder was made?” and, “Can we still serve this?” This week, we’ll take a look at how CFPMs manage questionable product and to deal with situations that may increase the risk of sickening your customers.

CFPMs Manage Questionable Product
cooking, profession and people concept – male chef cook with clipboard doing inventory in restaurant kitchen

CFPMs Manage Questionable Product By Assessing Reasons for Spoiling or Low Quality Product

Situations where you or your staff is unsure of the quality, freshness or servability of product should be dealt with in a manner that protects your guests. If product doesn’t smell right, don’t serve it. If you are unsure about the date a product was made, or if it might no longer be good, don’t serve it. Taking a chance on sickening a guest because of questionable product is never worth the risk. So how do we deal with these situations and prevent them from happening?

If these instances are common in your facility, now is the time to take a look at how you deal with your inventory. There are a few questions that need to be asked:

  • Am I dating my product and inventory?
  • Am I making or ordering too much product?
  • Is my refrigerated storage arranged in an orderly manner?

Dating perishable product allows certified food protection managers and their staff know exactly when the ingredients arrived from a supplier or when finished product was made. Taking the time to date your product paints a bigger picture of how long your product sits in storage. If you’re finding that your product is being stored for extended periods of time, consider lowering par levels when you place an order or making smaller batches of your product.

Successful CFPMs manage questionable product with organization. If you’re refrigerator is a mess, then product can get lost, soak up flavors of food that is cooling nearby or risk cross contamination. Disorderly cold storage is a bacterial dream world and a certified food protection manager’s nightmare.

If you do date your product, monitor par levels and have an orderly walk-in refrigerator but are still running into scenarios where freshness comes into question, the certified food protection manager should set up a system to monitor the temperature of your refrigeration units to ensure that food is being kept cold.

Do you have a system to keep your product the freshest it can be?

Non-Continuous Cooking Steps

Online Food Safety Training Update on Non-Continuous Cooking

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Back in November, we covered an interesting addition to the Minnesota Food Code revision; non-continuous cooking- the ability to halt the cooking process and resume at a later time. At the time, we only had some basic information and a rough draft of the new food code, but now that the code is in effect, the Department of Health has released fact sheets and more detailed information about this procedure.

Non-Continuous Cooking Steps
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Non-Continuous Cooking Procedures

The procedure for non-continuous cooking can be broken down into five steps:

  1. Cook product for 60 minutes or less
  2. Cool food properly within two hours
  3. Store product below 41 degrees
  4. Cook food completely when reheating
  5. Serve immediately, hot-hold or cool properly for later use

This process offers a solution for certified food managers who wish to partially cook raw animal product or other sensitive items and reserve under refrigeration or in the freezer until the time comes to cook and serve. Along with these five steps, the health department requires documentation for this process which must be reviewed and approved by the proper regulatory official, namely your health inspector.

Include the following vital information in your documentation and proposal to be reviewed:

  • The monitoring and implementation process of the five required steps
  • Corrective actions if the five steps are not met properly
  • How partially cooked product will be labeled or identified
  • Steps taken to prevent cross contamination with ready-to-eat foods

We have a few quick notes concerning these new rules. You may wish to review your online food safety training concerning cooling and temperature control and proper cooking temperatures. Remember, all product must reach the correct temperature before serving. The non-continuous cooking method should never be used for product that may be served undercooked at customer request. Undercooking previously partially cooked meats presents an increased food-borne illness risk.

We’ve found local health inspectors are more willing to work with food producers to ensure that these new rules are followed correctly. Feel free to contact your health department if you’re ready to have your proposal reviewed or if you have any questions.

CFPMs Use Freezing

How CFPMs Use Freezing to Slow Bacteria

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In one of our Certified Food Protection Manager training classes during our recent record breaking cold snap, a student asked “whether CFPMs use freezing or refreezing foods to kill bacteria in meat products and ready-to-eat foods? If we store our product outside in the snow at negative 30 degrees, it should be too cold for bacteria to survive, right?”

CFPMs Use Freezing
Image credit: US Department of Agriculture (Flickr Photostream

Freezing product properly does in fact promote food safety and reduce the risk of food-borne illness, but simply freezing everything potentially increases the risk of food-borne illness and gives a false sense of security as to how safe the food we serve really is.

CFPMs Use Freezing for Food Safety

Before we get into our discussion, it’s important to answer the question, “Does freezing proteins kill bacteria?”

There’s a lot of misinformation out there concerning how germs and bacteria react to sub-zero temperatures, but we learn in online Certified Food Protection Manager training, freezing food does not kill bacteria. Freezing food stops the growth of germs and bacteria, so effective use of your freezer to store product that isn’t intended for immediate use keeps bacteria at bay while preserving food for later use. Cooking meats, ready-to-eat foods and other products to the proper temperatures is the only way to actually kill bacteria. Freezing solidly for at least a week will kill parasites but not bacteria.

So, when can CFPMs use freezing to safely store product?

If you don’t plan on using incoming product soon, freeze it as soon as possible. This will add life to your product, and prevent the slow growth of bacteria. Letting your meats sit under refrigeration for a few days and then deciding you’re not going to use it can pose a bacteria risk, depending on what type of product it is. Fish and seafood have a limited shelf life, so while freezing it will slow the growth of contaminates, it will still contain those harmful bacteria when thawed.

Cooked foods need to be cooled properly before freezing them. Cooked product must be chilled in an ice bath or in small portions. For example, a large, warm pot of soup cannot be simply put into a freezer in a large bucket. Bacteria will grow as the soup sits in the danger zone while freezing and wake up when the soup is eventually thawed. The same goes for cooked roasts and large amounts of meat.

Finally, a caution against freezing thawed product. Product thawed in the microwave or under running water cannot be re-frozen. Food properly thawed under refrigeration may be re-frozen if done so in a reasonable time frame, but we recommend against this as thawing and re-freezing can cause quality issues with your product.

Do you have a regulated method to control freezing and thawing of your product?