Where is my food thermometer?

Once again, I was out and about yesterday conducting food safety audits. My assistant and I entered an establishment and began our normal routine. It was a small operation so we weren’t expecting it to take long. Generally, we can tell right away if the operators are above board or not.

After introducing ourselves, we headed to the kitchen. The owner was somewhat distraught, “You didn’t call me to schedule an appointment.” Uh no kidding, I thought. “No ma’am, we don’t schedule appointments,” I replied. “Well, if you’d scheduled an appointment I would’ve been ready!” she blurted. “I guess so.” I responded.  “Do you have a food thermometer?” I asked, as I was taking the temperature of the water at her hand sink. “Yes.” She answered. “Great! I need to see it.” I said. The owner then went on a ten minute mission while we continued our inspection process. Now I’m not proclaiming to know everything but my experience is telling me, if you can’t find your thermometer within two or three minutes – ladies and gentlemen - YOU’RE NOT USING IT! And this is what I told her. Her eyes shot darts.

So, now we move on to the sanitizer, does she have it? Yes, there it is. How about test strips?  Another hide and seek mission. She tells me she just purchased some at Lowe’s. At Lowe’s? I have never seen them at Lowe’s. Who knows? Again, if you can’t find them… I seriously doubt you’re using them.

The point of this is to let you know that you’re health inspector is not an idiot. 

He or she knows if you are doing what you need to do on a regular basis or not. It’s much easier to be compliant and follow the rules, than to go through the awkward 30 to 60 minutes of the inspection process and wonder if you’re going to be in compliance or not. I personally hate those awkward inspections. Let alone the ones where I have to shut a facility down because they pose an imminent danger to the public.

Educate yourself and your team. 

Make your health department your ally, they want to help you. We love those who do their jobs well. Trust me; we want to have a good day just as much as you do!  And those Food Manager Certification classes - don’t just learn the information to pass the exam; take the information back to your team and share it with them. I can’t tell you how many times a day I say, “Remember that food safety class you took?”  “Oh yeah…” they say.

We can help you maintain compliance! Visit us at fsts.net to find out how.