Over the past two years, many restaurant patrons have changed the way they order their meals giving food safety managers the challenge of adapting to foodservice beyond in-person dining. With COVID-19 numbers fluctuating and regional regulations impacting food service, many patrons have taken to delivery services to order from their favorite eating establishment. Delivery provides a whole new set of food safety hazards that don’t exist within the confines of a dining room, so it’s important for every food safety manager to look at how to keep your food safe during the delivery service process.
How Food Safety Managers Can Keep Food Safe During Delivery Service
There are very limited regulations in the MN food code regarding what happens to food after it leaves your restaurant for delivery, so food safety managers have to use common sense to create their own procedures to keep food safe during the delivery process.
If you don’t have your own delivery drivers, your restaurant may rely on Postmates, GrubHub and Uber Eats for delivery service. Unfortunately, since these drivers are not members of your staff you’ll have no control over what happens to your meal once the driver leaves your establishment. The good news is, the drivers of these outside services are professionals, and many will take precautions to keep food warm and reduce contamination risks, but you can still take precautions to help keep food safe. When preparing food for delivery, make sure you:
- Keep food hot until pick up
- Prepare food as close to pick up time as possible
- Use appropriate to go containers to prevent spillage
Rather than leaving to-go and delivery orders at the bar or hostess stand, we recommend you keep it in a warmer or under a heat lamp until it’s ready to leave the building. This will reduce the amount of time your food is a risk of falling into danger zone temperatures. It’s also a good idea to have the food prepared as close to the pickup deadline as possible and stored in sealed containers that won’t spill during transport. We all love a warm bowl of soup as a side dish with sandwiches or burgers, but we’ve yet to see a creamy chicken noodle club sandwich at any of our favorite restaurants, so make sure containers are sealed before leaving the restaurant.
Establishments that do employ a delivery driver can have much more control over the safety of your product during delivery. Make sure to stock up on insulated delivery bags in order to ensure freshness upon delivery.
What steps does your food safety manager take to keep your food safe during deliveries?
