Christine Dantz, Author at Safe Food For Thought

June 6, 2017May 9, 2017

Certified Food Managers and Vacation Time

The Certified Food Manager and Vacation Time

Certified food managers need time away from the kitchen every once in a while, but many skip vacations out of a sense of duty. Food service supervisors are not indestructible and tend to make mistakes when overworked, so we’d like to provide some encouragement for those who can’t seem to get away for more than a day or two.

Certified Food Managers and Vacation Time — Copyright: pixdesign123 / 123RF Stock Photo

The Benefits of Vacation Time for Certified Food Managers

Vacations can be a great way to take a step back and refresh mentally and physically. Food service is a fast paced and stressful environment, and some of the health risks that come from stress can be relieved by taking an extended break. Doctors claim that vacations can help moderate blood pressure, improve mental health and provide many other benefits for those who work in stressful environments.

Taking a break from the job also helps with creativity and productivity. If you do the same type of work non-stop for months at a time, chances are you’ll fall into a routine that may not incite new ideas. Removing yourself from food service for a week or two helps clear away your routine and could inspire new ideas to improve your operation. Stepping away from your duties also helps to get out of the rut of going through the motions. We know that certified food managers are passionate and driven, but even the best fall into the habit of stretching out and delaying tasks they do on a daily basis. Taking a trip away from work gives supervisors a new focus when they return.

Most professionals ignore their vacations because they feel that their operation would crumble without their oversight. Trust your staff and make sure that you put a plan in place that everyone can follow in your absence. You and your facility will be much better off with a rested and renewed certified food manager.

May 30, 2017May 14, 2017

The Purpose of Food Safety Certification Exams

Whether in person or online, we’ve proctored thousands of food safety certification exams and occasionally we have a student raise their hand at a key point and ask: “Will this be on the test?” That’s not a question we can answer, because honestly, the instructors don’t know what will be on the test. This gives us the opportunity to teach our students how to be the best certified food managers they can be.

Food Safety Certification Exams Preparation’s Ultimate Goal

While it’s required for food service supervisors to obtain certifications in order to do their job, our aim isn’t to hand out as many certifications as we can. Our focus will be on giving you the tools to keep your guests safe from food-borne illnesses.

When you enroll in our food safety certification classes, we recommend that you come prepared to absorb the material and be ready to engage with your instructor and classmates. We find that students who’s objective is simply to pass the test tend to overlook important information while searching for bullet points and possible answers. Coming to class relaxed and eager to learn will give you a great opportunity to gain your certificate and benefit you in the long term.

The good news is that our method of teaching you how to keep your food safe rather than coaching you how to pass the exam results in an over 90 percent first-time pass rate. If you review the pre-course material and arrive ready to learn, you should achieve successful results.

A good portion of our success rates comes from student input. After you’ve finished our course, let us know how the material not only helped you become certified, but also how our training has improved how your facility handles food safety.

May 23, 2017May 9, 2017

Food Manager Course Guide to Foreign Objects in Prepared Foods

Occasionally, a news story breaks about a recall for foreign objects in pre-packaged foods. For the most part, the contaminating object breaks off of production equipment or comes from an employee, but recently a producer voluntarily recalled packages of frozen hash browns for containing parts of golf balls. We’re not sure if the company shared packaging facilities with a sporting goods store or if the potato farm doubled as a driving range, but we’re sure that strict oversight and review of food manager course guidelines may have prevented this situation.

Preventing Outside Contaminates in Packaged Food Products

If you’re a certified food manager that oversees a production facility, you need to review your procedures from time to time. Hopefully, your staff understands that items such as golf balls don’t have a place on the production floor, but it may be a good idea to take the time to remind your team about what belongs in your production facility and what does not.

We suggest that you train your team to keep any objects that do not relate to their duties away from preparation areas. Here are a few tips to prevent unnecessary contaminates from ending up in your product:

Provide lockers for employees’ personal items
Keep uniforms simple without buttons and removable badges
Frequently inspect equipment for loose or broken parts

Most cases of foreign items causing food hazards arise from negligence or a lack of control over what is brought to the production floor. If you have a safe place for employees to store personal items such as keys, loose change and sporting goods, there will be less chance of these items falling out of their pockets and into your food. Keeping employee lockers away from the production floor will further decrease the odds that foreign objects will end up of food packages.

Broken and worn out equipment is also a likely culprit when it comes to non-food ingredients falling into packaged foods. Inspect your equipment on a regular basis to ensure that everything is in good working order. This will not only prevent parts from falling off, but will also alert you to any problems that could eventually shut down production.

While food manager courses can give us the guidelines to

Contaminates in Packaged Food

, our continued diligence and training is important to keep our customers safe. What other steps do you take to keep foreign objects out of your food?

May 16, 2017May 11, 2017

The Top Food-Borne Illnesses and the ServSafe Food Manager

There have been several outbreaks of food-borne illnesses that received national attention in the past year, but are the pathogens that receive the most media attention the biggest culprits that sicken consumers? This week, we take a look back at the top causes of food-borne illness.

Common Food-Borne Illnesses and the ServSafe Food Manager

Now that the data from 2016 has been compiled, we’ve learned some interesting things about food-borne illness trends. The top four causes of illnesses in 2016 included:

Campylobacter
Salmonella
Shigella
E. coli

While Salmonella and E. coli dominate the news cycle whenever there an outbreak happens, the number one cause of food-borne illness generally goes unreported. Campylobacter causes fever, nausea and abdominal pain and most commonly effect small children and young adults. We hear very little about this bacterium because serious cases rarely happen and only a few long-term complications can occur. Although rare, some of the more serious cases of infection have been linked to appendicitis and arthritic-like symptoms. Campylobacter contaminates food that has come into contact with animal or human fecal matter and commonly comes from chicken and poultry products. It also exists on unwashed fruits and vegetables that grow where a chicken manure based fertilizer is used or food product that is handled by unclean hands.

Shigella bacterium sometimes causes serious symptoms and is closely related to dysentery. Studies show that as little as 100 ingested bacteria can lead to symptoms, making Shigella the easiest contracted food-borne illness when present in food. ServSafe food managers must train their staff diligently to prevent the spread of Shigella since severe cases can cause seizures, intense abdominal pain and a risk of death in the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Proper hand washing reduces the risk of the spread of Shigella, and those that contract it should be aware that it spreads for weeks after symptoms have dissipated.

Modern data collection and the reporting of illness statistics gives us a wider view of health concerns that result from improper food handling. Are there any rarely covered issues that you’d like us to address in a future article?