Food Manager Certification MN Archives

January 9, 2018January 5, 2018

Certified Food Managers and January Marketing Ideas

With the holiday rush over and the new year beginning, January can be one of the slowest months of the year for food service businesses, restaurants in particular. Many potential diners swear off eating out in favor of healthier options and others attempt to conserve their finances to make up for over spending on Christmas presents and December activities. While business declines, it does not necessarily halt completely and there are ways certified food managers can cater to guests looking to start a new diet or stick to a budget.

How to Bring in Guests After the Christmas Season

When the clock strikes 12 on December 31st, many people resolve to eat healthier in the new year. Certified food managers can capitalize on these resolutions by providing new, healthier options on their menus or as rotating specials. Some popular diet choices include:

Gluten-free
Vegetarian
Zero sugar
Low-carb

Your creative kitchen staff should be able to come up with dishes that appeal to those seeking to lose weight via one of these popular diets, the only challenge is getting the word out that you have these items available. Social media is a great outlet to draw attention to your new menu choices. Posting pictures and highlighting the dietary benefits of these new dishes will grab the attention of your possible guests searching for healthy dining outlets.

Reaching people with a limited budget presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Restaurateurs need to go further than offering discounted menu item or distributing coupons. Offering visitors to your establishment something special at an affordable rate will appeal to a wider range of patrons than a simple coupon. Three course meals are a popular choice. You can offer guests smaller portions and give them a full meal experience that fits in their budget. Just make sure that you’re presenting them with a creative option rather than a scaled down version of regular menu items. Your creativity will be rewarded.

If you have any other tips for generating business during the January lull, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

October 31, 2017October 5, 2017

Types of Food Safety Manager Certification Training

You’ve worked hard and you’ve finally landed your first job as a food service supervisor. Congratulations! Now, the only thing left to do before you take on your new role is to make sure that you have the proper food safety manager certification required by the state of Minnesota.

The Food Safety Manager Certification Training Process

When the time comes to get certified, you have the option to choose between two types of training and exams; an online food safety certification course or an instructor led class and exam. Benefits abound for each type of course, so you have the opportunity to choose which style works best for you.

Online food safety manager certification training offers a high level of convenience and accessibility. These sessions can be viewed from any computer with an internet connection, and they can be taken at your own pace, night or day. When taking an online course, you schedule your own breaks giving you time between sessions if your schedule doesn’t allow you to finish in one sitting.

The biggest advantages to taking an instructor led certification course is that there is a teacher available should you have questions and class interaction to identify issues you may miss when sitting by yourself in front of a screen. If a question occurs during an online session, you’re on your own to clarify topics that you’re unsure about. This sometimes leads to more confusion and frustration if you cannot find the answers that you’re looking for. Classes led by an experienced instructor take place in a low-stress environment with a knowledgeable industry expert who is available to answer any questions that arise.

Safe Food Training offers both online and instructor led food safety manager certification training and examinations. Our 5 star rated classes are held at several convenient locations around the twin cities/central Minnesota. Which style of course do you feel fits the lifestyle of a busy food service supervisor?

August 29, 2017August 31, 2017

ServSafe Food Manager Certification and Public Health

ServSafe Manager Certification and Public Health

Gaining your ServSafe food manager certification qualifies you to oversee food preparation in a restaurant or production facility and it comes with an obligation to ensure that your product is safe for the consumption of the public. This responsibility to the health of your customers is unique to the food industry and at many times requires supervisors and food service workers to make sacrifices that adversely affect them in order to protect public health.

ServSafe Food Manager Certification and Public Health — Image credit: Wikipedia

The requirement to stay home from work when sick often puts food service workers in a bind. Many other professions don’t have this restriction, allowing professionals outside of the food industry to go to work when under the weather. Food service employees must use up sick days, vacation time or forgo a day or two of pay to prevent the spread of their illness.

Evidence of food workers ignoring their health symptoms and working anyway becomes evident in news reports of Norovirus outbreaks. The Norovirus is easily spread by infected workers or exposed workers who fail to wash their hands properly. Whether it’s only one guest or several, diners who contract the Norovirus take that out into the world once they leave the eating establishment. This results in putting their friends, family and co-workers at risk of second-hand contamination.

The good news is that most supervisors take pride in their responsibilities and follow what they’ve learned during ServSafe food manager certification training. Many of them sacrifice for the greater good and stay home when ill and even days after to recover. An important key is to take care of yourself in order to reduce the chances of becoming ill and staying healthy enough to work every day.

Working with food comes with many challenges that don’t exist for most of the workforce. Are there any issues you’d like us to discuss in the future?

May 23, 2017May 9, 2017

Food Manager Course Guide to Foreign Objects in Prepared Foods

Occasionally, a news story breaks about a recall for foreign objects in pre-packaged foods. For the most part, the contaminating object breaks off of production equipment or comes from an employee, but recently a producer voluntarily recalled packages of frozen hash browns for containing parts of golf balls. We’re not sure if the company shared packaging facilities with a sporting goods store or if the potato farm doubled as a driving range, but we’re sure that strict oversight and review of food manager course guidelines may have prevented this situation.

Preventing Outside Contaminates in Packaged Food Products

If you’re a certified food manager that oversees a production facility, you need to review your procedures from time to time. Hopefully, your staff understands that items such as golf balls don’t have a place on the production floor, but it may be a good idea to take the time to remind your team about what belongs in your production facility and what does not.

We suggest that you train your team to keep any objects that do not relate to their duties away from preparation areas. Here are a few tips to prevent unnecessary contaminates from ending up in your product:

Provide lockers for employees’ personal items
Keep uniforms simple without buttons and removable badges
Frequently inspect equipment for loose or broken parts

Most cases of foreign items causing food hazards arise from negligence or a lack of control over what is brought to the production floor. If you have a safe place for employees to store personal items such as keys, loose change and sporting goods, there will be less chance of these items falling out of their pockets and into your food. Keeping employee lockers away from the production floor will further decrease the odds that foreign objects will end up of food packages.

Broken and worn out equipment is also a likely culprit when it comes to non-food ingredients falling into packaged foods. Inspect your equipment on a regular basis to ensure that everything is in good working order. This will not only prevent parts from falling off, but will also alert you to any problems that could eventually shut down production.

While food manager courses can give us the guidelines to

Contaminates in Packaged Food

, our continued diligence and training is important to keep our customers safe. What other steps do you take to keep foreign objects out of your food?