Keep your Minnesota kitchen compliant. We track the latest food recalls and safety alerts so you can pull bad products fast and protect your customers.

Food Safety Training for Common 2019 Foodborne Illness Outbreaks

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At the end of every year, we like to take a look back at the previous year’s foodborne illness outbreaks to assess what food safety training measures need to be emphasized in the New Year to help prevent these outbreaks from spreading in Minnesota. While it’s not 100-percent complete, the CDC has compiled a list of outbreaks over the past several years, and this week we’ll take a look at some of the trends we see on this 2019 Foodborne Illness list.

2019 Outbreak Foodborne Illness Outbreak Report

2019 Outbreak Foodborne Illness Statistics and Food Safety Training

The Foodborne Illness outbreak news of 2019 was dominated by E.coli contaminated romaine and listeria in hard-boiled eggs, and the jury is still out as to the cause of these two contaminates entering the supply chain.

E.coli also reared its ugly head on several different occasions besides romaine lettuce including infected flour, ground beef and bison meat from a specialty supplier. Salmonella was also a frequent offender contaminating fresh fruit on multiple occasions as well as frozen tuna and ground meats.

So what do we do with these reports? Surely the food safety training community can’t prevent all of these outbreaks, can they?

While it may be impossible to stop every foodborne illness case, we feel that vigilant food safety training can go a long way towards reducing the risk to the public. A majority of these outbreaks happen at the packaging and harvesting level of the supply chain, so if your food business involves harvesting, processing or packaging ingredients to be shipped to food preparation outlets, here are a few steps we feel need to take place to help reduce these outbreak events.

  • Frequent food safety training
  • Properly outlined sanitation procedures
  • Inspection of equipment
  • Periodic review of food safety procedures

Food safety training isn’t meant to be a onetime thing. It’s important to provide regularly scheduled training sessions and reinforce safe protocols through periodic reviews with your entire staff.

When tracing the source of contaminates that spread an illness outbreak, investigators usually uncover contaminated equipment that hasn’t been properly maintained or sanitized. Inspect your equipment often and constantly review sanitation procedures. If you need help formulating a sanitation plan, your local health inspector will often be more than happy to help.

Does your facility produce raw ingredients for the use of food service businesses? If so, what steps do you take to keep your product safe?

Recall Effects Certified Food Protection Managers

Another Romaine Recall Affects Certified Food Protection Managers

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Here we go again. Near the end of November, the CDC reported 40 people in 16 states have fallen ill due to E.coli found in romaine lettuce grown in the Salinas growing region in California. Due to the vast amount of lettuce grown in this region, the FDA strongly urged consumers to dispose of all romaine in any form if there was any uncertainty as to where the lettuce was grown. This means that grocery stores, foodservice suppliers and restaurants were unable to use whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, chopped romaine or salad mixes that contain romaine. This left a multitude of affected certified food protection managers scrambling to find alternatives, especially considering the recall occurred just before a very busy Thanksgiving week.

Recall Effects Certified Food Protection Managers
Image credit: BlackRiv, Bruno Glätsch, Pezibear from Pixabay and Anita Hart from Flickr

Romaine Alternatives for Affected Certified Food Protection Managers During Recall

Romaine is a staple in the food industry. Due to its crisp texture and traditional use in Caesar salads, it’s always heavily in demand, but what can CFPMs do when it’s suddenly unavailable?

First thing certified food protection managers must do is inform guests that romaine lettuce is unavailable. This can be as easy as including a notice in your menus or in a visible location before guests are seated or served. Many guests may not follow the news and may have a negative reaction to being served a different type of product than what is listed on your menu.

Secondly, you may want to find as close of an alternative as possible. With the latest recall happening just before Thanksgiving, we’ve heard stories from foodservice professionals that even other forms of lettuce had become scarce due to demand for a romaine replacement and an abundance of caution concerning all produce from the Salinas growing region. While nothing really has the crunch and flavor of romaine, there are a few potential alternatives:

  • Iceberg Lettuce
  • Butter Lettuce
  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Leafy Greens

Of the above alternatives, none will have the crunch factor of a crisp romaine heart, but iceberg, butter and green leaf varieties of lettuce will still have similar flavors and could provide an adequate substitute until romaine once again available. We’ve heard of some certified food managers thinking outside the box and replacing some menu items with different salads containing leafy greens such as kale, bok choy and spinach.

We’re interested in how certified food protection managers have been affected by recent romaine recalls. What alternatives did you use during the latest romaine recall?

food safety managers plastic reduction

Certified Food Safety Managers and Plastic Reduction

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Over the past few years, some jurisdictions have sought to reduce the amount of plastic used in the foodservice industry, and while some businesses have been hesitant to make the change, many have embraced it. Eliminating plastic appeals to a wide selection of environmentally conscious consumers and can also potentially reduce the amount of waste your business produces. This week, we’ll cover a few plastic reduction alternatives certified food safety managers can utilize in their establishments.

food safety managers plastic reduction
Image credit: maxpixel.net -Coffeetogo

Plastic Reduction Alternatives for Certified Food Safety Managers

If you were to take a quick tour of any restaurant, you’d find a number of plastic items. To-go boxes, bags, straws, utensils and take-out serving dishes are all commonly made from plastic. Whether you’re voluntarily reducing your plastic usage or your local jurisdiction has passed codes and laws preventing plastic use, your certified food manager will have to find alternatives for these types of items. Here are a few solutions that you can employ to replace plastic necessities in your facility:

  • Paper and compostable boxes and bags
  • Reusable takeout containers
  • Biodegradable utensils and straws

In the past, plastic bags and Styrofoam to-go containers have been go-to packaging for guests looking for take-out or a way to bring leftovers home. With current trends, many different manufacturers have started producing paper bags and compostable boxes that are either easily recyclable or will break down over time rather than take up space in a landfill. These items may cost a little bit extra, but as more companies produce these products costs should begin to decline.

With the latest update to the Minnesota Food Code, the rules concerning reusable containers have been updated and more clearly outlined. Reusable containers not only reduce plastic waste, they give you the opportunity to sell or provide your guests with reusable take-out containers with your logo and branding on them. This can not only help to conform to local plastic reduction codes but provide a valuable marketing tool for certified food managers to draw repeat business from loyal guests.

Straws and utensils such as forks, spoons and knives present unique challenges since many consumers prefer a sturdy utensil that won’t break during use. The good news is that many companies are now producing durable wood alternatives and great advances have been made to produce robust biodegradable utensils that can easily replace plastic.

Are you making an effort to reduce plastic waste in your facility?

New Study Into E.coli Contaminated Romaine

Food Safety Training and Further Study Into E.coli Contaminated Romaine

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E.coli outbreaks linked to romaine from Arizona made headlines on multiple occasions over the past two years. The link between E.coli and romaine has been the most talked-about story in the food safety training community, and the causes of the outbreaks still continue to be investigated. Now, academia has gotten involved as researchers from the University of Arizona have partnered with the FDA on a multi-year study of E.coli contaminated romaine from one of the growing regions linked to past outbreaks.

New Study Into E.coli Contaminated Romaine

Goals of an Extended Study of E.coli Contaminated Romaine Growing Regions

Due to the massive scale of the previous outbreak, food safety officials and growers alike are eager to get to the bottom of why outbreaks happen and how to prevent them in the future. The extension scientists from the University of Arizona have a few goals in mind with this extended study.

  • Assess potential sources of contamination
  • Examine the prevalence of contaminates from one growing season to the next
  • To provide recommendations for advanced food safety training

There have been numerous theories as to how E.coli has made its way into the Yuma growing fields. Contaminated water, poorly cleaned harvesting equipment and even flies have been suggested as a cause of recent outbreaks. Hopefully, researchers can isolate a cause and help prevent the transfer of pathogens in these fields again.

One of the advantages of a multi-year examination is that researchers will be able to see what happens from one season to the next. This could help identify whether this is an ongoing issue with the region that requires drastic action or if previous outbreaks were due to isolated incidents. Once these issues are addressed, these researchers and the FDA hope to have extensive food safety training recommendations for romaine producers in Arizona and throughout the agricultural community around the country.

Do you think there’s been enough effort put into examining the link between romaine growing regions and E.coli outbreaks?