Blog - Page 112 of 118

November 8, 2016October 12, 2016

Food Safe Training and Menu Design

After a long day of teaching food safe training classes and helping food service professionals obtain their food safety certification, we like to visit the local restaurants that many of our students represent. We often notice is that many of the restaurants we eat at seem to have incredible menu designs while others could use an adjustment or two to make them more presentable to their guests.

Food Safe Training and Menu Design

Menus not only let your guests know what dishes you offer, they have the potential to tell the story of your restaurant. We feel that a well-designed menu is like a well written novel. Your menu can display your personality, intrigue your diners and help you build a reputation. Here are some tips that we hope you find helpful when designing your next menu:

• Be clear but concise
• Be true to your theme
• Avoid clutter
• Have defined dish types

We have seen some menus that take meandering steps to describe each dish. That can confuse diners and cause them to scan over items with long descriptions. If you own a book store café or some other themed restaurant, you may take liberties here to fit your restaurant’s theme, but in many cases you will be best served to utilize simple descriptions. Many fine dining restaurants even skip the descriptions and simply list key components.

You also need to remember that it is important to be true to what you envision your theme to be. Use fonts, layouts and backgrounds that identify with your décor or the style of cuisine that you serve.

Finally, we’ve stepped into restaurants after a food safe training class and have been handed a convoluted menu with very little rhyme or reason. The fonts were elegant, the menu looked classy, but it took a while to find the type of dish that we were looking for. To avoid a cluttered menu, make sure that you group like items together. Have a section of burgers, maybe organize by food types, or even separate your dishes by the type of proteins involved. However you organize your menu, make sure that you take the time to assess whether or not it is organized in a logical and readable manner.

On a final note, with so many guests suffering from allergies and having special dietary needs, we suggest you consider finding a way to alert your guests if any item contains common allergens. We find it also helpful to see menus that identify vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options, and remember, if you serve any dishes that contain undercooked proteins or eggs, you must include a disclaimer somewhere on your menu.

November 1, 2016October 5, 2016

Restaurant Websites and the Certified Food Manager

When we give certified food manager exams we are often privileged to discuss other aspects of the food industry with experienced professionals after they have completed food safety testing. Recently, we engaged in a discussion on the value of restaurants and food-production facilities having their own websites. We see a lot of benefits to investing in having a unique web presence, so we thought we would share some of the highlights of past discussions.

The Certified Food Manager and Restaurant Websites

While word of mouth advertising has its benefits, we have discovered that more and more potential guests turn directly to their smart phones and tablets when scoping out local restaurants. While having great reviews on Yelp and a five-star Google rating can help you attract customers, many will take their review of your restaurant one step further by looking at your business’ website. From listening to qualified professionals, it is our opinion that a guest may choose a similar restaurant to yours simply because they can easily access the menu and get a feel for you a location’s ambiance from the convenience of their computer or tablet.

Your website should be unique, and we have a few suggestions to could help you come up with a visually appealing plan if you choose to create a website or hire a designer to do it for you.

Visually show off your style
Have an easily accessible menu
Allow mobile viewers to easily navigate your site

It is important that visitors to your webpage get a feel for your cuisine and ambiance the second they visit your site. It is also important to note, that many of these viewers will be on the move looking for a place to eat, so you may wish to consult with a web designer that has experience designing mobile friendly websites.

Finally, potential diners are going to want to know what is on your menu. Having a concise, easy to read menu on your web page will go a long way towards attracting them to your location. It could also have visually appealing pictures of your dishes, but if they get in the way of the actual menu, visitors to your site may look elsewhere if your menu page is convoluted.

Having a well-designed webpage does not only benefit local food producers. If you are a certified food manager that has a product on local grocery shelves or sell your prepared food at any other outlet, consumers may pull out their smartphones to investigate your product for further information before making a decision to purchase your goods.

Web pages are just one modern marketing technique used to attract customers. Do you have an online marketing strategy that works for you?

(Note: Street Level Solutions has been handling Safe Food Training’s Internet marketing needs since 2013. They have years of experience and will give a free no strings attached consultation to anyone who mentions this blog.

“Websites are just one of the many digital marketing tools that a business needs to consider when creating a marketing plan. Each restaurant and food-production facility is unique, if you want to get more customers you need to tell them how you’re different, show them why they need to try your establishment then consider the most effective way to get that message in front of your prospective customers. I’d be happy to brainstorm with you to help create a plan. You can contact me at (763)416-2000.” Dave Haas, Street Level Solutions)

October 18, 2016October 12, 2016

Will FDA Definition of Health change Food Safety Certification?

Recently, the FDA opened a public inquiry requesting comments on how to define the term “healthy” as it relates to the labels on packaged foods. While this appears only to immediately impact the retail sector, any time the FDA changes any regulation the potential exists that the food service industry will see the effects. We do not foresee any upcoming changes to ServSafe or food safety certification requirements, but this looks like an important topic to explore.

FDA Impact of Food safety certification — Image credit: commons.wikimedia.org

FDA Definition of Healthy and Food Safety Certification

The time period to give the FDA your opinion began on September 26th, so we would like to ask a few questions pertaining to this inquiry in case you plan on submitting your opinions.

• Should a government agency define healthy?
• Should the public define healthy?
• Is there one definition of healthy that works for all consumers?

It is not our intent to influence your opinion on what the FDA’s role is when it comes to the diet of consumers in our country, but we do think we should consider whether or not the FDA is responsible for deciding what healthy means. We all know that the FDA enforces and maintains regulations that keep our food supply safe from natural and man-made hazards, but does a food’s nutritional value fall under their department’s jurisdiction?

On the other hand, does the general populace have all of the information necessary to determine if a food is “healthy”? Even many experts disagree on which types of foods have health benefits and how much of each nutrient we need to consume. We all like to think that we know what is best for us, but how does product labeling influence our food choice decisions?

Finally, can we simply put the entire population in a box and tell them what is healthy for some is healthy for all. The FDA’s inquiry resulted from a complaint that foods rich in certain fats that have health benefits for some consumers are refused the “healthy” label. There may be questions as to whether refusing the “healthy” label to all foods that contain fats will prevent consumers from purchasing items that contain certain elements that may actually have nutritional value.

These are only a few of the questions that we have come up with that should be considered. If you’d like to submit your opinion, the FDA is currently accepting your comments on the topic of how to define “healthy” as a food label until January 26, 2017. We would also like to know how you feel about this topic so please leave your input in the comments section below.

October 11, 2016October 5, 2016

Delivery Drones and NFSRP Standards

Chipotle restaurants recently announced that they will begin testing a drone delivery service at Virginia Tech, and earlier this year Domino’s began using robots to deliver pizza in New Zealand and Australia. We enjoy seeing creative innovations in the food industry, but we also feel the need to examine these achievements from a food safety perspective. With unmanned delivery drones and robots being tested, we grow curious to see if major food safety training standards such as NFSRP and ServSafe adjust their regulations with growing automation in the food service industry.

NFSRP and Automated Delivery Service

While researching the topic, we found that the biggest hurdle for automated delivery services lie with the authorities that govern transportation. The FAA and local jurisdictions can regulate the airspace used by commercial drone operators, and they have expressed concerns that the possibility exists that the risk of drone failures and crashes will increase in crowded airspaces as these services become more popular. We also see increasing studies into the hazards of driverless vehicles, and we would like to see whether or not a robot can successfully navigate busy city sidewalks and crosswalks without incident. So before we begin carpet bombing college campuses with foil wrapped burritos and calculating how big of a tip to give your favorite delivery robot, we must wait and see what types of regulations will be put in place.

One issue that we can address is the issue of food safety. Under the current food code, delivery drivers who do not prepare your food do not have to obtain any form of food safety certification, so we can probably assume that there is no rush to create droid level NSFRP training courses. One issue that concerns us, especially with prepared products such as burritos that contain highly sensitive beans and rice, is whether or not these prepared food items will spend a significant amount of time in the danger zone. Bacteria in beans, rice and many proteins thrive in lukewarm temperatures, and from what we have seen, delivery drones do not contain any warming equipment. The robots being tested in New Zealand seem to have an interior storage space that possibly contains a heating system, but from some of the test footage we have seen, burrito drones simply carry burritos from restaurant to customer. Given the potential for food-borne illness, we feel that this issue needs to be addressed.

These exciting innovations leave us wondering what is just over the horizon. If the old Jetson’s cartoons were any glimpse into our future, we hope that flying cars will be next. What futuristic innovations are you waiting to see revolutionize the food industry?