Informative Food Safety Training Targeted At Rubber Floor Mats

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Floor mats in kitchens are essential for the physical health of employees that are on their feet for extended periods, but did you know that they can also become a foodborne illness hazard if not properly maintained? Since you’re not serving food on your floor mats, unless you’re designing a new concept restaurant that probably won’t fly with your local health inspector, you may not see the connection between foodborne illness and rubber floor mats, so let’s take a look at food safety training for rubber floor mats.

Informative Food Safety Training Targeted At Rubber Floor Mats
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Food Safety Training Tips for Floor Mat Cleaning

From an employee safety standpoint, dirty floor mats can be a slip hazard, so making sure they are clean prevents potential injury. Ripped or torn mats can catch the toes and heels of shoes causing staff to drop food or utensils, or even trip and fall. If your mats are in a condition that causes staff to fall into deep fryers, replace them immediately.

Dirty and torn mats also present a likely habitat for bacteria and pests. If your mats aren’t washed and cleaned on a regular basis, you’ll breed pathogens that can be stirred up by fans or even staff walking on them. Good food safety training should include regular maintenance of your floor mats to prevent this from happening.

Pests like fruit flies, ground bugs and even mice can be attracted to the smell of debris and grease left on dirty rubber mats. Cracked and torn portions can be an ideal spot for flies to lay eggs, harbor fruit fly nests and provide snacks for cockroaches and other small ground insects.

Making sure your floor mats are in good shape is not only good for the physical well-being of your staff but can also result in improved food safety training. Do you regularly sanitize your rubber floor mats?

Professional ServSafe Food Managers Can Immediately Improve Grease Trap Safety

Professional ServSafe Food Managers Can Immediately Improve Grease Trap Safety

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Nearly every restaurant or food processing facility that prepares hot food deals with grease and other liquids that are a byproduct of creating their product. Most ServSafe managers ensure that the waste from this process goes into grease traps or some other receptacle rather than leaving it on preparation surfaces to contaminate food cooked later. This grease will often settle into traps, and if ServSafe food managers do not properly take care it could pose a food safety risk or even a fire hazard.

Professional ServSafe Food Managers Can Immediately Improve Grease Trap Safety
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The Importance of ServSafe Food Managers Cleaning Grease Traps in Kitchens

Grease traps are commonplace in nearly every kitchen, so make sure you inspect, empty and clean grease traps that are located:

  • Under good vents
  • In ovens
  • Under grills and fryers

Every employee who works in your kitchen should be aware of your grease trap locations and how to remove the drainage receptacle. Some, such as traps under grills and flat cooking surfaces, slide in an out like a drawer while others, like under hood vents, are pans held in place under drainage areas. ServSafe food managers should take the time to train their staff how to remove these grease traps safely without spilling their contents or burning themselves on hot oil.

In ServSafe food manager training when we talk about clean grease traps, we don’t simply mean empty ones. Grease traps should be emptied on a regular basis and cleaned thoroughly. If the trap is completely removable, take the time to clean and dry it before replacing it. It’s also important to clean the areas around the traps to ensure all grease and oil is removed. Leaving grease behind can attract insects or even large pests such as rats if ignored for long periods of time.

Finally, don’t pour grease down your sink drains. This can cause buildup in your pipes, become a breeding ground for insects and damage your plumbing system. Check with your local waste disposal company for options on recycling your leftover grease.

Has you taken the time to thoroughly clean your grease traps lately?

The Truth About Food Safety Managers And Fingernail Hygiene In The Kitchen

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When discussing handwashing station setups with our students, we’ve noticed since finger nail brushes are no longer required, fingernail hygiene training has been often neglected . Even if you wash your hands properly dirt and bacteria can remain trapped under the fingernails creating the risk of pathogens transferring to food that is handled with bare hands. While fingernail maintenance only has two lines in the Minnesota food code, there are some important reasons that food safety managers should not overlook risks poor fingernail hygiene can cause.

Food Safety Managers And Fingernail Hygiene In The Kitchen
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Food Safety Managers and Fingernail Maintenance

Food safety managers should provide fingernail hygiene training concerning:

  • Trimming Fingernails
  • Wearing Gloves over Painted Fingernails
  • Artificial Fingernails

Fingernails must be trimmed and filed so that they are easily cleanable. Rough fingernail tips can become caught in food product and potentially break off into food or onto preparation surfaces. Rough fingernails can also harbor bacteria in the frayed edges, even with proper handwashing, so maintaining smooth nails is much more than a grooming aesthetic. Long fingernails also pose the risk of breakage, even if carefully filed, so make sure nails are an appropriate length.

Food safety managers should enforce good fingernail hygiene by making it clear that painted or artificial fingernails should never come into contact with any type of food product. Managers should make note of poor fingernail hygiene and instruct employees with painted or artificial nails to cover them with gloves at all times in the kitchen.

Have you taken the time to review fingernail maintenance with your kitchen staff?

Tested Approach to food service utensils for ServSafe managers

Tested Approach To Food Service Utensils For ServSafe Managers

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Keeping food out of the danger zone and utilizing proper temperature and time control keeps bacteria from growing in food and greatly reduces foodborne illness. When we take about the danger zone, we usually focus on food product, but can serving utensils left in the danger zone after touching product pose a food safety risk? ServSafe managers should take steps to ensure that food poisoning hazards don’t develop with mishandled food service utensils.

Tested Approach To Food Service Utensils For ServSafe Managers
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ServSafe Managers Guide to Temperature Control of Food Service Utensils

You may never think about it, but some service items should be treated like food to prevent foodborne illness. We’re not suggesting storing your utensils outside the danger zone, but once you begin using them for service you should make sure they follow nearly the same protocols as the food they touch. Some items to be wary of include:

  • Salad Bowls and Tongs
  • Ladles
  • Spatulas
  • Cold Preparation Utensils

ServSafe managers wouldn’t leave a Caesar salad on a counter top for hours and then serve it to a guest, so why leave a used bowl and set of tongs at the same temperature. Salad remnants will decay in a danger zone environment over time increasing risk. Washing every mixing bowl after every use just simply isn’t an option, but there are solutions. Keep mixing bowls for cold items in a reach-in refrigerator or rotate out of service regularly. Time as public health control rules allow for up to four hours, but quality of product will greatly suffer even over a short period of time, so we suggest more frequent rotation of these cold service items. The same should go for any other item used to prepare cold items for service. Tongs, spatulas and ladles could be the most overlooked offenders.

Hot items may be easier to maintain than cold items due to the nature of food served. Soup and sauce ladles can potentially remain in heated sauces and metal tongs and other serving utensils can remain with hot foods if stored properly. Some items such as grill tools, should follow time control procedures as they may not always be out of danger zone temperatures.

Have you thought about risks coming from the temperatures of your regular use utensils?