Certified Food Protection Manager Archives

October 12, 2020September 20, 2020

How Strict New Romaine Growing Standards Help CFPMs

Over the course of the past several years, we’ve seen numerous recalls on romaine lettuce and other leafy greens due to foodborne illness outbreaks. These recalls have caused headaches for Certified Food Protection Managers (CFPMs) as they’ve had to pull popular items like Caesar salads off of menus and scramble for replacement greens with every recall. The good news for CFPMs, the romaine lettuce growing industry is adapting and large growing regions in California and Arizona are adopting stricter regulations to prevent contaminated greens from being shipped to restaurants and grocery stores around the country.

Strict New Romaine Growing Standards Help CFPMs — Image credits: PxHere

CFPMs Benefit FromTougher Romaine Growing Standards

CFPMs should be able to rely on the quality of produce they receive in order to keep their customers safe. When they receive romaine or other greens that are tainted with E.coli, salmonella, listeria or other bacteria, there is often little they can do to prevent this contamination from spreading to their guests. In many cases, even rinsed and cleaned lettuce still contains traces of contaminates that are only killed at high temperatures.

The instability of the safety of the greens for major growing regions has forced CFPMs to reconsider where they source their produce. Some source it from outside California and Arizona, and others rely on indoor hydroponic farms to ensure the safety of their fresh greens. This has put pressure on major growers to adopt new standards to keep their greens safe. Some new rules going into effect in Arizona and California growing regions include:

Stringent treatment of water sources to remove pathogens
Enhanced water testing methods
Rewritten protocols to prevent groundwater from contacting edible parts of plants
Updated regulations for equipment storage and sanitation
Outlined practices to prevent the edible portion of greens from contacting soil during harvest

As you can see, the studies that have linked contaminated water and pathogens in Romaine lettuce have led to changes in the testing and treatment of water. Growers are also recognizing the connection between soil contact and contamination and taking steps to prevent contamination through contact with the ground, tools that have touched the soil and other possible contacts that could contaminate lettuce during harvesting.

While there’s very little CFPMs can do with some contaminates, it’s important to be aware of changes in the lettuce growing industry that could make volatile ingredients such as leafy greens safer to consumers.

Do you feel large growers are doing enough to keep the greens they ship safe for consumption?

September 28, 2020September 18, 2020

Fantastic New Food Service Manager’s Guide for Mask Enforcement

In order to comply with Stay Safe MN guidance, restaurants are required to ask guests and staff to wear a properly fitted face-covering in indoor settings. For the most part, customers will automatically adhere to these guidelines, but there are some that will argue or refuse to follow them. What should food service managers do in order to comply with mask enforcement guidelines and prevent an incident with an unruly guest who refuses to wear a face-covering in dining areas?

Food Service Manager's Guide for Mask Enforcement During Covid-19

How Food Service Managers Can Promote Mask Use Without Confrontation

Food service managers have enough on their plate as it is, so dealing with customers who refuse to follow mask mandates adds additional frustration during already trying times. We have a few suggestions that may ward off a confrontation before it begins.

Food service managers should have clear signage that masks are required indoors. Customers should be made well aware of that before they even set foot in your establishment. Since reservations are required for indoor dining, guests should be reminded when making these reservations that that will not be allowed in the building without a face covering. We’d also recommend that you provide curbside pick-up and let potential guests know that to-go orders are available. If you have these options available, those who do not wish to wear masks will have the ability to order from your restaurant without stepping foot inside.

People are usually understanding if they know ahead of time that these rules are in effect, so making it abundantly clear could go a long way towards preventing frustration.

We’ve talked to a few restaurateurs who have had customers try to use a couple of popular lines of reasoning in order to enter dining rooms without face coverings. The two most common reasons guest attempt to boycott face coverings are:

Violation of Constitutional Rights
The Americans with Disabilities Act

From a legal standpoint, the First Amendment of the Constitution does not apply to private residences or businesses. To put it simply, the First Amendment applies to the U.S. government restricting speech, not your private business. Food service managers can refuse to serve those not wearing a mask without violating their Constitutional rights.

The ADA does require restaurants to make accommodations for those with disabilities unless doing so would impede their ability to safely serve other guests. Since CDC guidelines state that asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers could spread the disease, it’s a food service manager’s duty to make sure masks are worn. In this case, recommend curbside pick-up or to-go orders if you have a guest who may not be able to breathe for long periods of time while wearing a face covering.

How are you communicating mask rules to your customers?

September 21, 2020September 20, 2020

Certified Food Protection Managers and Recall of Peaches

Certified Food Protection Managers and Recalled Peaches

In a recent recall announcement, the FDA has notified consumers that a large number of peaches may be contaminated with salmonella. These peaches have been shipped by a major fruit producer and could have found their way into the supply chain for restaurants and other food producers. According to the CDC, there have been at least 23 cases of the strain in Minnesota, the most of any state thus far. How should certified food managers react to this outbreak?

Certified Food Protection Managers and Recall of Peaches — Image credit: needpix.com

Recall of Tainted Fresh Peaches and Certified Food Protection Managers

First, if certified food protection managers have any peaches that can be traced back to the recalled Wawona brand peaches or Wegman Food Markets, dispose of them immediately. The highest-risk establishments for this outbreak are grocery stores, but many restaurants supplement their fresh fruit supply in small batched from local markets. This means there may be a chance food-producing businesses may have them in their inventory.

If you have already processed these peaches into baked goods or other prepared items, you must dispose of any potentially contaminated product. According to the FDA, these peaches could have been on the market as early as June 1, so make sure you check your dates on any frozen items you have produced that contain peaches.

As always with such a widespread recall, if you have any doubts as to the safety of your produce or items made from potentially contaminated fruit, you should err on the side of caution.

Have you checked the FDA’s recent recall alerts or the embedded CDC Recall widget on the sidebar of this Safe Food For Thought Blog site to make sure you’re not using contaminated ingredients?

August 10, 2020August 10, 2020

CFPM Working From Home

It may sound improbable, but food Certified Food Protection Managers ( CFPMs ) may want to consider the benefits of working from home, at least part-time. Before we get too carried away, you should realize that we’re not talking about food preparation from home. That might create an absurd scenario where your prep cook washes and chops lettuce, ships it to the cold-line cook who assembles a salad then mails it to the sous chef for final touches before sending it to a server via a private courier for delivery to the customer, and besides, food preparation in your home kitchen is still a violation of the Minnesota food code.

Working From Home and the CFPM

What we’re talking about here are tasks that CFPMs can take care of away from the restaurant such as:

Scheduling
Order processing
Creating training material
Menu design

With current restrictions on the number of customers and staff allowed on the premises in order to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, a certified food protection manager’s time is rather constricted when actually in the building. Under pre-COVID-19 regulations, the food safety manager could schedule more staff on days when there was office work to be done, relieving him of on-the-floor duties. Now, the food safety manager has to take an active role in food preparation, quality assurance and the oversight of the Stay Safe MN guidelines for Minnesota food production facilities.

With all of these roadblocks in the way of office work, we’d suggest that CFPMs schedule a few hours a week to take care of what office tasks they can from home. Staffing schedules, creating new menus and crafting training materials can easily be done from a home PC. Many POS systems even allow for remote access so you can track sales, and many foodservice suppliers have online ordering capabilities. We suggest you talk to your suppliers and the IT department of the company that supplies your POS software to discover what remote options you may have.

Do you find yourself taking care of more of your office duties as a CFPM at home rather than at your restaurant?