Christine Dantz, Author at Safe Food For Thought

December 26, 2017December 13, 2017

The Certified Food Manager and the Preparation of Large Roasts

Roasts and turkeys are common items served on holiday buffets and catered parties. These items bring with them a unique food-borne illness potential, and certified food managers should take steps to ensure that their roasted meat is safe for their guests.

How Certified Food Managers Can Prevent the Spread of C. perfringens

C. perfringens ranks as one of the most common food-borne illness culprits. This bacterium exists in raw meat and poultry, and it historically causes outbreaks in facilities such as nursing homes and schools and at catered events where large quantities of food consist of roasted meat. To reduce the risk of the spread of illness, it’s important that all poultry is cooked thoroughly and to and internal temperature of 165 degrees, and meat roasts must reach an internal temperature of 145.

Larger portions of meat pose a second hazard when it comes time to cool and refrigerate them. Big chunks of poultry, beef and pork cannot simply be placed in the refrigerator whole. The Minnesota Food Code outlines proper cooling procedures for this type of product.

All product must be cooled from 140 degrees to 70 degrees within two hours and to 41 degrees after reaching 70 within four hours
Large portions must be sliced or cut into smaller sections
Meat should be placed into shallow pans
If necessary, an ice bath should be used to bring cooling foods down to 41 degrees as soon as possible

While it’s important to be diligent throughout the rest of the year, the holiday season brings out many guests who may not often frequent your establishment, so proper cooking and cooling procedures are a must. If your outlet serves children, the elderly or other high-risk groups, make sure that your staff is fully trained on these procedures.

We’d like to know what your favorite holiday meals are. Leave your go-to dishes in the comments section below.

December 19, 2017December 13, 2017

ServSafe Online Certification During Busy Times of the Year

During the holiday season, many restaurants are busy and need their staff fully trained and ready to work. There could be times during this hectic time of the year when your establishment needs to bring in a new food safety manager or have other staff members who still require their food safety training. Online certification may be the best option in this scenario.

ServSafe Online Training

While an instructor led course gives students the experience of learning in a classroom environment from an engaging teacher who is ready to answer any questions that arise, occasions do occur where your business cannot be without a fully trained manager while you await the next scheduled training session. If you have a situation where you’ve just hired a new employee and need certification right away, the benefits of a ServSafe online certification course include:

Online courses do not adhere to a specific schedule, they can be taken day or night.
There is no need or travel to take the training. Online courses can be taken from your place of business or a student’s home.
Online training is perfect for experienced food safety managers who may only need a refresher course before testing.

Taking a test online not only speeds up the process during your busier times, but can also be a handy tool when it comes time to renew your certifications. We always suggest to keep a copy of your training materials after you have finished your training courses so that you’ll have a guide when it comes time to review for recertification testing.

At Safe Food Training, we’ll gladly meet your online food safety training needs if you have employees who need certification right away and cannot make one of our scheduled instructor led classes.

Do you enjoy the convenience of online testing, or would you prefer to send your staff to an instructor led course?

December 5, 2017November 8, 2017

Winter Hours and the MN Certified Food Manager

Now that fall is here and daylight savings time has given us one less hour of daylight in the evening, many restaurant goers are choosing to dine out earlier in the evening. For some restaurants, this could mean a nearly empty dining room as the night wears on and closing time approaches.

MN Certified Food Managers and Winter Hours

An empty dining room is never profitable, no matter what time of day it is. MN certified food managers still need to pay the salaries of cooks and wait staff as well as utility bills. It’s important to find solutions that help you maintain a healthy profit margin during the winter months when some diners forgo eating out to save up for Christmas shopping and holiday events.

If you notice a major drop off in business an hour or two before closing, you may wish to adjust your hours of operation accordingly. Some restaurants close an hour earlier during the first part of the week so that they can reduce labor costs during non-peak hours. Keep in mind that weekends still bring out late night diners, so look at the patterns of days you still have a full dining room before adjusting your schedule.

If you’re simply not comfortable with closing early, there are still plenty of options to keep your bottom line in check. Some restaurants keep their bar or lounge open while closing a majority of their dining room. This will allow you to serve a limited menu that can be prepared with a skeleton crew in the kitchen and eliminate the need for excessive service staff eating up payroll. However, due to local liquor regulations minors may not be able to dine in your lounge, so keeping a couple of tables outside of bar area may be a wise decision.

Do you make adjustments during non-peak dining times in the winter season? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.

November 28, 2017November 28, 2017

A Business Case for Food Safety Training

With the costs of goods and labor rising, restaurant owners and managers feel pressure to keep profit margins from evaporating. Many search for a way to cut expenses, whether it’s reducing staff, rewriting menus to reduce food costs or finding suppliers that provide goods at more affordable prices. While it’s tempting to reduce costs by only requiring key staff members to receive food safety training, there are incredible financial risks involved in skimping on employee training.

The Financial Downfall of Neglecting Food Safety Training

When exploring the financial repercussions of lax food safety training standards, one only has to look at the high-profile case of Chipotle Restaurants.

In 2015, the Chipotle chain made the news on a few occasions for sickening its guests with the Norovirus, E.coli and Salmonella on several different occasions. In fact, the CDC reported six outbreaks in a short period of time. The news could be even worse for the company, as attorneys representing Chipotle’s stockholders have discovered several other unreported outbreaks dating back to 2014. These very public events have caused Chipotle stock to plummet, being worth only about a third of what it was before these incidents became public.

Looking at the number of incidents and the variety of pathogens involved, it’s fairly obvious that although these outbreaks have stemmed from the same company, they are too different to be closely connected. It’s our opinion that there must have been significant gaps in food safety training at a corporate level. Investing in proper training may have prevented these outbreaks and saved the company a significant amount of money in lost revenue.

Not every Chipotle restaurant was affected by the outbreak, and the company has survived to remain operational today. However, if a smaller business had suffered from this type of negative publicity, they may not have the means to recover from a significant drop in revenue. Making sure resources are allocated to provide food handling training will not only keep your food safe, it may prevent a financial disaster and keep your doors open.

At Safe Food Training, we offer many different types of safe food training and will gladly tailor a course to effectively teach your staff the proper way to handle the food you prepare.