Food Certification MN Training Archives

November 21, 2017November 8, 2017

How Certified Food Managers Use Hands-Free Features to Reduce Utility Costs

Many certified food managers utilize hands-free faucets and soap dispensers in their restaurant’s guest washrooms. These are attractive for many reasons. They keep utility costs down by only being on when someone is using them, and they generally keep guest washrooms cleaner. While restaurateurs take advantage of automated faucets in public places, there are numerous advantages to incorporating hands-free devices in the work areas of your kitchens.

How Hands-Free Options Can Lower Utility Bills

Faucets in food-service handwashing stations can be covered in countless bacteria. Soiled hands turn them on and leave contaminates from raw food and other sources on the handles. While proper handwashing technique requires faucets to be turned off with a paper towel, this does not completely eliminate bacteria on the surface. Installing a hands-free system will prevent dirty hands from spreading bacteria to faucets and reduce the risk of spreading pathogens by turning on and off the faucet.

Hand-free faucets also reduce waste. These systems only turn on when an employee is actively using the sink. This keeps the water from running while an employee dries their hands or forgets to turn it off completely. The back of the house uses more water than guest bathrooms, and reducing water waste in the kitchen can go a long way towards keeping utility costs in check.

Hand-free faucets are not the only energy saving solution for your kitchen. Installing motion-sensor light switches will keep lights off in rooms that are often empty such as janitorial closets, dry storage areas and employee break rooms. Rising electricity rates can eat into your bottom line, and making sure that unused areas are not needlessly lit can help your profit margin.

Hand-free faucets and motion-sensor light switches are only two ways certified food managers can control their utility costs. Do you use any other kinds of automation in your facility to your lower your monthly bills?

September 5, 2017August 9, 2017

Food Training and Tracking a Food-Borne Illness Outbreak

As food safety professionals, we often play Monday morning quarterback whenever we read a news story about a major food-borne illness outbreak. We wonder what NFSRP standards were violated or if the certified food manager neglected some aspect of safe food training when bringing on new staff. Fortunately, the CDC tracks the vital statistics of an outbreak to bring a clearer picture of how they get started.

Food Training Guide to the Source of Food-Borne-Illness Outbreaks

One glaring statistic in the CDC’s collection of data that drew our attention is that 88-percent of outbreaks begin at a restaurant rather than a food packaging facility. This means that restaurant supervisors must implement quality food training methods that will enforce the importance of diligence in sanitation, prevention of cross contamination and proper temperature control. There is a very slim margin of error when it comes to keeping food safe, and in the fast paced atmosphere of a restaurant kitchen, the consequences multiply when food handling mistakes occur.

A second statistic that jumps out at us is the method of contamination. The top factors for food becoming contaminated are attributed to an employee handling food in some manner while infected with an illness. We think that this speaks volumes as to what a restaurant’s policy should be about working sick. Employees must not handle food while infectious.

The last statistic we’d like to point out is that over 45-percent of food poisoning outbreaks come from multi-ingredient dishes. Second and third place weren’t even close with vine vegetables at eight-percent and fish at seven-percent. There is no real trend to point to one protein or vegetable that is more likely to cause an outbreak than another. This means that all food needs to be handled with care, no matter what type of cuisine in on your menu.

If you’re a restaurateur, do these statistics surprise you? Let us know in the comments section.

December 6, 2016December 29, 2016

MN Certified Food Manager Training and the Private Chef

When we offer MN certified food manager training, we teach students from every sector of the industry. In one of our recent sessions, we had a student whose goal was to become a private chef and offer catering services and culinary classes to individuals and small groups in their own homes. One question that was asked was if there were any special regulations that applied to private chefs that differ from the standard rules that apply to institutions, food producers and restaurants. We thought this was an interesting discussion, so we felt it beneficial to share some information that we have learned.

MN Certified Food Manager Training and the Personal Chef

While conducting our research, we found that there are a few different regulations that vary by county or metro area, but there are four licenses or certifications that most jurisdictions will require:

Minnesota Food Manager Certification
A License to Run a Food Establishment
A Catering License
A Federal Tax ID (EIN)

If you’re considering becoming a personal chef, we suggest that you contact your local government office to find out which licenses you need in your particular jurisdiction. If you need your MN certified food manager training, we would be happy to tailor a course designed specifically for your catering venture.

There are a few other aspects of being a personal chef that differ from regular catering services. While in many cases it is acceptable to prepare food for clients at their home or other location, you should be aware that most jurisdictions will require you to have a preparation and storage facility that can be inspected by the health department. This presents a unique challenge for many personal chefs whose clientele consists of a small number of people.

We have been asked if private chefs are allowed to use their own personal home kitchens to prepare food before transporting it to a client’s location. Unfortunately, this is not an acceptable solution according the health inspector we discussed this scenario with. Many private chefs solve this problem by leasing space from other caterers with industrial kitchens or local restaurants who are willing to allow them access to their kitchen before they begin their service for the day.

Personal chefs are not the only unique part of the food industry. If you’re considering any food based business that doesn’t quite conform to industry standards, please leave your ideas in the comments section and we’ll do our best to cover it in a future article.

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.