Food Safety Blog and CFPM Resource Hub

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Simple But Powerful Dishwashing Essentials Training For CFPMs

Simple But Powerful Dishwashing Essentials Training for Certified Food Protection Managers

Your dishwashers are an important member of your team. Providing them with adequate food safe training can help prevent unintentional food safety hazards from arising. This week, we’ll take a look at three items that we feel all certified food protection managers (CFPMs) should include in any dishwashing training program.

Simple But Powerful Dishwashing Essentials Training for Certified Food Protection Managers
Image credit: Dollarphotoclub_12947910

CFPM Training Essentials for Dishwashing

While your dishwashers may have already passed their food safety course online. That may not fully prepare them to be sure that they are using your specific machine properly. We have three things that you should focus on whenever training a new dishwasher.

  • Keep clean dishes separate from dirty ones.
  • Dishes must air dry
  • Chemicals in the machine must be checked often

The first item may seem like common sense. However, the line between staging areas for clean dishes and where dirty are dropped off often blurs in a busy facility. As a certified food protection manager, you can train your staff to appropriately sort and stack dirty dishes when leaving them for your dishwasher. It can help eliminate this issue and make life easier on one of the hardest working members of your team. Also, having a completely separate table or cart for your clean dishes can prevent any confusion.

Towel drying your dishes after they have come out of the machine is a thing of the past. Dishes should air dry, as to prevent any possible transfer of contaminants from towels to clean utensils.

Our third item is very important. Make sure that your dishwashers know how to check the chemical levels of your machine and replace them when necessary. It is a good idea to have sanitizing test strips available. You can use them to make sure that your machine has the appropriate amount of sanitizer running through the system.If there is a problem with your machine using too much or too little solution, contact your maintenance provider to adjust it as soon as possible.

In a Pinch Use the Triple-Sink Dishwashing Method

If your machine becomes inoperable, you can still use the triple-sink dishwashing method. It is acceptable. For a quick review on what that entails, it may be beneficial to review the Minnesota Food Code’s official triple-sink dishwashing protocol.

The dishwasher in their favorite restaurant has been the starting point for many certified food protection managers. Do you remember those intense moments of a Friday night fondly, or have you moved on without looking back?

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Emerging Food Safety Training For Surprising Burn Prevention Results

Food Safety Training training for burn Prevention

Food Safety Training in MN focuses on how to keep the food you serve safe, but from time to time we feel it is important to discuss how to keep you safe on the job. Burn incidents occur frequently in this business. Our food safety training team would like to share a few burn prevention tips.

Food Safety Team Tips on Workplace Burn Prevention

Here are our top three ways to reduce your risk of a severe burn:

  • Use mitts designed for hot handling
  • Ensure that production line personnel keep hot pans safely off the line
  • Exercise patience

Many chefs and food service professionals may disagree with our food safety team’s first suggestion, but we have seen quite a few burn incidents involving the use of a folded cloth towel and a hot pan. The cleaning towel’s design does not allow it to hold heat for an extended period of time, even when folded; it is not meant for that purpose. Cloth towels can also become damp or torn causing the heat to penetrate much faster.

Food Safety Training training for burn Prevention
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Hot pans coming out of the oven and placed on the production line are a common sight in busy restaurants. You must emphasize to your staff that food on these pans should be plated promptly. Accordingly, the hot pan should be removed without delay. Having hot pans lying near where a food worker can pick it up can greatly increase burn risk.

Our last food safety suggestion is one of the easiest burn prevention tips to teach but the hardest to practice. The food service industry is intense and induces a natural pressure for quick performance. No matter how much pressure you are under, do not open a steamer before it has finished or empty a fryer basket of food before excess oil has drained.

Recommends For Burn First Aid

If you do receive a burn on the job, it is important that you take care of it immediately to prevent further damage. The first thing you need to do is to immerse the burn under cool, running water for 10-20 minutes. Skin care products like aloe vera cream or an antibiotic ointment and pain medication can usually treat outer skin burns. Finally, wrap the burn in gauze and keep it clean. If the burn is more serious a urgent care or emergency room visit is advised. In any serious case, it may be advisable to take some time to allow it to heal before going back to work.

Preventing burns in the food preparation environment is certainly not the only issue that our food safety team can address. There are many hazards that are specific to the food service industry. Our food safety team would like to know which ones are of the most concern to you, and what hazards you would like to see covered in a future blog.

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How MN Certified Food Managers Prepare For The Employee Turnover Challenge

How food managers prepare for employee turnover-now hiring sign

Employee turnover is inevitable in any business, but it is especially high in the hospitality, restaurant, and industrial food processing industries. How should the MN certified food managers prepare for employee turnover scenarios such as, surprise labor shortages, employees moving away, or vacancies due to promotions or transfers?

How MN Certified Food Managers Prepare For The Employee Turnover Challenge

Image credit: jackf via 123rf

Tips for Certified Food Managers Dealing with Employee Turnover

A business should not turn away resumes when they are not currently hiring. Current human resource practices tend to still collect unsolicited resumes from potential job seekers. Applicants can submit their resumes at any time, regardless of whether your business is currently hiring or not. This way, you’ll have a roster of potential candidates in case any unexpected vacancies arise. Rather, the MN certified food manager should look at an unsolicited resume as an opportunity to build a roster of candidates that would be qualified for future employment.

Recognizing Potential Employees

Not all submitted resumes need to be saved. A quick review can determine which ones to keep and which to discard.

It is not uncommon for a manager to contact an applicant, even if they are not hiring. Certified food managers should be on the look-out for stellar staff even when their employment roster is already full. If an applicant submits a resume with extensive industry experience, certified food protection manager, and unique skills, save and highlight their resume as having potential.

Even if there are no available positions, the company may offer an interview to a highly qualified candidate. During the interview, they can be informed that no job openings are available at the present, but the company is interested in considering them in the future. If the candidate is exceptionally good, the company may even create a position for them.

As a certified food manager keeping an open outlook on your staffing, even when there are no current needs, is a good preventative measure against labor shortages and will streamline the hiring process should you need to fill any vacant positions.

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3 Fantastic Insider Wardrobe Considerations For ServSafe Trained Employees

Hair restraint demo for ServSafe work wardrobe

Whether your uniform accessories are there to add style, provide convenience or a celebrity TV chef makes it look cool, there are several uniform quirks that every ServSafe MN trained employee should avoid. The list of uniform components that pose as food safety hazards can be quite extensive. However, we would like to focus on three components that ServSafe-approved kitchen attire should never include.

Three ServSafe Wardrobe Components to Kick Out of the Kitchen

Anything that you add to your work dress instantly becomes susceptible to the same contamination risks as the rest of your uniform. We believe that a ServSafe based uniform policy should not allow the following three things:

  • Dry towels attached to uniform
  • Arm and hand jewelry
  • Baseball caps as head coverings

Many food workers feel that it’s convenient to loop a dry towel around apron strings or sling it over a shoulder. It keeps your towel handy and readily available when a plate or cutting board needs a quick wipe. Unfortunately, the apron is a common collector of dirt, grease, and debris in the kitchen. The shoulder of your uniform can become contaminated with sweat and other bacteria. Keep your dry towels stored in a clean place that will allow them to be easily accessible when needed.

The regulations concerning jewelry in food preparation facilities are often overlooked. The food code prohibits wearing anything other than simple wedding bands and plain rings. Arm and wrist bands, rings, and other accessories can often go unnoticed, particularly by front-of-the-house staff in restaurants. If an employee requires a medical alert bracelet, they can replace it with a necklace or anklet. Management should also be informed about employees wearing such jewelry. It can be quickly located in the event of a medical emergency.

A shelter dog demonstrating hair and beard restraint approved by ServSafe kitchen dress code
ServSafe approved kitchen wardrobe. Image credit: Babylon Animal Shelter

Baseball Cap Safety Issues

While the Minnesota Food Code concerning head coverings doesn’t disallow baseball caps, we feel that there may be a few ServSafe based contamination concerns with incorporating them into your dress code. Most ball caps are crafted from absorbent cloth, and the bills are generally constructed from cardboard lined with soft material. Over time this cloth and cardboard can become saturated with sweat, steam and other substances. This creates a potential breeding ground for bacteria. We recommend keeping paper head coverings or hair nets as they are ideal. However, we understand that baseball caps are more comfortable and familiar, so if they are part of your dress code, please keep them clean and replace them regularly.

These three items seem like they are simply providing style, comfort and convenience in the work place, but unfortunately they also create contamination dangers. By making it policy to eliminate them, you can make the cleanest kitchen even safer.

Safe Food Training provides ServSafe MN training and exams, but we source our regularly scheduled courses from NRFSP. We rely on their expertise to ensure the highest quality training for our clients. Minnesota Department of Health, Environmental Services accepts both ServSafe and NRFSP exams for Food Protection Manager Certification in MN. Click this link for more information on ServSafe MN.