Food Safety Certified Managers & Hot Air Hand Dryers

Food Safety Certified Managers and Hot Air Hand Dryers

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Once touted as a convenient and sanitary aid in handwashing, touchless hot air hand dryers are in a multitude of public restrooms. However, during a recent study performed at the University of Connecticut, scientists discovered that hot-air hand dryers do more than remove water from your skin, they blast bacteria onto your hands and circulate fecal matter throughout the restroom.

Food Safety Certified Managers & Hot Air Hand Dryers

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Food Safety Certified Managers and Bacteria from Hand Dryers

Minnesota Food Code rules do allow for your facility to employ the use of heated hand dryers as long as they are not “the only device provided at the sink,” but given this current study, we think discussing the use of these devices in your kitchen or public restrooms would be prudent.

Touchless hand dryers provide a convenience for guests and save money on supplies by not wasting disposable paper towels, but is equipping restrooms with devices that actually cover users with invisible particles of fecal matter in the best interest of food safety?

To be on the safe side, we suggest you consider automated paper towel dispensers as a replacement for forced-air hand dryers. These provide the opportunity to procure a paper towel with a wave of the hand and avoid contact with a potentially contaminated surface.

Now may also be a good time to make sure that all of your restrooms are equipped with a current handwashing fact sheet.

It will be interesting to see how health departments and the food-service industry will react to this information in the future. Considering the results of this study, will you still be utilizing hot-air hand dryers in your restrooms?

Online ServSafe Guide to Raw Egg Handling

Online ServSafe Guide to Raw Egg Handling

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In the month of April, a supplier of eggs to the East Coastrecalled whole shell eggs due to a number of cases of Salmonella illnesses that may have been linked to their product. Even though it appears Minnesota escaped this risk unscathed, now would still be a good time for an online ServSafe review of raw egg handling habits.

Raw Shell Egg Handling Procedures

Many Salmonella cases result from improper cooking or handling procedures. Most outbreaks can be avoided by following a few simple steps:

  • Fully cook products with raw egg ingredients
  • Use liquid pasteurized eggs when possible
  • Do not pool raw shell eggs
  • Always wash your hands after handling raw eggs

The Minnesota Food Code states that all raw shell eggs must be cooked to a temperature of 145 degrees. This does not mean that restaurants and outlets that offer breakfast service are prohibited from serving their eggs sunny side up or over easy. If you offer eggs on your menu, customers who verbally request them undercooked can receive them if the eggs are cooked and served immediately. In order to be in full compliance with the rules to serve undercooked eggs or other animal products a clearly visible warning that consuming undercooked animal product comes with health risks needs to be included on your menu.

For dishes such as omelets, scrambled eggs or any other product that does not require a whole shell egg, pasteurized liquid eggs should be used. These liquid eggs should replace any kind of egg pooling procedure. Egg pooling occurs when multiple whole raw shell eggs are cracked and stored in the same container. Putting large numbers of cracked raw eggs in one container greatly increases the risk of the spread of Salmonella.

Whether this topic is covered in online ServSafe training or one of our instructor led courses, we inevitably hear from chefs who claim that some recipes do not work with liquid eggs. In these cases, you may wish to use whole pasteurized shell eggs or consult your local health department to discuss solutions and alternatives for your ingredients.

Certified Food Manager and Major Recalls

The Certified Food Managers and Major Recalls

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Last month, an outbreak of E.coli linked to romaine lettuce from Arizona left grocery store produce sections bare and certified food managers scrambling to find replacement ingredients for salads after a large amount of available product was pulled from the supply chain. When such an important ingredient suddenly becomes a potential food-borne illness risk, several steps must be taken.

Certified Food Manager and Major Recalls

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Romaine Contamination and Certified Food Managers Reaction

The first step when news of a recall like this breaks must be to stop serving any potentially contaminated product. In this case, most romaine in restaurants and other food preparation outlets had to be thrown away. We must urge that you always take immediate and extreme action when something of this nature occurs. It would be better to err on the side of caution rather than contribute to an E.coli outbreak.

Due to the time of year, this recall affected much of the country. Cold spring weather in many states means suppliers need to rely on farmers in states such as Arizona where the weather is warm enough for this type of produce. Drastic action to recall lettuce was taken due to 98 potential cases in 22 states.

Once certified food managers remove product, they are left with a situation that compromises the availability of many items on their menu. So how does a kitchen manager adjust?

First, certified food managers should be up front and open with their guests. Placing a notice in the menu or in a visible location at a service counter, hostess station or cashier stand should be the first step. Your customers will understand if you let them know there has been a recall and, in the best interests of their health, you are unable to serve certain menu items for a short period of time.

Fortunately, with something such as romaine lettuce there are alternative ingredients. Green leaf or iceberg can serve as a temporary replacement if that is something that would be acceptable to your customers.

With the advances in technology and communication, many of these outbreaks have been contained before they become major disasters. How do you react when you have to pull product off of your shelves due to a recall?

Certified Food Managers and Touch Screen Devices

Certified Food Managers and Touch Screen Devices

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With modern advances in technology, certified food managers and touch screen devices are becoming inseparable.Managers rely more and more on handheld and mobile devices for everything from scanning and checking in deliveries to giving servers the ability to place an order directly from a guest’s table. These devices make our jobs easier, but are they creating a new risk that could possibly spread food-borne illnesses?

Certified Food Managers and Touch Screen Devices

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Sanitation, Certified Food Managers and Touch Screen Devices

While these touch screens may look clean, over the course of a workday, or even with one use, bacteria and other potential contaminates will transfer from the user’s fingers onto the surface. These contaminates can then be transferred to the hands of anyone else handling the device and make their way onto plates, serving utensils and prepared food.

Current trends show that these touch screens are not only utilized by front-of-the-house staff, they are becoming more popular in the back of the house as well. Some kitchens have replaced the receipt ticker with a screen where filled orders can be swiped away with the flick of the finger and tablets are being used for everything from inventory control to time clocks. The back of the house presents the greatest risk of cross contamination, so extra care must be taken when handling these devices in food preparation areas.

Handwashing and training will be key to keeping your food safe. Certified food managers need to remind every member of their staff that they must wash their hands after using one of these devices for any reason. It may not occur to them that a simple swipe with one finger could result in a contaminated product. It may also be wise to ask your janitorial or food service provider if they have a product that will safely sanitize your touch screens without damaging them.

Do you utilize touch screens in your operation? If so, let us know how in the comments section below.