Minnesota Food Safety Managers Archives

October 7, 2024October 3, 2024

Latest Tips That Will Help With MN Food Safety Certification Exams

Food Safety Certification MN Test Tips in Mounds View

While administering MN food safety certification exams, we’ve noticed some students struggle with the final tests. We understand that everyone learns differently and have tips to help during test time.

Test-taking Tips for MN Food Safety Certification Exams

The first key to succeeding on any test begins in the classroom or online training sessions. One critical step to retaining knowledge in any instructional setting is to take quality notes. Although participants cannot use notes during the exam, taking notes does help commit things to memory.

Taking notes helps you pay attention. To maintain focus and capture valuable information, ensure your mind does not wander during training sessions. We have observed that students who come into class prepared to learn do better on the MN food safety certification exam than those who feel that they already know the material and are simply waiting for the session to be over so that they can take their exams.

Some rules change occasionally, and even if you are a seasoned industry professional, you may encounter information that has changed since your last training session or that you had forgotten. Taking notes is an excellent way to ensure you know the most up-to-date regulations.

After finishing your training session and reviewing your notes, it is time to take the test to gain your certification. If you have gone through our classes, we will have given you the information you need to succeed on any certification test we offer. If you have paid attention, asked questions throughout the class, and taken quality notes, there is no reason to be worried. Remain confident, and you will succeed.

Take Your Time/Multiple Choice with One Right Answer

We all need that extra boost from a cup of coffee now and then, but too much caffeine can raise stress levels, create a false sense of urgency, and force you to rush through the test. Try to limit your caffeinated beverages before taking any test.

Finally, all of the questions will be multiple-choice with one correct answer. Read each question and set of answers entirely before selecting your answer. If you are unsure of the answer to any question, remember that your first instinct is often right, and questioning yourself too much can lead to elevated stress levels that will hinder your performance.

If you have any tips to help our readers succeed on their MN food safety certification exam, please leave them in the comments section below.

June 13, 2023June 13, 2023

Emerging Food Safety Training For Surprising Burn Prevention Results

Food Safety Training training for burn Prevention

Food Safety Training in MN focuses on how to keep the food you serve safe, but from time to time we feel it is important to discuss how to keep you safe on the job. Burn incidents occur frequently in this business. Our food safety training team would like to share a few burn prevention tips.

Food Safety Team Tips on Workplace Burn Prevention

Here are our top three ways to reduce your risk of a severe burn:

Use mitts designed for hot handling
Ensure that production line personnel keep hot pans safely off the line
Exercise patience

Many chefs and food service professionals may disagree with our food safety team’s first suggestion, but we have seen quite a few burn incidents involving the use of a folded cloth towel and a hot pan. The cleaning towel’s design does not allow it to hold heat for an extended period of time, even when folded; it is not meant for that purpose. Cloth towels can also become damp or torn causing the heat to penetrate much faster.

Hot pans coming out of the oven and placed on the production line are a common sight in busy restaurants. You must emphasize to your staff that food on these pans should be plated promptly. Accordingly, the hot pan should be removed without delay. Having hot pans lying near where a food worker can pick it up can greatly increase burn risk.

Our last food safety suggestion is one of the easiest burn prevention tips to teach but the hardest to practice. The food service industry is intense and induces a natural pressure for quick performance. No matter how much pressure you are under, do not open a steamer before it has finished or empty a fryer basket of food before excess oil has drained.

Recommends For Burn First Aid

If you do receive a burn on the job, it is important that you take care of it immediately to prevent further damage. The first thing you need to do is to immerse the burn under cool, running water for 10-20 minutes. Skin care products like aloe vera cream or an antibiotic ointment and pain medication can usually treat outer skin burns. Finally, wrap the burn in gauze and keep it clean. If the burn is more serious a urgent care or emergency room visit is advised. In any serious case, it may be advisable to take some time to allow it to heal before going back to work.

Preventing burns in the food preparation environment is certainly not the only issue that our food safety team can address. There are many hazards that are specific to the food service industry. Our food safety team would like to know which ones are of the most concern to you, and what hazards you would like to see covered in a future blog.

December 12, 2022December 23, 2022

Certified Food Protection Manager Approved Snow Removal Hack

As most Minnesotans are aware, it frequently snows in our state. Businesses need to take steps to clean the snow on their properties in order to allow guests to visit. While businesses that don’t serve food have numerous options. Food businesses need to be extra careful when cleaning the snow around their buildings. Let’s take a quick look at how a certified food protection manager can prevent foodborne illness hazards that might arise from snow cleanup.

The Connection Between Snow Removal and a Certified Food Protection Manager

Food protection managers should recognize that the potential for contamination in their facility may not come from the snow itself. It comes from the methods used to remove it. Salt, sand, chemical deicers and other non-shovel methods have the potential to make their way back into your facility after use on sidewalks and parking lots. Shoes, pants, long coats and even on staffs’ hands after building a snowman on their lunch break track in these snow removal contaminants. So how can we keep these chemicals out? The answer is, we can’t, at least not 100 percent of the time, but we can reduce the risks associated with them when it comes to food.

Non-Mechanical Snow Removal Solutions

Most snow removal techniques leave a residue that sticks to the bottom of shoes. Food protection managers should focus on items that are stored near ground level. Food product, utensils, plates or production implements should be stored in racks off the floor. Even boxes of to-go containers should at least be on a bottom shelf.

Deliveries can be a problem, since many food service suppliers simply drop off their shipments in a loading area in the back of the kitchen. If this is the case with your supplier, designate a place away from foot traffic and store all items as soon as possible.

If you have the opportunity to designate an employee entrance that does not open into the kitchen itself, you may wish to ask kitchen staff to use a different entrance to prevent tracking in sand or salt.

Do not wait until the end of the night to sweep and mop up high-trafficked areas. After the snow removal product has been tracked in to take care of it all at once. Direct staff to mop frequently to prevent buildup, create safer walkways and keep food safe.

How to you clear your parking lot and sidewalks for your guests in the winter?

August 1, 2022July 25, 2022

A Practical Way Food Safety Managers Can Keep Lines Stocked

Food safety managers like to keep their production lines fully stocked so that all ingredients for every dish are readily available and in abundant supply, but there are foodborne illness hazards that can occur if you stock your lines improperly. Whether you call it rotating product, flipping your lines or simply stocking a quick access station, you should make sure that you’re doing it properly to reduce the risk of spreading illness.

How Food Safety Managers Reducing Foodborne Illness while Stocking Production Lines

The most important thing to consider when stocking your production lines is that the oldest ingredients should be used first. Whatever method you use to stock your lines must take this into consideration. If you simply refill or top off storage containers, the oldest product will remain on the bottom and eventually begin to go bad contaminating all other product in the same container. When keeping your lines stocked, a first-in-first-out (FIFO) philosophy must be employed.

During food safety manager training classes, we’ve had a few discussions on stocking production lines, and it’s been asked if topping off containers and rotating product into clean containers is an acceptable method. While it sounds like a good idea to have a clean storage container every shift, you’re still running the risk of old product contaminating fresh ingredients. Imagine a pan filled with cheese that is one-third empty when you rotate it, and then you use one-third before the next time you rotate it, how fresh is the middle third? If you simply top off product and rotate it into a clean container, you may need an archeologist to date the product that has been trapped in the middle of your storage container every time you flip your lines.

Our suggestion is to have backup containers readily available rather than fill old containers with new product or rotate mixed-date products into new storage vessels. This will guarantee that fresh product doesn’t mix with older product that could be in danger of spoilage.

Do you have an effective strategy for keeping your ingredients stocked without mixing old and new product?