Food Safety: Get Back to Basics

By Francine Shaw  |  Published July 25, 2018, on FoodandHospitality.com

I’ve spent most of my life in the foodservice industry, and things have changed dramatically since my early days in the business. Back then, we didn’t have single-use gloves in the restaurant, we wore our hair down, I hadn’t heard of Hepatitis A, E. Coli, Norovirus, Salmonellosis, or Shigellosis, nor would I for years to come. During my early days in the business, food-safety wasn’t even discussed.

But that all changed when Jack in the Box had an E. Coli crisis in 1993, and 700 individuals became ill, 171 were hospitalized and four died. Tragically the outbreak put food safety on the map. Since then, food-safety protocols have been developed to keep customers safe.

Foodborne illness is 100 percent preventable. The food safety experts at Savvy Food Safety, Inc. suggest going back to basics to keep guests safe:

• Create a food safety culture from the executive level to hourly team members. Don’t just talk the talk – walk the walk.
• Don’t just create policies and procedures, but explain why the policies are important. Your employees are more likely to comply if they understand why the rules are in place.
• Don’t allow employees to work when they’re ill. They could spread serious illnesses like norovirus, which is highly contagious.
• Train continuously. Educate employees about avoiding cross-contamination, using thermometers and following other critical food-safety procedures.
• Use temperature logs. This helps you spot temperature issues before they become a cost factor or a liability issue.
• Conduct self-inspections. Catch small issues before they become big problems. For example, if your recent delivery wasn’t stored properly, you can take corrective action. Otherwise, there could be a spoilage issue or a cross-contamination problem.
• Conduct third-party audits. Someone objective from the “outside” will see things from a different perspective and point out possible infractions. Hire someone reputable who knows the business and genuinely cares about your outcome.
• Check deliveries. Supplies must be at the proper temperature – hot food should be hot, cold food cold, frozen food frozen, and products should always be properly sealed.
• Only use approved reputable suppliers that are inspected and follow local, state and federal guidelines.
• If in doubt, throw it out!

Establish – and implement – food-safety protocols so foodborne illness outbreaks don’t happen to you.

How Technology is Elevating Food Safety Practices & Protocols

By Francine Shaw  |  Published July 19, 2018, on FoodSafetyTech.com

Technology is elevating food safety practices and protocols, and will help reduce or eliminate food safety incidents and outbreaks in the future. However, a major challenge will be getting food businesses to adopt these tech tools. Food service companies have been slower than other industries to adopt a technology, preferring instead to do things “the way they’ve always done them”— often using antiquated pen and paper systems to track food safety standards. Often, food business owners are worried about the cost and implementation of tech solutions, fearing that they’ll be too expensive and/or complex for them to manage.

Something has to change in our industry. Food recalls are on the rise—recently with a huge nationwide romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak and recall. Even a big name packaged breakfast cereal was recently recalled for possible contamination.

America’s food industry has a $55.5 billion safety problem annually, as reported by Fortune magazine (This information was gathered from a 2015 study by Robert Scharff,  an associate professor at Ohio State University, who estimated that foodborne illnesses cost $55.5 billion per year in medical treatment, lost productivity, and illness-related mortality in the United States). This includes foodborne illnesses at restaurants and retailers, food recalls, and other food safety issues.

The CDC reports that 48 million Americans become sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States. Therefore, investing in food safety is one of the smartest things that food service organizations can do. The expense, time and energy necessary to implement—or elevate—your organization’s food safety protocols won’t be overwhelming, and it’s crucial to your business’ success.

Foodborne illnesses are expensive and damaging for businesses. Having a foodborne illness incident or outbreak can cost significant money—including decreased revenues, hefty legal fees, potential lawsuits, diminished sales (and loyalty) from guests afraid to visit the (possibly contaminated) restaurant or store, and a damaged reputation that could permanently shut your doors.

Food safety should be part of every company’s culture. Everyone—on every shift—should be trained in proper food safety protocols. And, since tech solutions have become more accessible and mainstream, more food businesses should adopt and use them.

The latest technologies are elevating the way many food service businesses operate. Not only do these technological tools make food safer, but they can also save restaurants, convenience stores, hotels and other food service companies a tremendous amount of money each year.

Technological solutions enhance food safety protocols and make it faster, more accurate, and more efficient to conduct inventory, auditing, training and keep food safe. Investing in technology is something that all food businesses should do to help boost the health and safety of their establishments.

Nothing will negatively impact your organization’s brand and reputation more than a foodborne illness outbreak. While human error can never be completely eliminated, advancements in technology help minimize the risks. Some innovative developments include:

• Sensors. Sensors ensure foods are being held at proper temperatures. For instance, centralized, continuous refrigeration monitoring systems signal when temperatures in coolers or freezers rise above safe holding temperatures, eliminating the need to throw away entire coolers or freezers of food due to improperly working units. As a result, businesses can save thousands of dollars (or more) in lost product and potentially save lives by storing cold foods properly.
• Digital auditing tools. Innovative digital tools can now be used for food companies’ internal auditing systems, which is a more efficient, cost-effective and accurate solution versus the pen and paper methods that are often (and widely) used in the food service industry. Using pen and paper to audit restaurants, hotels, institutions and stores often results in increased labor, time, errors and expenses. Additionally, hard copy records can be hard to organize and access—and it’s extremely difficult to integrate and analyze the data. Digital tools provide more efficient, cost-effective internal auditing systems, with records that are easy to access and analyze.
• Mobile solutions. The food service industry is comprised of many employees from younger generations (e.g., millennials and Gen Z), and these populations have grown up on their smartphones. Now, food businesses can leverage digital tools that can be used on cell phones and tablets, which is an easy and effective way to engage younger employees. Many companies are providing downloadable apps that enhance the way food service employees conduct inspections, keep temperature logs, conduct training, manage QA forms, access food code information, and more. Critical food safety information can (literally) be at employees’ fingertips.

These (and other!) tech solutions offer significant benefits to food service businesses, including:

• Boosting operational systems. Digital tools can help with brand protection and quality assurance concerns by optimizing and improving line checks, shift logs, inspections, auditing and other reporting.
• Improving the bottom line. Investing in technology boosts companies’ operational efficiencies, which has been proven to improve their bottom line. Technology tools can reduce or prevent food spoilage, reduce labor costs and help avoid foodborne illnesses.
• Reducing fraud. There’s a widespread “pencil whipping” problem in the food service industry, where employees using paper record systems falsify records or “cheat” on their processes. As much as food service leadership wants to deny that “pencil whipping” happens in their organizations, it’s (unfortunately) a fairly common practice in restaurants, convenience stores and other industry businesses. Pencil whipping can result in increased food safety risks, food code violations and other (potentially costly) issues. Digital tools can help reduce or eliminate “pencil whipping” through real-time data collection, and visual records using photos and videos.

While technology has previously been considered to be a luxury, today, digital tools are affordable, widespread and accessible. Technology that can help minimize labor, reduce (or eliminate) foodborne illness risks, and minimize food waste is not an expense, it’s an important investment.

Technology streamlines operations, improves safety protocols, reduces errors, integrates data—and so much more. The benefits are huge. Often, food service owners tell me that they can’t afford the investment, or that they’re overwhelmed about how to find and implement the right system. I reassure them that it’s truly easier than ever to incorporate tech tools into food companies, and it’s one of the smartest things companies can do. Innovative technology tools are critical to keeping foods, consumers and businesses healthy and safe.

Hagerstown firm helps people be savvy about food safety

Mike Lewis
• 

  Mike Lewis

   
 Published
July 15, 2018, HeraldMailMedia.com

After a lifetime in the food service industry, Francine Shaw still says there's nothing better "than a Friday evening rush that goes well."


"(But) if it's not done well and it's not done right, people can get sick and die," she said. "And that's why we're here."


Shaw is president of Savvy Food Safety Inc., which recently moved from McConnellsburg, Pa., into new quarters in the Mulberry Lofts, 22 N. Mulberry St. in Hagerstown. The company employs four people and several independent contractors, offering training, inspections, curriculum development, crisis management and related services.



"We train everybody from food handlers to CEOs," Shaw said.


The new space includes offices, a conference room, and a training facility. A testing center is being developed.


"It’s been an exciting year of positive changes for our organization. First, we’ve rebranded our former company, Food Safety Training Solutions, to become Savvy Food Safety Inc., because we’re much more than just a training company. We’re food safety subject matter experts, offering a robust roster of services, including training, crisis management, curriculum development, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) plans, inspections and more,” Shaw said in a news release. "We also speak globally about food safety issues and regularly contribute content and expertise to numerous media outlets."


The company also creates food safety videos for its clients. It also works to help companies update their food safety protocols, including moving away from the pencil-and-paper methods to software systems.


Shaw said her interest in the subject comes naturally. Her grandparents owned a general store, and her parents had a grocery for a time.


"When I was 15 years old, I started out as a fry girl in a fast-food restaurant," she recalled.


She spent a couple of decades with that company and its successor, working her way up through the ranks. She found she enjoyed the training aspect of the industry. Eventually, she got into training full time. Then she started her own company.



Shaw has been featured as a food safety expert in media outlets that range from the Dr. Oz Show to Food Management Magazine, according to the news release. The Savvy Food Safety team has more than 100 combined years of industry experience in restaurants, casinos and convenience stores. They’ve helped numerous clients — including McDonald’s, Subway, Marriott, Domino’s, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America, Dairy Queen and Omni Hotel and Resorts — prevent foodborne illnesses.


Shaw said it's a big problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 will die.


"The numbers are staggering. They're 100 percent preventable," she said.


Shaw says there's a monetary cost, too — some $55.5 billion a year in everything from recalls to legal fees.


"It can happen to anybody," she said. "All it takes is one mistake."