As Summer winds down, it would be a good time to review with your staff some basic Food Safety Practices. Pick a single topic and include in your daily pre-meal, or go into more in depth subject at your regular staff meeting.
Target first a topic that you have observed your staff is not up to standards. Always explain WHY a certain procedure is needs to be followed. This understanding is a good way to get their buy-in. Once you have your quick review, give kudos to team members that are doing the right thing, but quietly remind staff that are not doing what you spoke about on the correct way.
- Handwashing – proper handwash is not a quick rinse under the faucet and dry on apron (which I’ve seen) Everyone should follow the 20 second rule.
- Avoiding Bare Hand Contact – All staff – kitchen, servers, expo, bartenders – are not to handle foods that do not get additional cooking. Garnishes, bar fruits, burger buns are common violations. Make sure gloves, paper or tongs are available at each station.
- Cold foods needs to be held at 41 and below. Each refrigeration unit needs to have an easily found thermometer. The staff should inform you when the air temp or foods being held go above 41. How will they know when foods are above 41?
- Thermometer Use – ALL staff should have access to a thermometer – not just the Chef, or keeping it locked up in the office. Your staff should be your eyes for maintaining safe holding temperatures.
- Keeping logs – These are a pain to remember to keep, but work with the staff to regularly keep logs for equipment, cold and hot holding, sanitizer levels in your dish machine and sani-buckets. Your staff should be knowledgeable on what temperatures need to be kept, and inform a supervisor when needed.
- Proper Cooling – Remind all that foods need to go from 135 to 70 in 2 hours, then from 70 to 41 in 4 more hours. This minimizes the time the food is in the TDZ. A key here is that these temps need to be documented in a log. If an inspector comes in and there is no way to show how long a food has been cooling, violation.
- Proper Hierarchy – Foods have specific places they need to be stored in refrigeration. Print signs from https://health.hawaii.gov/san/files/2018/01/Refrigerator-Cold-Storage-.pdf
These are just a few basics that many operations need a little refresher. Use these as talking points and reinforce these and other rules for Safe Food.
Here is the HI DoH page that has a wide variety of signs and posters. https://health.hawaii.gov/san/food-information/
To set up any type of Audit, please contact Peter Bellisario via email peter@peterbfoodsafety.com or phone (808)491-7766. As always, Hawaii Restaurant Association members are eligible for a discount on our already reasonable fees.
To set up any type of Audit, please contact Peter Bellisario via email peter@peterbfoodsafety.com or phone (808)491-7766. As always, Hawaii Restaurant Association members are eligible for a discount on our already reasonable fees.
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