Christine Dantz, Author at Safe Food For Thought

March 23, 2022March 29, 2022

How to Food Safety Training for Pathogen Free Marinades

Marinades infuse meats, poultry and even vegetables with great flavors, but if you’re not careful they may also infuse your food with pathogens, bacteria and other contaminants that could sicken guests. As the saying goes, so it’s important to make sure that your extra flavor doesn’t come with a dose of illness. Let’s explore food safety training for pathogen-free marinades.

Food Safety Training to Prevent Tainted Marinades from Causing Foodborne Illness

There are three major concerns when it comes to food safety training for bacteria-free marinades:

Cross-contamination
Spoiled Fresh Ingredients
Temperature Control

If you’re using the same marinade for multiple purposes, you run the risk of mixing two ingredients that may be required to be cooked to different temperatures. You’ll inevitably contaminate some ingredients if you mix multiple items in the same container. Meats and vegetables cook at different temperatures, and poultry requires a much higher final cooking temperature than most other raw foods. To avoid any type of cross-contamination, use a separate container to marinate different ingredients. It’s also a good food safety procedure to throw out marinades used for raw ingredients and start over each time you marinade new ingredients regardless of type.

If you make your own marinades in-house and make more than you need for any given day, make sure you take note of the shelf life of any fresh ingredients involved. Fresh ingredients spoil over time naturally and adding them to liquids can accelerate the process. Use proper labeling techniques to date all marinades and have a defined expiration date on all marinades and marinated product.

Temperature control can also sometimes be an issue with large batches of marinades. When soaking raw proteins, make sure that all ingredients are out of the danger zone, and don’t soak any protein at room temperature.

Finally, if you utilize dry rubs or marinades, you should still follow the same food safety procedures as wet marinades.

What’s the favorite marinade you use in your restaurant?

March 14, 2022March 6, 2022

Announcing A CFPMs Guide To Proper Handwashing Sink Locations

We talk a lot about proper handwashing procedures as the best foodborne illness prevention, but many times the areas surrounding handwashing sinks are overlooked by certified food protection managers. Let’s take a closer look at how CFPMs properly maintain the area around your handwashing sink locations.

How To Set up a Proper Handwashing Sink Location For CFPMs

CFPMs already train their staff on how to properly use and stock a handwashing station, but, as a quick review, remember your handwashing station should be supplied with:

Hot Water
Soap
Paper Towels of Air Dryer
Fingernail Brush

This is usually one of the first things covered in any online or in-person CFPM training course. What may be misunderstood is what the area surrounding your handwashing station should look like. There can be foodborne illness risks involved if your sink location isn’t properly arranged or installed.

First CFPMs should make sure, your handwashing sinks should be easily and immediately accessible. They should be in the food preparation areas and not located behind closed doors. If you block your handwashing sink with storage racks or other equipment, it serves little use if your staff cannot wash their hands. A restroom sink should also not be considered a handwashing sink as door knobs and handles may be contaminated if touched after washing your hands.

Another thing to consider is the relative location to preparation surfaces or clean dish storage. If your handwashing sinks are in close proximity to clean spaces in your kitchen, make sure that there is no risk of water or soap splashing on sanitary items or surfaces. Ensuring there is a gap between these areas and your handwashing station will reduce the risk of contamination from dirty water and handwashing soap.

Finally, CFPMs should avoid storing any food product or clean utensils above and below handwashing station. Doing so may increase the risk of contamination from dirty hands or water used in the handwashing process.

Have you taken the time to evaluate your handwashing stations?

March 7, 2022March 6, 2022

New Food Safe Managers Training for Color Coded Cutting Boards

Cross contamination causes numerous foodborne illnesses every year, and food safe managers need to take steps to train their staff on the risks and provide the tools necessary to prevent sickening guests. Rather than using generic white cutting boards, food safe managers may want to look into different colored cutting boards with designated purposes to greatly reduce cross contamination risks.

How Food Safe Managers Can Train staff To Use Colored Cutting Boards Reduce Foodborne Illness Risk

While you can properly wash, sanitize an utilize generic cutting boards for any purpose, there’s often a chance that a cutting board can be mistakenly used for raw product and then prepared food or a board may be contaminated with an allergen that only one member of the kitchen is aware of, increasing the risk of it being used again. Purchasing color coded boards will clearly identify what type of product can be used on each cutting board. There are a few different patterns, but the most common codes are:

Green: Raw Vegetables
White: Cheese and Dairy
Red: Raw Meat
Brown: Raw Seafood
Yellow: Raw Poultry
Blue: Finished Product
Purple: Allergen Free

As you can see, food safe managers and their staff can clearly identify what product has been prepared on each board if the system is followed. A blue board that has been left out had obviously been used for cooked product while red, brown and yellow are warning flags that there is increased risk of cross contamination with raw product should that board be used for any other purpose.

We’ve looked at several sets available on the market, and many neglect the risk of allergen contamination. We strongly advise food safe managers look into purchasing a purple or uniquely colored cutting board that is reserved only for use in the event a guest with known allergies requests food be prepared on an allergen free surface.

The color code isn’t always a catchall, however, if you’re in doubt as to if a board is contaminated or not, take the time to wash it before using.

Do you use color coded cutting boards to prevent cross contamination?

February 28, 2022February 2, 2022

Proven Food Safety Manager Training For Your Delivery Service

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.

Proven Food Safety Manager Training For Your Delivery Service — *Image credit: belchonock via 123rf*

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?