Christine Dantz, Author at Safe Food For Thought

February 6, 2023January 29, 2023

A New Look At Delivery Drivers and Food Safety – Part 2

Food Safety Certification MN and Providing Delivery Services

Last month we investigated how food delivery apps work and whether or not they were monitored by your local health department. Following that article, we thought that it would be helpful to provide some food safety information and tips for restaurant outlets that provide their own delivery service to their loyal customers.

Food Safety Hints For Providing Delivery Services

This biggest issue with food delivery is that there is a high risk that the food’s temperature will fall into the danger zone. If your product falls between 140 and 40 degrees during delivery, there is a risk of bacteria growth. Many chain restaurants employ the use of insulated containers to keep their food hot during delivery. We strongly urge you to talk to your local culinary supply store about obtaining several of these containers. Before you begin providing delivery to your customers. We also suggest that you consider limiting your delivery range. A smaller delivery area means you can deliver hot food product to your customers in a timely manner.

The rules for keeping cold foods safe for consumption after delivery is more straightforward than those for hot foods. Refrigerated items may go without refrigeration for up to two hours according to the Minnesota Health Code. This means that your salads and sandwiches and other cold items kept in sanitary containers should be safe for delivery. Be aware that raw animal protein items such as sushi are much more sensitive than other cold products. If you are planning on delivering any raw or undercooked proteins. You may wish to consult with your local health inspector.

Non-Food Safety Considerations for Delivery Services

There are other aspects besides food safety that you should plan for if you are considering offering delivery service. Keep in mind that you will need to have additional staff available to provide this service. Be sure to get the right balance of staff to handle the new service. You want to avoid a negative impact on your current services or long waits for delivery. Neither scenario is good for building a satisfied customer base or increasing employee morale on busy evenings. Having an extra hand available on weekends and during peak times will be a key element in helping you offer delivery services to your clientele.

Finally, make sure that your delivery drivers have received food safety training from a certified food protection manager. They are vital members of your team and will be essential in seeing that your product arrives to your customers in a safe-to-eat state.

Are you extending your food services to clients who wish to have their meals delivered? At Safe Food Training, we’d like to know your thoughts on how you plan to keep your meals safe during delivery.

January 30, 2023January 29, 2023

A ServSafe MN Perspective On Delivery Apps- Part 1

You can use your Smartphone to find restaurants near your location, pursue menus, read customer reviews and easily make reservations. With modern software, there are even apps available that will allow you to order meals delivered directly to your door. This week, we’ve decided to explore Smartphone delivery apps and whether or not they fall under ServSafe MN guidelines.

Delivery app and Servsafe MN — Image credit: pixabay.com

Who Monitors the ServSafe MN Procedures of Delivery App Drivers?

One of the concerns that we have when it comes to using a food delivery app is what precautions are being taken to ensure that your food will be handled in a safe manner. Let’s look at the three types of delivery apps that exist:

Major restaurant chain apps
Apps that order from restaurants that deliver
Third-party courier apps

In the case of the first two options on our list, your delivery drivers will be employees of the restaurant that prepares the food. The site ServSafe MN Manager can train the drivers in proper safe food handling procedures. In the case of third-party apps, customers place their order with the third-party, not the restaurant that prepares the food. In this scenario, the delivery app is the customer of the restaurant. There seems to be a gray area as to whether the delivery app is required to have received any ServSafe MN food-safety training.

Many food courier services are outside the jurisdiction of your local health department. Your meal has been paid. The third-party app driver is simply picking it up at the restaurant and bringing to your door. Our understanding is that they do not need to be food safety certified, and are not responsible for the quality of the food that arrives at your door. It is unclear at this time if there will be any adjustments to the food code to make sure that food couriers are abiding by food safety regulation.

Protecting Food Safety While Using Delivery Apps

In speaking with a few restaurant owners, we have found some that have expressed concerns with the growing popularity of food delivery apps. Their major issue with these apps is the fact that the delivery drivers do not represent them or their business. This means that they may be putting the quality of their product in the hands of a courier. A delivery app that may not have the restaurants best interests in mind. If a guest receives a cold dinner or a carton of sandwiches that appears to have barely survived a rugby match, their displeasure may not be with delivery service, but with the restaurant itself.

We’d like to know how you feel about delivery apps. Do you prefer to order directly from the source? or Do you feel that third-party food couriers are just as reliable?

January 23, 2023January 27, 2023

Expert Guide to First Aid Kits for Food Safety Managers

At Safe Food Training our focus is usually on keeping your food safe and food manager certification in Minnesota, but from time to time, we like to provide useful information on how to keep your employees safe when on the job. Hopefully, you do everything that you can to prevent on-the-job accidents, but there are many hazards in the food service industry, so food safety managers need to make sure that your first aid kit is fully stocked and handy in case of an on-the-job incident.

Background On Why Food Safety Managers Need First Aid Kits In Their Kitchen

According to The US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Private industry workers in full-service restaurants incurred 93,800 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2019. About one-third of these cases required at least one day away from work. Another source, Restaurant Technologies’ “Kitchen Safety 101: How to Prevent Costly Restaurant Injuries” reveals the four most common injuries in commercial kitchens are:

Cuts, lacerations, and punctures
Slips and falls
Sprains and strains
Burns and scalds

Items Food Safety Managers Should Include In A Kitchen First Aid Kit

First aid kits are for first aid! They should not be stocked for long-term care. If there is any question that the wound or trauma is anything more than a minor injury, the injured person should be encouraged to seek professional care immediately.

Whenever there is a minor incident in the kitchen, the first place food safety managers or employees look for supplies is the first aid kit. Here are some items that we feel are essential to have on hand in the event of a minor mishap.

Disposable medical gloves
Multiple styles and sizes of Band-Aids/bandages
Individual use antiseptic wipes
Sterile gauze pads/dressings
Various sizes of elastic compression bandages

While this list is far from complete, these five items will come in handy for situations that commonly occur in commercial kitchens. To protect the injured person as well as the caregiver, various sizes of medical-grade gloves should be available and worn before any contact is made.

We do recommend that you have nearly every style of Band-Aid available for your staff. With sharp knives and utensils in use in every kitchen, employees will inevitably cut themselves from time to time, and they’ll need access to the appropriate bandage.

With industrial steamers, ovens, and deep fryers posing a constant burn threat, sterile gauze pads must be stocked in your first aid kit to clean the wound in addition to self-adherent cohesive bandages to hold protective sterile dressings in place.

Finally, stocking different-sized elastic compression bandages to help support sprains and strains is a great idea. Food safety managers can alternate these first aid items with ice packs to control swelling at the site of a soft tissue injury.

Food safety managers, what’s in your first aid kits?

January 16, 2023January 27, 2023

Certified Food Managers Dealing With Surging Conflict In The Industry

How a MN Certified Food Manager Deals with Conflict

While you always strive for harmony in the workplace, every once in a while MN certified food managers will have to deal with employee conflict. This week we’d like to take a look at how to prevent dissension in the work place, and deal with issues as they arise.

How a MN Certified Food Manager Deals with Conflict

It’s impossible to completely eliminate employee conflict, especially in stressful environments such as the food industry, but with the right approach you can build a staff that not only gets along but enjoys working together. Talking with human resource managers and food service supervisors, we’ve come up with a few common themes concerning conflict resolution.

Prevent conflict before it starts
Don’t let conflict fester
Involve your HR representative

Our first tip may be hard to do sometimes, but there are ways certified food managers can prevent many conflicts from occurring. Many conflicts in the workplace stem from an individual not being satisfied with their role. Sometimes if an employee isn’t satisfied with their role, they may turn their frustrations towards their fellow employees. If you can identify individuals who are unhappy with their role, you may be able to give them an opportunity express their frustrations to you before they take it out on their coworkers.

The food industry is a stressful place by nature. Another way certified food managers can keep conflict at a minimum is to keep morale high. This can vary from facility to facility, but there are ways to keep morale high under stressful circumstances. Some ways include social interactions such as company events that don’t involve job duties and making sure that breaks are always taken at regular intervals.

Even with the highest morale, it is inevitable that conflict will arise. These are times when you must decide whether to address the issue or let your employees work things out for themselves. It’s not necessary to intervene in every circumstance, but you must use your best discretion. If there is a conflict that you feel will be detrimental to your operation, you need to address it. Sometimes, letting your staff work things out for themselves will lead to further problems. If there are situations which you feel that you’re unable to handle, it may be necessary to bring in a representative from human resources that has been trained to resolve employee conflict.

We know that there is no cut and dry solution to resolving conflicts among your staff, so we’d like you to leave us a comment as to how you or other certified food managers have dealt with these situations.