What Would You Do In A Food Safety Crisis?

By Francine L. Shaw, President / Published July 17, 2017 on RestaurantNews.com

What if your restaurant inadvertently served salads made with tainted lettuce, which sickened dozens of guests?  Or one of your servers accidentally served pesto to a guest with a nut allergy, who had a severe allergic reaction as a result? Perhaps your restaurant didn’t pass a health inspection and your commercial kitchen was shut down?  You’re facing a crisis – do you know what to do next?

Food service employees don’t intend to serve up a plate of Salmonella, norovirus or listeria, but sometimes tainted produce or undercooked meats make guests sick – or worse – even kill them.  Restaurant employees may accidentally cross-contaminate – cutting ready-to-eat food like fruit on a board that previously held raw chicken, contaminating the fruit with bacteria from the raw poultry juices.  Maybe they didn’t realize that a sauce contained dairy and they unknowingly served it to a dairy-allergic guest, who had to be transported by ambulance from your restaurant to the ER.

Even with the most careful food safety protocols in place, your restaurant is at risk for a food safety crisis.  Do you have a crisis plan in case the worst-case scenario happens at your venue?

Ideally, you’ve thought about crisis management before anything bad actually happens at your restaurant.  It’s important for all food service businesses to create a crisis plan before a crisis occurs to follow if a disaster strikes.  In a crisis, your team will be upset – even terrified – and will need an actionable plan to use as a guide moving forward.  While you hope to never need it, it’s better to be prepared.  A crisis plan will help you and your employees handle a crisis, deliver accurate messages, minimize damage, and rebuild your restaurant to be stronger (and safer) than ever.

When we think of a food safety crisis, we often think of foodborne illnesses, but all restaurants should prepare for a variety of crisis scenarios: a severe allergic reaction at your establishment, a failed health inspection, a product recall, an employee worked with norovirus and infected customers with it, etc.  You should also know how to react to any potentially damaging occurrence, where “bad news” about your restaurant is spreading through town – including a social media crisis.

When you’re creating your plan, include the following:

• Find out what happened. This is the most important first step. Was there an error in your kitchen? Did a vendor ship tainted product?  Were products held at the correct temperature?  Did cross-contamination or cross-contact occur? Was there a mistake in product labeling? Did an ill employee spread a sickness (like norovirus) to customers? Determine what happened and how it happened.
• Communicate with key audiences. Your customers, prospects, employees, advertisers, sponsors and others want to know what happened and what you’re doing to remedy the situation.  Create honest, apologetic messaging and be heartfelt and genuine in your communications.  Give the facts – what happened, where there was a breakdown in the system, and how you’re preventing a reoccurrence.  Explain the solutions-focused plan you’ve created to move forward.
• Work with the media. Some restaurant owners/managers avoid the media in a crisis, but that’s not in your best interest. Instead, work with the media to tell your story – explain how there was a breakdown in your process and how you’re moving forward to fix it and prevent a reoccurrence.  Stay focused on the facts. Be apologetic, and don’t get emotional or defensive.
• Train (or re-train) your staff on food safety protocols. Be certain that everyone is knowledgeable about food safety (e.g., how to prevent cross-contamination and cross-contact, how to properly prepare allergy-friendly meals, not to work when they’re vomiting or have diarrhea, etc.) to avoid similar crisis situations in the future.
• Use social media wisely. Some restaurants (and other businesses) experience a “social media crisis” that negatively impacts their reputation (online and off). An Applebee’s employee recently posted inappropriate things about a customer, and many followers were offended.  Applebee’s reacted defensively, firing back hostile comments that added fuel to the fire.  Then they started deleting the online threads about the incident, rather than addressing them rationally, which angered their followers and caused additional damage.  Don’t get defensive and don’t allow yourself to get sucked into toxic, negative message spirals.  Messages on social media (as well as in real life) should always be positive and professional.
• Vow to win back customers’ and employees’ trust. Actions speak louder than words, so do what you promise moving forward. Be very clear about the steps you’re taking to “right the wrong” that occurred.
• Make changes. If a vendor mislabeled ingredients or sourced tainted products, cut ties with that vendor.  If an employee made an accidental error, be sure to train them (and all of your staff) about how to avoid similar problems in the future.  If an employee or vendor made a deliberate error (e.g., knowingly posting damaging information about your restaurant on social media), take appropriate action, which may include termination, suspension, etc.
• Designate a media spokesperson. When facing a serious crisis, your restaurant’s CEO/owner/president should be the spokesperson.  The public wants the head of the company to speak authoritatively about the incident and the concrete plans to resolve the problem. Work with a professional crisis management team so your spokesperson doesn’t do more harm than good in interviews.  For instance, Steve Ells, the CEO of Chipotle, was widely criticized for his delayed statements in the wake of the chain’s massive (and multiple) foodborne illness outbreaks in 2015.  Further, he appeared nervous – not authoritative – in his television interview, which may not have reassured a nervous public that he was in control of the situation.  Practice your messages before going in front of the cameras, and anticipate the most challenging questions you may receive – and determine how you’ll respond professionally, politely and non-defensively.
• Stay calm. While it’s upsetting (and also terrifying!) to be in a crisis situation, remain calm as you work to recover from the incident. Follow your crisis plan and communicate your key messages.  Make certain that important audiences (including customers, prospects, employees, the media, vendors, health inspectors, etc.) recognize how hard you’re working to prevent similar incidents in the future.
• Move forward. Yes, a crisis at your restaurant will likely be the hardest and scariest period in your professional life, but you will get through it.  Stay strong, positive and solutions-focused.  Be a good leader for your staff.  Vow to serve safe food in a healthy environment.  And demonstrate – through your words and actions – how important the health and safety of your customers, staff and community are to you.

Training Staff on Food-Allergy Safety

By Francine L. Shaw  |  Published July 6, 2017, on ChefMagazine.com

It’s crucial to prep, cook and serve with food-allergic customers in mind—even during your busiest shift. It could save lives.

Food allergies are increasingly prevalent among diners, and they present such severe and even life-threatening risks that they now warrant mandated food-allergy training among foodservice professionals across the United States.

It’s estimated that 15 million Americans have food allergies, according to the nonprofit Food Allergy Research and Education. The “Big 8” that are responsible for 90 percent of all allergic responses are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish, and shellfish.

Diners can also have life-threatening allergic reactions to a variety of other foods, too. That’s why everyone in your restaurant—the owner, chefs, servers, and hosts— should take food allergies seriously and engage in training. All employees should be aware of your food allergy protocols. Emphasize to your staff that if a food-allergic guest ingests even a trace amount of their food allergen, it can trigger a reaction—and, in some cases, even death.

To help keep diners safe, staff must know what ingredients are used in every component of every meal on the menu. One of the most important elements of proper food safety protocol is avoiding cross-contact, where proteins from foods containing an allergen are transferred to foods not containing that allergen. An example of this is chopping peanuts on a board and then chopping salad greens on that same board. To avoid cross-contact, boards and other equipment must be properly cleaned and sanitized after preparing any foods.

It’s crucial to note the difference between cross-contact and cross-contamination. Anyone can become ill from cross-contamination if they eat foods that have touched raw meats or poultry. Cross-contact, however, is a relatively new term that is only dangerous for food-allergic guests. Be certain that your staff understands what this new term means and how to prevent it.

It’s easy to make a mistake when serving hundreds of guests on any given evening. But using proper food allergy protocols all the time can help prevent mistakes, so here are some tips to consider:

•  Communication is critical among both Front-of-house and back-of-house staff. Hosts and servers should always ask if there are any food allergies in the party and, if so, inform the manager and chef.
• Cooks must communicate with each other during the entire cooking and plating process.
• Create a separate workspace in the kitchen to prepare only allergen- free/gluten-free meals.
• Store common food allergens away from other foods.
•  Utilize color-coded tools to reduce the risk of cross-contact. Purple is the universal color for allergen-free kitchen utensils.
•  Don’t use the same fryer or oil for fries that has been used for breaded fish or foods with nuts.
• When food-allergic guests have questions, the manager or chef should answer them to be certain the information is accurate.
• Be aware of complex allergies beyond dairy-free or gluten-free.
• Serve allergen-free/gluten-free meals on plates that feature different shapes or colors than the rest of the dishware so they can be easily identified by cooks and servers.
• Ensure all dishware is properly washed, rinsed and sanitized prior to reuse.
• Educate entire staff about allergen “aliases.” For instance, whey and casein are dairy products, and semolina contains gluten.
• Be willing to modify dishes for food-allergic guests by using different sauces, sides or ingredients.
• Take advantage of the numerous food-safety classes, webinars, and videos that are available online.

With all the things that are happening in a kitchen, food allergy concerns can take a back seat; but it’s essential to properly accommodate each and every food-allergic customer, even during your busiest shifts, to keep diners safe and even save their lives.

With more than 100 combined years of experience, Food Safety Training Solutions Inc. offers consulting, food safety training, food safety inspections and more.