Keep your MN kitchen running smoothly. We’re sharing real-world ServSafe & NEHA Best Practices to help you train staff and ace your next health inspection.

ServSafe Tips for Serving Raw Fruits and Vegetables

Special ServSafe Tips For Serving Raw Fruits And Vegetables

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On November 17, the CDC announced a new multistate outbreak of Salmonella illnesses that has been linked to cantaloupes. Those who have studied ServSafe in MN know that incredible care must be taken with meats, dairy, and eggs in order to prevent food-borne illness, but potential issues with raw fruits and vegetables are frequently overlooked.

Special ServSafe Tips For Serving Raw Fruits And Vegetables
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ServSafe Tips for Preventing Food-Borne Illness from Raw Fruits and Vegetables

The first step in preventing the spread of foodborne illness is to wash raw produce. It may be easy to cut fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and oranges that appear to be ready for preparation, but just because something looks clean and ready to eat does not necessarily mean that it is. Invisible remnants of soil, fertilizer, or other contaminants may still exist on the surface.

There are certain fruits, such as melons and tree fruits, in which the rind is not eaten. Those should still be washed or peeled before serving. There have been cases where food-borne illness has spread from bacteria on the rinds of melons or citrus fruits. Bacteria can be spread by a lemon sliced and used as a garnish in a glass of water or from a slice of cantaloupe in which the knife used to slice it has picked up contaminates from an unwashed peel.

Common Raw Fruits and Vegetables that Cause Food-Borne Illness

While any raw fruit or vegetable can cause food-borne illness, and steps learned in ServSafe MN should be used to prevent tainted food from reaching customers, a few specific items should be given extra care.

  • Sprouts
  • Melons
  • Leafy greens
  • Root vegetables

Sprouts have become such a hazard for food-borne illnesses that many restaurants and stores have stopped selling them. Before serving uncooked sprouts, particular attention should be taken to ensure they have been thoroughly cleaned.

Melons, especially cantaloupe, have been a notorious hazard in recent years. The rugged rind of the cantaloupe can shelter bacteria from a quick wash.

Leafy greens and root vegetables grow in or near the soil. This means having more contact with dirt, natural and chemical fertilizers, and other contaminants. These items should be thoroughly washed, and root vegetables to be served raw, such as carrots, should be washed before peeling to prevent bacteria from contaminating preparation utensils.

Food safety training for holiday carving stations

Spotlight On Food Safety Training For Live Holiday Carving Stations

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Christmas is upon us, so holiday parties keep catering companies and many restaurants busy with special events. Live chef-manned carving stations are in high demand at these holiday gatherings. However, with those stations come special food safety training procedures that are not typically covered in day-to-day training. Let’s look at how to put on a good show for guests at the carving station while prioritizing food safety training.

Spotlight On Food Safety Training For Live Holiday Carving Stations
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Food Safety Training for Buffet Carving Stations

Temperature control and containing the mess that comes with carving stations are the two most significant food safety training issues. However, there are easy solutions to keeping food hot and safe for guests.

If you plan on doing these types of events often, you may wish to invest in a heat lamp that will keep food hot. Many styles of heat lamps and specialty cutting boards with heat lamps are attached. If you choose not to use a heat lamp, remember food needs to be kept out of the danger zone. Be sure to review time and temperature control rules.

Unless you plan on overcooking your roasts, hams, prime rib, or turkey breast to the point they are too dry for human consumption, there will be juices, fats, and other parts of cooked meat that can cause a mess at these stations. When setting up your carving station, you’ll want to ensure that your boards have some drainage or way to capture liquids during service. The last thing you’ll want guests to see is pools of fat and meat juice covering buffet tables. These can spread to other items and create a huge mess. While there are boards out there with built-in cavities to contain runoff. Many catering companies utilize a sheet pan or other receptacle underneath cutting boards to contain waste.

Make sure you clean and sanitize boards regularly, ideally when swapping one roast for another, removing soiled boards, and replacing them with clean ones when necessary.

Do you have food safety training procedures for live-station service?

ServSafe MN Tips For Keeping Pests Out Of Your Garbage

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Most pest problems at food service facilities don’t begin inside the building but from the outside. Recycling bins, dumpsters, garbage cans, and food composting containers can attract insects, rodents, raccoons, and other invasive creatures that pose food safety risks and potentially eat into your business’ profits. We will provide ServSafe hints to help eliminate pest problems at your facility.

ServSafe MN Tips For Keeping Pests Out Of Your Garbage
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ServSafe MN Info for Keeping Pests from Getting into Your Facility

Reducing waste can help reduce your pest risks. However, there is no way to eliminate garbage, recyclable containers, and food scraps completely. Steps can be taken to prevent pests from inhabiting the areas where your garbage is stored until trash day.

  • Keep areas around trash bins clean
  • Bag all garbage
  • Rinse recyclables
  • Keep lids to trash receptacles closed
  • Seal and lock compost and food recycling containers

“To reduce the risk of rodents, it is essential to maintain cleanliness in your trash storage area. However, simply picking up spilled trash may not be sufficient to keep away odors. Servsafe managers know that certain pests, such as rodents, have a heightened sense of smell, so if you have a significant garbage spill, you may want to hose down the area to prevent odors from lingering. Bagging all garbage is also an effective way of reducing odors from attracting unwanted creatures. Rinsing bottles and cans will help keep pests, especially insects, away from your facility. If no food residue is left in your recyclables, there will be very little to attract pesky bugs. Once your trash and recyclables are in the appropriate receptacle, making sure the lids are closed is essential to keeping smaller animals from exploring what’s inside.

Secure Compost Containers

One current waste reduction trend is to compost the waste from vegetable products for gardening use around company property. If your facility composts, it’s essential to keep your composting bins sealed, and it may even be a good idea to keep them locked and away from the building. Purchasing plastic bins that are designed for this purpose will do the most to prevent attracting animals.

As with most food safety hazards, prevention, cleanliness, and diligence are the keys to keeping pests out of your outdoor trash storage areas. At Safe Food Training, we like to hear ideas from local food-certified managers. What ServSafe tricks do you use to keep pests out of your trash storage areas?

CFPM Installment On Under Cooked Proteins

It’s Here: The Final CFPM Installment On Under Cooked Proteins

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In the final installment of our series on serving under cooked animal product, we will discuss the protein that is almost always ordered under cooked by CFPMs. Breakfast customers rarely order eggs well done. They are critical elements in many sauces and give custards rich textures. Looking at the Minnesota food code temperature rules, we can see that eggs cooked for hot holding must reach a temperature of 155 degrees for at least 15 seconds. How does this apply to over-easy eggs, Béarnaise sauce, and ice creams where the egg product never reaches 155 degrees?

CFPM Installment On Under Cooked Proteins
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CFPM and the Ubiquitous Under Cooked Protein- The Egg

If you work in a restaurant or institution that serves breakfast, you will receive numerous orders for eggs that are over-easy, sunny side up, or soft-boiled. These orders will leave the egg below the 145-degree temperature requirement stated in the food code for eggs prepared for immediate consumption. It is perfectly acceptable to cook and immediately serve an over-easy egg to a guest. The key is that they have to serve it immediately after cooking. Hence, you must include a warning if you serve undercooked eggs in your restaurant. “There may be a risk of foodborne illness when certain items are ordered undercooked.”

How do these rules apply to products like Hollandaise sauce, crème brulee, or ice cream? These items:

  • have eggs
  • have never reached 155 degrees
  • are not served immediately

The Minnesota food code insists that pasteurized eggs substitute raw eggs. Many chefs argue that liquid pasteurized eggs do not work for particular items. Thanks to modern advancements in sanitation and pasteurization, you can purchase whole, raw, pasteurized shell eggs. Although the liquid form of pasteurized eggs is the most common, your product supplier should have whole, raw pasteurized eggs available.
While discussing raw eggs, let’s take a brief moment to talk about homemade mayonnaise and aioli. These are two egg-based products that have never been cooked. If you serve house-made mayonnaise:

  • only use liquid pasteurized eggs
  • always store it below 41 degrees.

Remember, you should never hold undercooked eggs in a warmer or a steam tray for service.