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Five remarkable Ways certified food planners can beat the heat

Five Remarkable Ways Certified Food Managers Can Beat The Heat

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Summer temperatures can be brutal on kitchen staff, and certified food protection managers need to find ways to keep their staff healthy without sacrificing food safety. Since we’re nearing the dog days of summer, let’s take a look at a few ways certified food managers can beat the heat.

Five Remarkable Ways Certified Food Managers Can Beat The Heat
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Tips for Certified Food Managers to Surviving Summer Heat in the Kitchen

We all have our horror stories about the hottest kitchen we’ve ever been in, but before your current one becomes the next inferno, you may want to look into better ways to cool your kitchen. We’ve talked to many certified food protection managers, and we’ve compiled the top five ways to keep your staff cool:

  • Air curtains
  • Better fan locations
  • Frequent break times
  • Clean hood vents
  • Adequate hydration

Simply propping open an exterior door can provide some airflow to kitchen areas but may allow for insects to intrude, especially after dark when moths, flies and gnats are attracted to the light. Installing an air curtain over your doorways will allow for fresh air, but keep bugs away.

Fans are the most common way to introduce airflow into the kitchen and cool staff down, but beware about where you place them. Make sure that any fans placed in the kitchen do not blow air onto preparation or cooking surfaces. Fans can suck in dust and other contaminants, spray microscopic particles off of raw food onto other surfaces and potentially introduce other contamination hazards to the force of blown air. To prevent this, many certified food protection managers supply fan stations away from the line in non-food areas for a brief respite or place them at ground level to offer some air circulation.

Many times, kitchens overheat due to the ventilation system not functioning properly. Before the summer heat begins to melt your line cooks, make sure that hood vent filters are cleaned regularly and the system is in good working order.

Our last tip doesn’t necessarily involve a cooling method, but dehydration can raise the human body’s internal temperature causing overheating. Certified food managers can also beat the heat by ensuring your staff drinks plenty of water, or provide them with an electrolyte-fortified drink to prevent dehydration from becoming an issue.

Useful Idea for CFPMs- Bolster Staffing with Culinary Students

Useful Idea for CFPMs- Bolster Staffing with Culinary Students

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We’ve heard reports from some certified food protection managers CFPMs that the industry seems to have a shortage of applicants for open positions, and many food businesses are scrambling to bolster their staff to keep the kitchen fully staffed. Where help-wanted signs and ads on popular job websites may not be working, perhaps a call to your local culinary school would help fill vacancies, at least in the short term. We’ve talked to a few culinary instructors and found that they’re also looking for food businesses and CFPMs who have staffing opportunities to help their students gain real-world experience.

Useful Idea for CFPMs- Bolster Staffing with Culinary Students
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How Culinary School Students Can Help Solve a Staffing Crisis for CFPMs

Over the past few decades, culinary schools have become more popular and have spread beyond exclusive schools for future high-end chefs to local technical and junior colleges for those looking to get their foot in the door in the industry. There are even programs at some larger high schools where students can earn future college elective credits by taking culinary classes, so while there may be a shortage of seasoned food-service professionals, there’s no shortage of those interested in learning about the industry.

CFPMs who need to fill staffing vacancies can take advantage of the culinary education sector by contacting these programs and searching for possible candidates for open job positions. These candidates may be raw when it comes to real-world experience, but they’ll have the desire to grow and learn. Many of these programs even require an internship or work-study, so your business’ interest in hiring a culinary student helps them to graduate and earn their degrees.

For the most part, internships and work-study programs aren’t exactly the beginning of a full-time career path for applicants in your company, but CFPMs can temporarily alleviate the staffing shortage for a set amount of time. These programs have a certain number of required work hours, so you’ll have a good idea as to an end date for your new temporary hire, and who knows, you could find a passionate professional who loves working in your food business and decides to stay if the option is available.

Has your certified food protection manager considered looking into hiring interns from a Minnesota culinary school?

Food Safety Training Tips For Handling Knives

See 5 Remarkable Food Safety Training Tips For Handling Knives

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No matter what type of food business you run, knives will be a vital tool in your operations. Learning how to use a knife safely is important to reduce injury but can also help promote food safety. Since it’s such an important tool in the industry, we should take a look at five tips for food safety training for handling knives effectively.

Food Safety Training Tips For Handling Knives
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Knife Food Safety Training Guide For Using Knives

We’ve identified five steps to keep knives safe and reduce the risk of food contamination from improper use:

  • Use Proper Technique
  • Use the Right Knife for the Job
  • Use Appropriate Cutting Surfaces
  • Clean and Sanitize Properly
  • Keep Knives Sharp

Every staff member who handles a knife should have food safety training on how to handle it properly. Improper knife use can lead to cuts, slices of human flesh ending up in product and the inability to open doors due to missing digits. Knife techniques are best learned visually, so take a look at the following video demonstrating proper knife techniques.

Many knife injuries occur when the wrong knife is used for a specific job. If you’re using a paring knife for mincing onions, not only will it take forever, but you risk the knife slipping or sticking, whereas a chef’s knife is much too long to devein shrimp causing the risk to sliced fingers.

The cutting surface you use can greatly affect both personal and food safety. Glass, stainless steel and other slick and hard surfaces can cause knives to slide or bounce almost guaranteeing an eventual injury, while soft surfaces such as wood can be damaged by knives creating small grooves that can become breeding grounds for bacteria. The best cutting surfaces are NSF-approved cutting boards that can be easily cleaned and sanitized.

Knives also need to be cleaned and sanitized properly for food safety. Even if you’re only preparing vegetables, knives should be sanitized after each use. Over the course of time, remnants of food can begin to decay-causing a pathogen risk if used again unsanitized. It’s often recommended that knives be cleaned by hand using appropriate sanitizing solutions as chemicals in dishwashing machines can create microscopic pits in knife blades causing them to dull quicker and harbor bacteria.

Finally, there is an increased risk of injury and food safety risks from dull or uncared-for knives. A sharp knife will slice through product without bouncing off surfaces or changing angles during entry. Dull knives can also be more difficult to keep clean, increasing a foodborne illness hazard.

Have you taken the time to evaluate food safety training and knife use in your kitchen?

Revealing New Certified Food Manager Debate: Day Dots Versus Labels

Revealing New Certified Food Manager Debate: Day Dots Versus Labels

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The Minnesota health code requires certified food managers to utilize a date marking system to keep tabs on when food was produced and stored in their business, but it doesn’t require a specific type of marker. We’ve asked some of our Certified Food Manager students where they stand in this date marking controversy, and we’ve heard a lot of different answers, so we thought we’d explore the different types of methods used.

Revealing New Certified Food Manager Debate: Day Dots Versus Labels
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An Online Certified Food Manager Guide for the Date Marker Debate

Just for a quick review, certified food managers should date mark all food that is:

  • Ready to eat
  • Stored for over 24 hours
  • Refrigerated

All food prepared or moved from its original packaging should be marked with the date it was made or stored, but which marker is the best? We’ve heard several suggestions, but two stand out; day dots and preprinted labels. Certified food managers have strong opinions on the subject, so we’ve had some lively discussions on the pros and cons.

On one side of the certified food manager date marker debate, day dots are color-coded to a specific day of the week, giving a quick visual of when the product was made, but they do have the drawback of limited space to include any details besides the date. Preprinted labels come in a variety of types but often come in a format allowing for the date, what is in the container, the staff member who produced it and the expected shelf life. These labels can be more expensive than day dots, take more time to decipher and could be harder to remove from plastic and metal containers.

During our certified food manager discussion, We also heard of some other creative solutions that may be more cost-effective, but might not be as convenient as using day dots or pre-outlined labels. Masking tape or painter’s tape has been suggested, but oftentimes this will leave glue behind on your storage bins creating a hassle for your dishwasher when containers are empty. We also heard of writing directly on plastic wrap that covers the container. This unfortunately doesn’t meet the standards as plastic wrap can easily be discarded or broken by a felt pen, and please don’t ever consider writing directly on food product, even with edible ink.

Where do you stand on the date marking debate?