Category: Safe Food Training MN

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Food Safety Certification Minnesota and Receiving Procedures

Food Safety Certification Minnesota and Receiving Procedures

In the food service industry, inventory control is a vital tool to keep waste down and control food costs. One of the key elements to proper inventory control occurs before you properly store items. Implementing effective receiving procedures ensures that you can use your product and reduce waste. It also keeps your product safe according to food safety certification regulations in Minnesota.

Food Safety Certification Minnesota and Receiving Procedures
Copyright: vladacanon9 / 123RF Stock Photo

How to Properly Receive Food Shipments

Don’t delay shipment inspection.  Always check goods immediately on delivery. In fact, we suggest that you wait to sign for your deliveries until you have inspected the entire shipment. We know that this can be a hassle as deliveries can arrive at inconvenient times and drivers may be in a hurry to move on, but spotting damaged or contaminated goods right away reduces your risk of losing money by signing for unusable product.

Some signs that your food might be contaminated or damaged include:

  • Wet or torn boxes
  • Dented, rusty or bulging cans
  • Raw animal product stacked on top of ready to eat foods or produce
  • Chilled foods at improper temperature

Most indications of unusable product will be obvious. Cardboard boxes that are torn or soiled or sealed packages that have been opened obviously should not be accepted. Other signs may be harder to find and require detailed examination.

If your shipment contains products that require refrigeration such as dairy, proteins and frozen items, check the temperature of each product to ensure that it has remained out of the danger zone during delivery. Shipped product must follow food safety certification regulations, even during transport from a warehouse to your facility. Product shipped in the danger zone grows bacteria that can sicken your customers.

Canned goods often go unchecked, because many assume that canned goods are safe, no matter what the outside of the can looks like. A rusty can may indicate that it was stored under wet conditions. This can compromise the integrity of the metal and allow bacteria to grow on the surface of the can or potentially make its way inside. A bulging can indicates that the contents are contaminated, especially if you order canned meat products or ready to eat foods. To ensure the safety of your guests, you should never accept canned goods that are questionable.

Do you have receiving procedure in place for quality control purposes?

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Food Training and Tracking a Food-Borne Illness Outbreak

Food Training and Tracking a Food-Borne Illness Outbreak

As food safety professionals, we often play Monday morning quarterback whenever we read a news story about a major food-borne illness outbreak. We wonder what NFSRP standards were violated or if the certified food manager neglected some aspect of safe food training when bringing on new staff. Fortunately, the CDC tracks the vital statistics of an outbreak to bring a clearer picture of how they get started.

Food Training and Tracking a Food-Borne Illness Outbreak
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Food Training Guide to the Source of Food-Borne-Illness Outbreaks

One glaring statistic in the CDC’s collection of data that drew our attention is that 88-percent of outbreaks begin at a restaurant rather than a food packaging facility. This means that restaurant supervisors must implement quality food training methods that will enforce the importance of diligence in sanitation, prevention of cross contamination and proper temperature control. There is a very slim margin of error when it comes to keeping food safe, and in the fast paced atmosphere of a restaurant kitchen, the consequences multiply when food handling mistakes occur.

A second statistic that jumps out at us is the method of contamination. The top factors for food becoming contaminated are attributed to an employee handling food in some manner while infected with an illness. We think that this speaks volumes as to what a restaurant’s policy should be about working sick. Employees must not handle food while infectious.

The last statistic we’d like to point out is that over 45-percent of food poisoning outbreaks come from multi-ingredient dishes. Second and third place weren’t even close with vine vegetables at eight-percent and fish at seven-percent. There is no real trend to point to one protein or vegetable that is more likely to cause an outbreak than another. This means that all food needs to be handled with care, no matter what type of cuisine in on your menu.

If you’re a restaurateur, do these statistics surprise you? Let us know in the comments section.

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Food Safety Month and the Certified Food Manager

Food Safety Month and the Certified Food Manager

Every Certified food manager focuses on keeping the food they serve safe all year long, but the month of September has been set aside as National Food Safety Month in an effort to promote food safety beyond the walls of professional food service outlets. Since we aim to reduce the risk of food-borne illness, we fully support this idea of bringing attention to food safety and passing on the knowledge of our online food certification classes to those not in the food service industry.

Food Safety Month and the Certified Food Manager

How the Certified Food Manager Can Promote Food Safety to Patrons

Standards are already in place to teach your restaurant goers some safe food handling procedures. The current food code requires that you alert your guests to the dangers of consuming undercooked meat and eggs. This warning should exist somewhere on your menu if you serve dishes with these ingredients. But is there more that certified food managers can do to promote food safety outside of their establishments?

Most patrons don’t expect an exposé on bacteria or the side-effects of consuming tainted food before they eat, but there are simpler food-safety procedures that are easy to pass on to your guests, the easiest being the concept of proper handwashing.

We’re not suggesting that your host or server gives each customer a lecture about how to wash their hands before eating, there are subtler ways to get your diners in the habit of washing before they eat. If your staff simply lets each party know where your washroom is located, that should put the idea in your guests’ heads that they may wish to wash their hands.

Once in the washroom, a procedure chart for proper handwashing should be placed in a visible location. Make sure your chart states how effective handwashing prevents the spread of food-borne illness and how to properly wash after using the restroom.

Other ways to promote food-safety among your guests could be to have a list of the sanitation procedures that occur at each table visible somewhere in the dining room. This shows your customers the importance of cleaning eating areas regularly, and they might bring those habits home with them.

Certified food managers focus on keeping the food they serve safe all year long, but the month of September has been set aside as National Food Safety Month in an effort to promote food safety beyond the walls of professional food service outlets. Since we aim to reduce the risk of food-borne illness, we fully support this idea of bringing attention to food safety and passing on the knowledge of our online food certification classes to those not in the food service industry.

How the Certified Food Manager Can Promote Safe Food Safety to Patrons

Standards are already in place to teach your restaurant goers some safe food handling procedures. The current food code requires that you alert your guests to the dangers of consuming undercooked meat and eggs. This warning should exist somewhere on your menu if you serve dishes with these ingredients. But is there more that certified food managers can do to promote food safety outside of their establishments?

Most patrons don’t expect an exposé on bacteria or the side-effects of consuming tainted food before they eat, but there are simpler food-safety procedures that are easy to pass on to your guests, the easiest being the concept of proper handwashing.

We’re not suggesting that your host or server gives each customer a lecture about how to wash their hands before eating, there are subtler ways to get your diners in the habit of washing before they eat. If your staff simply lets each party know where your washroom is located, that should put the idea in your guests’ heads that they may wish to wash their hands.

Once in the washroom, a procedure chart for proper handwashing should be placed in a visible location. Make sure your chart states how effective handwashing prevents the spread of food-borne illness and how to properly wash after using the restroom.

Other ways to promote food-safety among your guests could be to have a list of the sanitation procedures that occur at each table visible somewhere in the dining room. This shows your customers the importance of cleaning eating areas regularly, and they might bring those habits home with them.

Does your establishment do anything special to enlighten your visitors on the importance of safe food handling practices?

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Online HACCP Training and Cash Handling Practices

Online_HACCP_Training_and_Cash_Handling_Practices

As one of the leaders in online HACCP training and food safety certification industry, we like to dine out often, and we’ve noticed a trend that has caught our attention. Many local eateries are no long accepting cash as a form of payment. At first this may appear to be a way to limit lost funds by keeping all transactions digital or reduce the risk of robbery. While these are probably the most influential decisions to go cash free, we think this also helps reduce the risk of food-borne illness.

 

Online HACCP Training and Cash Handling Practices
by gkuna – yayimages.com

 

The Public Health Benefits of Cash Free Restaurants

Most cash in peoples wallets aren’t crisp bills fresh from the bank. It’s been around for a while and on its journey from person to person, it’s picked up a few residents, namely bacteria. There are many of the common culprits of bacterial contaminates on paper cash and coins, but the potential also exists for something more exotic to have come into contact with your money before it got to you.

We know from online HACCP training that you must wash your hands properly after handling money. This should be a given in every establishment. Handwashing has proven to be an effective way to greatly reduce the risk of contaminating food. But a few other steps could be taken to keep food safer when collecting payment from guests.

In the digital age a solution can be found around nearly any dilemma. Simply going cash free reduces contamination risks. Modern point-of-sale systems allow customers to pay without handing a credit card to a server or cashier. This reduces contact between foreign contaminates and food service workers even further.

It’s still perfectly acceptable and possible to continue accept cash. Just make sure proper handwashing techniques are taught and enforced. You may also wish to employ a designates cashier who never or rarely handles food.

What are your thoughts on establishments that no longer accept cash?