In the last few months, we’ve seen numerous media reports on foodborne outbreaks caused by everything from baby carrots to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. This publicity does not benefit the food and beverage industry. It can have a chilling effect and discourage customers from visiting your establishment. This week, we will begin a series of blogs that provide information on how CFPMs can meet the foodborne illness outbreak challenge.
First, let’s take a look at the problem. According to the CDC:
- Over 45 million Americans get sick from foodborne illness each year
- 128,000 are hospitalized
- 3,000 die from foodborne disease
- Foodborne outbreaks in the US have increased by 43% since 2013
- Over 1/2 of the foodborne illness outbreaks reported to CDC are associated with eating establishments or delicatessens
There’s no debate that foodborne illness is a challenge that CFPMs need to address!
Tips On Preventing Foodborne Illness for Certified Food Protection Managers
Foodborne illness outbreaks are not a new issue for CFPMs, but they have recently become more acute because of all the media coverage. Let’s review the basics from a high level. There are a few essential components of a safely operating Food establishment.
- Sick employees will be sent home
- Provide a clean work environment
- Ennforce personal hygiene among production and service staff
- Stay up-to-date about recent food recalls
- Choose suppliers with a proven track record for food safety and check all incoming supplies
- Educate staff and enforce proper handling of food during storage, preparation, and presentation processes
Employees should be encouraged to call in sick if they have respiratory, stomach, or flu-like symptoms. If someone develops symptoms during their shift or comes in with symptoms, the CFPM or PIC should send them home before they contaminate customers and staff.
Certified food protection managers must ensure a clean work environment to deliver safe food products to their customers. Environment broadly means physical structure, equipment, and personal hygiene. Staff should wear clean uniforms and have an ample supply of gloves where appropriate. The kitchen staff should clean all production equipment after every use. Workstations, storage areas, and floors must be cleaned regularly. Don’t forget a clean and accessible bathroom.
Can you imagine how horrible you would feel if one of your customers became ill because you served a recently recalled product? CFPMs can quickly and easily check for recently recalled food products that could cause a foodborne illness outbreak in several ways. You can sign up for recall alerts from the Food & Drug Administration. CFPMs can also go to the “Safe Food For Thought” blog site and look in the right-hand column for the CDC Food Safety Recall (highlighted in red below).
Maintaining a High-quality Product
To minimize potential foodborne illness outbreaks, CFPMs should be very picky about food product suppliers, whether national suppliers or local farmers. All should inspect the product before delivery, monitor upstream suppliers, and have a system to identify and alert any questionable products. However, it is up to the CFPM to do a final inspection of the delivered products.
Finally, certified food protection managers should have regular team education meetings to reduce the possibility of an outbreak by emphasizing the clean, separate, cook, and chill processes. Safe Food For Thought will help you with this task. We will be posting a series of blogs that focus on how to identify the most common foodborne diseases and tips for cleaning techniques and equipment maintenance that will help prevent the spread of foodborne outbreaks.
