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.

How To Focus On Food Safety Management Training During COVID-19 Restriction

How To Focus On Food Safety Management Training During COVID-19 Restriction

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

COVID-19 has dominated the news since the beginning of 2020, and many food businesses have struggled to find a way to keep their businesses open and continue serving their guests. While much of the food industry has focused on the balance between keeping their guests safe from the coronavirus and making a profit, it’s important not to let food safety management training take a back seat. Relaxing food safety management during these times can result in overlooking risks that could result in foodborne illness.

How To Focus On Food Safety Management Training During COVID-19 Restriction
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Keeping Food Safety Management Training a Priority

We understand that it takes a lot of effort to abide by StaySafeMN guidance for restaurants, and it should be a priority, but that can’t be an excuse to relax on other food safety management procedures.

Food safety managers are responsible for making sure staff understand and follow proper food handling procedures and times of reduced service are a great opportunity to monitor and provide a little extra on-the-job training. Since you’re taking the time to make sure employees understand mask rules, social distancing in dining areas and enforcing COVID-19 reservation-only regulations, you should also incorporate food safety training as well.

It’s quite easy to monitor and guide your staff on a few key issues as you go about monitoring coronavirus prevention protocols. Here’s a brief list of items that can be observed at the same time as StaySafeMN procedures:

  • Proper sanitation
  • Handwashing between tasks
  • Employee health
  • Hair coverings

Some of these things may look like items your staff should already understand, but during the course of your day, it’s easy to make sure. Food safety managers can enforce and provide training for sanitation procedures since it’s necessary for both coronavirus prevention and food safety. Handwashing can also be reviewed as it can be brought up easily given current circumstances.

When it comes to employee health, sick is sick regardless of whether it’s COVID or not. Daily employee health screenings implant the idea that fever, cough, runny nose, nausea and other symptoms disqualify a food worker from taking their shift. Train your employees to take their temperature before work if not done on-site, be aware of symptoms and call out sick if necessary.

Now that masks are required, kitchen workers must wear two important pieces of protection: a head covering and a mask. When training employees on how to properly wear a mask, you can also teach them the importance of wearing a proper head covering when working with food.

Where do ServSafe Food Managers Fit in the Coronavirus Vaccination Timetable?

Where do ServSafe Food Managers Fit in the Vaccination Timetable?

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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

With the current rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, there is hope that a state a herd immunity will be reached and that life as we know it will return to some sort of normal state. From a public health standpoint, there appears to be a lot riding on vaccinations, and if these efforts are successful, we’ll hopefully see our restaurants, eateries and other food preparation businesses flourish once again. Since we’re looking at a phased vaccination process, we’ve been asked when ServSafe food managers and other food industry professionals will be potentially eligible to begin the vaccination process?

Where do ServSafe Food Managers Fit in the Coronavirus Timetable
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COVID-19 Vaccine Timetables and ServSafe Food Managers

Before we begin discussing the vaccine, we must stress that at Safe Food Training our focus is on food safety management and our expertise lies in that area, not in the medical field. However, it’s becoming vital to understand COVID-19 protocols and solutions that will keep our guests safe from potential infection and allow our local restaurants to reopen at full capacity. These vaccines could play a role in speeding up the reopening process, so when should ServSafe food managers get the option of taking the vaccine?

From our research, restaurant workers, food service professionals and ServSafe food managers in the private sector will probably have to wait until vaccination efforts have covered medical professionals, the potentially susceptible and other fields deemed “essential” by public health officials. There is, however, a portion of foodservice professionals that may be able to choose to be vaccinated earlier than others. You may want to discuss early vaccine options with your employer if you handle food in:

  • Hospitals
  • Medical Facilities
  • Long-Term Care Facilities
  • Nursing Homes
  • School Cafeterias

While front-line medical staff and the elderly should have first priority due to their increased potential for exposure and risk, food safety workers in these fields may be eligible in an earlier phase of the vaccine rollout than private-sector ServSafe food managers. Rules often change county by county and even from facility to facility, so if you’re in one of these positions, you may wish to discuss the vaccine timeline with your employer.

While many of us will have to wait to see when we’ll have the option to receive the vaccine, food industry professionals in high-risk facilities appear to be edging closer. Where do you think food industry professionals rank in the vaccine line?

CFPM presentation of COVID safe holiday buffet

Valuable Tips For CFPMs Offering 2020 Holiday Buffets

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In traditional times, the months of November and December see an increase in buffet dining options as larger groups congregate in restaurants and dining halls to celebrate the holidays. This holiday season is one like no other, so certified food protection managers have to take extra precautions not only to keep their food safe but abide by local COVID-19 restrictions. Let’s take a look at some steps Certified Food Protection Managers (CFPMs) can take if they choose to host a holiday buffet service.

CFPM presentation of COVID safe holiday buffet
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Certified Food Protection Managers and Holiday Buffets

According to StaySafeMN hospitality guidance buffets are allowed as long as the establishment adheres to certain protocols. However, our first suggestion would be to assess whether it’s absolutely necessary to provide buffet service this season. With reservations required and limited seating capacity, your CFPM may wish to consider foregoing the holiday buffet for a more traditional sit-down service to better abide by StaySafeMN protocols. With the added restriction of required reservations, it’s possible that your guests can preorder their meals. This may streamline the process and reduce the risk of too many customers congregating around the buffet line.

If you do choose to offer a holiday buffet, you should take the following into consideration:

  • How will you enforce social distancing in buffet lines?
  • Will multiple guests use the same serving utensils?
  • How will sanitation protocols be put in place?

No matter the occasion, buffets tend to promote groups of people waiting in line and huddling in confined areas for extended periods of time. Even at 50-percent capacity, many restaurants may have trouble enforcing social distancing regulations. You may wish to have servers monitor the situation and release groups table by table to peruse the options at the buffet.

The use of common utensils presents a major dilemma when it comes to buffets. During regular buffet service, many unrelated guests may handle the same serving utensils. In order to avoid this common contact, we’d suggest pre portioning items on the table that guests can grab and go without digging into chafing dishes. While this may require guests to make multiple trips through the line, it reduces the risk of a potentially infected customer from spreading coronavirus through contact with utensils.

Finally, there should be rigid sanitation protocols in place. Assign specific staff members to sanitize common serving areas after each group has gone through the line.

Does your CFPMs have a plan for holiday buffet service?

ServSafe Managers Delivering Holiday Takeout Meals

4 Simple Tips For ServSafe Managers Offering Holiday Takeout Service

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With the current COVID-19 crisis and the limits on large gatherings in public places, we predict that many families who traditionally eat their holiday meals in restaurants will choose to order their family dinners for takeout rather than dine in a restaurant or banquet hall. Cooking and packaging large dinners for holiday festivities presents a challenge for food managers who may not be accustomed to this type of service. This week, we’ll take a look at how ServSafe Managers can overcome those challenges and offer advice on how to make sure the holiday takeout dinners you provide are safe from foodborne illness.

ServSafe Managers Delivering Holiday Takeout Meals
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How ServSafe Food Managers Can Provide Safe Holiday Takeout

For most of the year, takeout is pretty simple. A customer calls in their order and then it’s prepared for either delivery or ready when a guest arrives to pick it up. The process for holiday style dinners will have to include a more detailed plan due to the nature of these types of meals. Turkeys, hams and pork roasts take much longer to cook, side dishes must be produced in greater quantities and restaurants will require much more hot-holding space if they wish to provide heated Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to their guests. So how can ServSafe managers pull off holiday takeouts safely?

Here’s a few suggestions:

  • Require a deadline for pre-order
  • Provide defined pickup and delivery times
  • Package hot product in reasonable portions
  • Offer ready-to-cook meals

Preparing, cooking and packaging large meals is a huge endeavor, but you can make it easier by having an exact count of how many meals you’re required to prepare. Setting a deadline before your food supplier’s last delivery date before the holiday can give you an advantage. If you fail to adhere to a strict deadline, you run the risk of running out of product to fill orders or simply not having the production capacity to cook and prepare meals in the event of a massive influx of families looking for last-minute solutions. It’s also helpful to have precise times for guests to pick up their meals. This allows for an easier pace and will ease any congestion should we still be under COVID-19 capacity restrictions around the holidays.

In order to keep food safe from the spread of bacteria, it’s important to prepare food in reasonable portions. Most restaurants don’t have the hot-holding equipment to keep large amounts of roasts, turkeys, and hams out of the danger zone. Keeping reasonable portions on hand will allow you to prepare more food throughout the day and slice and package during the appropriate pickup window. Offering ready-to-cook meals is another option to reduce food-safety risks. If your customers can grab prepped meals and heat them at home, this will reduce your need for hot-holding and still provide an unforgettable holiday experience.

Do you plan on offering Thanksgiving, Christmas or other holiday meals for delivery and takeout?