recall information Archives

May 7, 2018May 2, 2018

The Certified Food Managers and Major Recalls

Certified Food Manager and Major Recalls

Last month, an outbreak of E.coli linked to romaine lettuce from Arizona left grocery store produce sections bare and certified food managers scrambling to find replacement ingredients for salads after a large amount of available product was pulled from the supply chain. When such an important ingredient suddenly becomes a potential food-borne illness risk, several steps must be taken.

Romaine Contamination and Certified Food Managers Reaction

The first step when news of a recall like this breaks must be to stop serving any potentially contaminated product. In this case, most romaine in restaurants and other food preparation outlets had to be thrown away. We must urge that you always take immediate and extreme action when something of this nature occurs. It would be better to err on the side of caution rather than contribute to an E.coli outbreak.

Due to the time of year, this recall affected much of the country. Cold spring weather in many states means suppliers need to rely on farmers in states such as Arizona where the weather is warm enough for this type of produce. Drastic action to recall lettuce was taken due to 98 potential cases in 22 states.

Once certified food managers remove product, they are left with a situation that compromises the availability of many items on their menu. So how does a kitchen manager adjust?

First, certified food managers should be up front and open with their guests. Placing a notice in the menu or in a visible location at a service counter, hostess station or cashier stand should be the first step. Your customers will understand if you let them know there has been a recall and, in the best interests of their health, you are unable to serve certain menu items for a short period of time.

Fortunately, with something such as romaine lettuce there are alternative ingredients. Green leaf or iceberg can serve as a temporary replacement if that is something that would be acceptable to your customers.

With the advances in technology and communication, many of these outbreaks have been contained before they become major disasters. How do you react when you have to pull product off of your shelves due to a recall?

February 26, 2018February 8, 2018

Food Manager Training And When To Recall Products

Nothing completes a freshly toasted bagel like cream cheese, but in the month of January, Panera Bread customers had to settle for a substitute. After a sample from a single batch of one of their flavored cream cheeses tested positive for Listeria, Panera Bread made the decision to recall all cream cheese products in their restaurants, regardless of production date. This week, we’d like to explore Panera’s recent decision from a food manager training perspective. Bearing in mind their efforts to keep customers safe, especially considering the number of high-profile food-borne illness outbreaks we’ve seen over the past few years.

Recalls and Food Manager Training

Panera’s press release is very clear that only one batch of flavored cream cheese produced on a single date contained a tainted sample and that no cases of food poisoning have been reported. So was recalling product already shipped and produced on different dates really necessary?

When studying bacteria in food manager training classes, we learn that Listeria is a potentially deadly pathogen, especially to the elderly, children and those with weakened immune systems. Extreme caution should always be taken when there is even the remote possibility of releasing food tainted with Listeria into the food supply. In this current case, we support Panera Bread’s decision to exercise an abundance of caution. Even one unnecessary death from food poisoning is too many.

While only one batch tested positive, there is always the remote possibility that tainted product may have snuck its way into the restaurant chain’s distribution system. In a past blog, we explored the potential fiscal repercussions of ignoring food safety protocols. Taking aggressive steps when it comes to preventing food-borne illness not only makes a great deal of sense from a safety standpoint, but from a financial standpoint as well. While Panera may have decided to take a short term loss by disposing of more product than just the batch that had been confirmed contaminated, they may have saved themselves a massive loss in the long run with their caution.

We applaud Panera’s procedures in this case. Considering what you have learned during online food manager training courses and instructor led ServSafe classes, do you agree?

October 17, 2017October 5, 2017

Minnesota Food Training and Hepatitis A

Late in the month of September, customers of a grocery store in Michigan were warned about the potential of consuming food that had been handled by an employee who tested positive for Hepatitis A. Hepatitis A isn’t one of the most discussed pathogens, but the subject occasionally comes up in product recall notices and articles such as this one, so we think it prudent to discuss its causes and symptoms.

Minnesota Food Training Guide to Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A can be spread when an infected person handles prepared food. Hepatitis A outbreaks also come from shellfish harvested in infected waters. Some of the symptoms of Hepatitis A include:

Diarrhea
Jaundice
Fever
Abdominal pain
Loss of appetite

Our Minnesota food training courses tell us that the best way to prevent the spread of food-borne illness is to properly wash our hands and to never handle prepared food with bare hands. This rule applies to preventing the spread of Hepatitis A as well.

Hepatitis A is one of the few food-borne illness culprits that can be prevented via vaccination. If you plan to travel to exotic locations or you routinely care for the sick or potentially infected, you should ask your doctor about being vaccinated. If you come into contact with the bacteria or become exposed to someone who has it, seek out vaccination as soon as possible.

Finally, know where your shellfish comes from and keep an eye out for contamination information if you serve it in your restaurant. If you have a potentially infected batch, contact your local health department to request information as to what steps must be taken next.

Are there any other pathogens that aren’t discussed regularly in food training classes that you’d like us to cover in an upcoming blog entry?

December 20, 2016December 29, 2016

Food Safe Training Guide to E. coli

Over the past few months, we’ve run a series of articles focusing on the most common causes of food-borne illnesses and product recalls. This month, we continue our series with a look at how E. coli and the related STEC bacteria strains are spread and how you can prevent your guests from consuming contaminated food.

Food Safe Training and E. coli

E. coli poisoning recently garnered national attention with a nationwide outbreak traced to Chipotle restaurants. Even with this high-profile case, E. coli is no longer ranked as a top-five cause of food-borne illness according to the CDC. It is, however, still very important to understand how to reduce the risk of spreading illness due to E. coli because according to this same study, this bacterium causes over 2,000 hospitalizations each year.

In order to control the spread of E. coli, we must first know where it comes from. The STEC strains may exist in:

Undercooked ground beef
Unpasteurized milk and cheese
Unpasteurized juices
Alfalfa sprouts
Unwashed vegetables

If you have worked in the food industry for a length of time, you know that you must cook ground beef thoroughly in order to kill E. coli, but some of the other causes might come as a surprise. We have discussed the dangers of serving raw milk products numerous times in the past, and we can now add the potential for E. coli poisoning to the list of risks involved with consuming unpasteurized dairy products.

Raw fruits and vegetables pose a threat that often goes undetected. While the STEC bacterium does not naturally occur in raw produce, exposure to cross contamination is a real risk. E. coli naturally occurs in the digestive tract of livestock, and it spreads through contact with the animal, its feces or raw milk. Produce can be contaminated simply by a farmer walking through a cow pasture and transferring it to the soil raw vegetables grow in by wearing the same shoes. The same can happen with farm equipment on a much larger scale.

To keep your vegetables safe, especially leafy greens and sprouts, we urge you to wash all produce that you receive before serving it to guests or incorporating it into other menu items.

Next month, our series will continue as we tackle the number-one culprit of food-borne illness, the easily spread norovirus.