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First Aid Kits for Food Safety Managers

Expert Guide to First Aid Kits for Food Safety Managers

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At Safe Food Training our focus is usually on keeping your food safe and food manager certification in Minnesota, but from time to time, we like to provide useful information on how to keep your employees safe when on the job. Hopefully, you do everything that you can to prevent on-the-job accidents, but there are many hazards in the food service industry, so food safety managers need to make sure that your first aid kit is fully stocked and handy in case of an on-the-job incident.

Background On Why Food Safety Managers Need First Aid Kits In Their Kitchen

According to The US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Private industry workers in full-service restaurants incurred 93,800 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2019. About one-third of these cases required at least one day away from work. Another source, Restaurant Technologies’ “Kitchen Safety 101: How to Prevent Costly Restaurant Injuries” reveals the four most common injuries in commercial kitchens are:

  1. Cuts, lacerations, and punctures
  2. Slips and falls
  3. Sprains and strains
  4. Burns and scalds
First Aid Kits for Food Safety Managers

Items Food Safety Managers Should Include In A Kitchen First Aid Kit

First aid kits are for first aid! They should not be stocked for long-term care. If there is any question that the wound or trauma is anything more than a minor injury, the injured person should be encouraged to seek professional care immediately.

Whenever there is a minor incident in the kitchen, the first place food safety managers or employees look for supplies is the first aid kit. Here are some items that we feel are essential to have on hand in the event of a minor mishap.

  • Disposable medical gloves
  • Multiple styles and sizes of Band-Aids/bandages
  • Individual use antiseptic wipes
  • Sterile gauze pads/dressings
  • Various sizes of elastic compression bandages

While this list is far from complete, these five items will come in handy for situations that commonly occur in commercial kitchens. To protect the injured person as well as the caregiver, various sizes of medical-grade gloves should be available and worn before any contact is made.

We do recommend that you have nearly every style of Band-Aid available for your staff. With sharp knives and utensils in use in every kitchen, employees will inevitably cut themselves from time to time, and they’ll need access to the appropriate bandage.

With industrial steamers, ovens, and deep fryers posing a constant burn threat, sterile gauze pads must be stocked in your first aid kit to clean the wound in addition to self-adherent cohesive bandages to hold protective sterile dressings in place.

Finally, stocking different-sized elastic compression bandages to help support sprains and strains is a great idea. Food safety managers can alternate these first aid items with ice packs to control swelling at the site of a soft tissue injury.

Food safety managers, what’s in your first aid kits?

Food protection managers keep food safe

Expert Ways Food Protection Managers Keep Fresh Baked Goods Safe

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Bakeries and other food businesses that regularly make their bread, desserts, and other baked goods have a unique set of challenges when it comes to food safety. The certified food protection managers in these businesses need to take care to train their staff on safe handling procedures for baked goods throughout every aspect of the business.

Food Protection Managers Keep Fresh Baked Goods Safe
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Tips for Food Protection Managers Handling Fresh Baked Goods

In restaurants and other food businesses, products are made in the kitchen and delivered to a table for near-immediate service. Bakeries, however, prepare most of their treats ahead of time for display or delivery. Some of the challenges certified food protection managers need to overcome include:

  • Cleanliness of Preparation Equipment and Surfaces
  • Shelf-Stable Products vs Temperature Controlled Items
  • Display Cleanliness
  • Common Allergens

Just like in restaurants, all equipment and surfaces used in bakery production should be cleaned and sanitized, but some equipment in bakeries requires a little more attention due to the size of mixing bowls, implements, and other large bakery utensils. All of these should be thoroughly cleaned and dried before use. It takes just a small amount of bacteria growing on wet equipment to infect an entire batch of bread, cakes, cookies, and pastries. Make sure all surfaces are dry and free from sanitizer, water, and other contaminants.

Certain bread products do not require refrigeration after they have been made, however, some baked goods may have elements that must be kept cold. Certified food protection managers in bakeries must be very clear with their staff concerning which baked goods require temperature control.

Display cases must also be cleaned regularly, and not with just a quick spritz of glass cleaner so customers can see your product more clearly. Shelves, display racks, and plateware should all be cleaned and sanitized regularly. Make sure that all cleaning solutions used have had time to dry and do not come in contact with food.

Bakeries have a high risk of contamination from common allergens due to some of the ingredients used in some baked goods. Food protection managers should assure all baked goods with allergens such as peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy and dairy are clearly labeled. If possible, display, store and prepare these items away from other baked goods.

Have you taken the time to evaluate procedures in your bakery that are different from standard restaurant food handling routines?

food protection manager fundamentals make serving wild mushrooms safe

Food Protection Manager Fundamentals That Make Serving Wild Mushrooms Safe

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We are well into fall, and that means that wild mushroom season is in full swing. Many certified food protection managers love adding fresh, local ingredients to their menus, and mushrooms are no exception, but with wild mushrooms come some unique food poisoning risks. If you plan on serving wild mushrooms this fall, reviewing these food protection manager fundamentals could prevent serious illness.

Food Protection Manager Fundamentals Make Serving Wild Mushrooms Safe
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Food Protection Managers and Wild Mushrooms

For food protection managers to understand why wild mushrooms present such a high risk, we should look at the symptoms of mushroom poisoning. Unlike in cartoons, poisonous mushroom won’t just make you see funny shapes and colors for a few minutes, eating them poses a real threat to your health. Consuming poisonous mushrooms can result in:

  • Vomiting
  • Fever
  • Kidney failure
  • Irregular Heartbeat
  • Seizures
  • Death

As you can see, the consequences of eating poisonous mushrooms range from mild to the ultimate consequence. So how can certified food managers reduce the risk of accidentally serving bad mushrooms to guests?

The first, and probably most important, step is to only purchase wild mushrooms that have been harvested and inspected by a certified wild mushroom harvester. Certified harvesters receive the training necessary to understand the difference between good and bad wild mushrooms and help ensure that only the edible mushrooms make their way into your food business.

Secondly, food protection managers must make sure that wild mushrooms are washed just before use. Washing mushrooms will remove dirt and contaminants that could sicken guests. However, make sure that you wash them as close to use as possible. Being a fungus, wet mushrooms pose an enormous risk for mold, mildew and other bacteria when wet, so make sure the time between washing and cooking is kept as short as possible.

As with all questionable product, food protection managers must should use your best judgement when serving wild mushrooms. If your wild mushrooms don’t look, smell or feel right, don’t use them. It’s better to lose a little bit of product than sicken your guests.

Do you serve wild mushrooms in your business?

The Truth About Food Protection Managers Moving Product Safely

The Truth About Food Protection Managers Moving Product Safely

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In food businesses with multiple locations, there are often situations when one location runs out of a certain product and must borrow some from another outlet some distance away. Foodborne illness risks result if food protection managers don’t take the appropriate steps to ensure food is transported safely. To keep food safe when moving ingredients from one location to another, let’s outline the steps that food protection managers must take to keep food safe in transit.

The Truth About Food Protection Managers Moving Product Safely
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Food Protection Manager Tips for Transporting Product to Secondary Facilities

When we’re talking about food or ingredients that are at risk during transport, we’re mostly discussing raw ingredients or chilled ready-to-eat foods. Ingredients that come in cans, plastic containers or in sealed boxes that are shelf-stable at room temperature pose little to no risk at all when moved from one facility to another. If any of these products are open, however, pathogens and debris could enter the containers and cause a risk, so it’s a good idea for the food protection manager to ensure all shelf-stable products remain sealed during transit.

The real risk comes from moving raw food from one place to another. Items such as fish, meats, dairy and cut fruits and vegetables need to remain out of the danger zone during transportation. Smaller items can be kept in a cold storage bag or even a cooler with plenty of ice to ensure that product remains under 41 degrees.

Larger items, however, pose more of a challenge. Let’s say a location 45 minutes away runs out of fresh halibut. Transporting a whole fish may not be possible. It’s hard to find a sealed storage vessel large enough, and the size makes it much harder to keep cool. One solution would be to keep the windows down on an exceptionally cold morning and keep the inside vehicle under 41 degrees, but the resulting pneumonia may not be worth the tradeoff. In these cases, food protection managers should find a solution to prepare the product in manageable portions before packing.

Frozen food should be assessed based on distance and whether or not it will start to thaw before reaching its destination. Partially thawed product poses a quality and food safety risk, and in these cases, food protection managers must use their best judgment to make sure the trip won’t cause the product to thaw during delivery.

Do you have a solution for moving raw ingredients from one restaurant to another?