Food Safety Blog and CFPM Resource Hub

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.

November 21, 2017November 8, 2017

How Certified Food Managers Use Hands-Free Features to Reduce Utility Costs

Many certified food managers utilize hands-free faucets and soap dispensers in their restaurant’s guest washrooms. These are attractive for many reasons. They keep utility costs down by only being on when someone is using them, and they generally keep guest washrooms cleaner. While restaurateurs take advantage of automated faucets in public places, there are numerous advantages to incorporating hands-free devices in the work areas of your kitchens.

How Hands-Free Options Can Lower Utility Bills

Faucets in food-service handwashing stations can be covered in countless bacteria. Soiled hands turn them on and leave contaminates from raw food and other sources on the handles. While proper handwashing technique requires faucets to be turned off with a paper towel, this does not completely eliminate bacteria on the surface. Installing a hands-free system will prevent dirty hands from spreading bacteria to faucets and reduce the risk of spreading pathogens by turning on and off the faucet.

Hand-free faucets also reduce waste. These systems only turn on when an employee is actively using the sink. This keeps the water from running while an employee dries their hands or forgets to turn it off completely. The back of the house uses more water than guest bathrooms, and reducing water waste in the kitchen can go a long way towards keeping utility costs in check.

Hand-free faucets are not the only energy saving solution for your kitchen. Installing motion-sensor light switches will keep lights off in rooms that are often empty such as janitorial closets, dry storage areas and employee break rooms. Rising electricity rates can eat into your bottom line, and making sure that unused areas are not needlessly lit can help your profit margin.

Hand-free faucets and motion-sensor light switches are only two ways certified food managers can control their utility costs. Do you use any other kinds of automation in your facility to your lower your monthly bills?

November 14, 2017November 8, 2017

ServSafe Food Safety Managers and Contaminated Frozen Vegetables

During the month of October, we’ve come across several recall notices involving frozen vegetables. A few of these recalls occurred due to possible listeria contamination, and one brand in particular was recalled without the location of distributed product being fully disclosed. Since the FDA did not require this distributor from alerting the public to the risk of contamination of nearly 25,000 cases of frozen product, we’d like to discuss how ServSafe food safety managers can keep guests safe from potential illness.

Food Safety and Frozen Vegetable Preparation

While listeria is more commonly associated with deli meats and unpasteurized dairy product, the recent rash of recalls shows that other foods carry the risk of contamination. The frozen product in question may have picked up this bacterium during processing or packing. Steps that help prevent listeria poisoning from spreading to your guests include:

Fully cook frozen vegetables to 140 degrees
Cook frozen vegetables without thawing
Keep all cooked vegetables out of the danger zone when hot holding
Serve cooked product quickly if not hot held
Keep an eye on recall notices

When discussing cooking temperatures, proper procedure for vegetables tends to get overlooked. The proper cooking and holding temperatures for plant based ingredients is 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Paying close attention to temperatures will reduce the risk of food-borne illness.

Cooking frozen vegetables directly from the freezer rather than thawing also reduces the risk of having bacteria multiply. Most frozen vegetables are blanched before packaged and frozen. While thawing, plant matter will become soft, giving bacteria ample breeding grounds. If you feel the need to thaw frozen vegetables, make sure that you thaw them in the refrigerator rather than at room temperature. Most food-borne pathogens multiply rapidly at warmer temperatures.

As with any other cooked food product, vegetables should be served as soon as they are cooked. Letting any product that is not hot-held sit for lengthy periods of time increases health risks exponentially.

Finally, ServSafe food safety managers need to keep an eye on recall notices. A handy widget on our blog page gives you a glance at recent recalls, and the FDA updates their recall site frequently.