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. 

Food Safety Tips for Memorial Day Weekend

Picnics, barbecues, family, friends and the traditional start of summer… Who doesn’t love Memorial Day weekend? While you’re assembling your list of activities for the busy holiday weekend, you may want to remember to add some standard food safety precautions to the agenda. With the warmer weather, the buffet style feeding frenzy, and the potluck smorgasbords that you’re about to partake in, your risk for a foodborne illness is likely to increase significantly. And, I didn’t even mention the lack of hand washing facilities, in some instances… step away from my food!

·       • Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water (100⁰F) before handling any food and after handling raw meat, poultry, or raw eggs.

·        • Always rinse fresh fruits and vegetables.

·       • Cook foods to the required temperatures, especially ground beef (155⁰F), pork (145⁰F), and poultry (165⁰F).

·       • Keep hot foods hot (above 135⁰F) and cold foods cold (below 41⁰F).

Avoid cross contamination, don’t let raw meat products come into contact with ready-to-eat foods (i.e. lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, bread). Don’t use the same plates and utensils for raw and cooked meat products; for example, don’t carry meat to the grill on a plate and then place the cooked burgers on that same plate without first properly washing it. Someone could get E.coli or Salmonella as a result of this cross-contamination and spend hours lying on the bathroom floor… or worse.

Many picnic foods are potentially hazardous, and should be handled with care:

·       • Any product that contains eggs, meat, poultry, tuna, potatoes, pasta, etc.

·       • Lunchmeats, protein foods, ham salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, etc.

·       • Meat, fish, poultry

·       • Milk and dairy

·       • Sliced tomatoes

·       • Cut melons – yes, melons!

Again, KEEP HOT FOODS HOT (above 135⁰F) and KEEP COLD FOODS COLD (below 41⁰F)! Enjoy your time with your family and friends, and keep everyone safe and healthy!

*Temperatures in article are reflective of the 2013 FDA FOOD CODE

So, What is Gluten?

Some people cannot eat gluten for medical reasons, but many people don’t eat it because they think it will make them gain weight, some fitness instructor told them not to or because everyone is talking about it. Ten years ago no one in the food industry was talking about it. Recently, Jimmy Kimmel did a segment asking “gluten-free” people at a popular exercise spot one simple question:

What is gluten? Sadly, not one person got it right. They had no idea what gluten is or why they should or should not be eating it. The truth is, unless there is a medical reason, you shouldn’t eliminate entire food groups from your diet. By definition:

Gluten: A substance present (protein) in grains – wheat, barley, rye, spelt, triticale, some oats and several other grains. It causes illness in people with Celiac Disease and gluten allergies.
There are major problems with the gluten-free movement, including a lack of education. For those with legitimate problems that go on a gluten-free diet, how it improves their health is life changing. They share the good news with friends and family - inadvertently giving them false hope that it will make them feel better too. Going gluten-free will not help you lose weight and will not make you feel better if your body is able to digest it. It isn’t uncommon to see someone that is on a “gluten-free diet” at the bar enjoying a beer – because they have no idea what gluten is. It’s difficult to find beer is that is not direct derivative of gluten!

On the flip side, the gluten-free fad has created a stigma in the food industry. When someone with a real illness or allergy comes into a restaurant, some servers don’t take it seriously when they mention gluten-free. They think it is a fad or the person is over dramatizing their situation. This is a huge problem because it IS serious. That person could be sick for days or weeks from minimal exposure to gluten (only 20 ppm* is enough to cause illness); and, the levels of illness can vary greatly from person to person.

Servers don’t understand that picking the croutons off the top of the salad isn’t enough. They don’t understand gluten-free pasta cannot be cooked in the same pot that was just used for regular pasta. This is why education is imperative! Don’t put your establishment in a libelous situation where someone could become very ill or die because your staff doesn’t understand the seriousness of celiac disease and food allergies. If your team isn’t properly trained, you could be held legally responsible if an incident occurs.

FSTS can help! Visit us at fsts.net/allergytraining to find a course designed for you.

*20 parts per million, comparable to one drop of food coloring in a gallon of water.

1 in 6 American’s Get Food Poisoning Annually, Don’t Become a Statistic!

Francine L. Shaw CP-FS, CFSM, FSP, FMP

Food Safety Solutions, INC  |  3.2.2015

Every year in this country 48 million people get foodborne illnesses, 128,000 individuals are hospitalized and 3,000 people die. US Foodborne illnesses cost 15.6 billion dollars per year…that’s right, BILLION. Yet, they’re 100% preventable. So why and how does this happen?

In most occurrences it’s really pretty basic. Here are the statistics: improper holding temperatures (37%), poor personal hygiene (19%), cross contamination (16%), improperly cleaning and sanitizing the dishes and utensils (11%), purchasing products from unapproved suppliers (6%). In many cases it is never determined where the foodborne illness originated. Of those that have been determined: 61% ate food prepared by foodservice, 32% ate food prepared at home, and 7% ate food that was commercially prepared i.e. tuna salad, potato salad, etc.

So how do you know the food you are serving is safe? If you are being proactive you really should have little doubt; but, so many are flying by the seat of their pants. Does your facility have a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) plan in place? Do you panic when the health inspector walks in the door? Are you embarrassed by the results of your most recent inspection? Do you have at least one food manager on staff? The FDA FOOD CODE recommends you do, some states and jurisdictions mandate it while others do not. A savvy restaurant owner would educate their staff either way. To protect their customers, increase their bottom line and help minimize their liability. Take your blinders off and look around your facility, does it look clean? Not just on the surface, but the details. The threshold under the door where your customers enter, the ceiling vents, the baseboards, is there mold in the ice chute at the beverage bar?

Now is the time to get back to the basics. Keep HOT food HOT and COLD food COLD.  Hot food should be held at a minimum of 135⁰F (57⁰C) and cold food should be held at a maximum of 41⁰F (5⁰C).  Time and temperature play an important role in food safety.  It’s paramount that food products are cooked to the correct temperature and stored properly. How do you know this if you can’t even find the thermometer; or, don’t have one? And, this is just the beginning!

Are the employee’s washing their hands with soap? Are they wearing gloves when necessary? Are their uniforms clean? This is all part of personal hygiene….someone that is preparing food should never wear their apron into the restroom because….Well, I won’t get into that here.

Education is power. Educate yourself and your team; don’t allow yourself or your establishment to become one of the statistics in Bill Marler’s phenomenal food poisoning litigation practice.

Handwashing with soap stops the spread of disease and can save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention.

Please download the free handwashing PDF.

Monitor Food Safety While Staying Heart Healthy

PURCHASING

Be selective.

Do not purchase bruised or damaged produce - whether it’s on sale or not!

If purchasing pre-cut produce — such as a sliced cantaloupe or bagged salad greens — choose only those items that are kept cold i.e. refrigerated, packed in ice.

Fresh fruits and vegetables must be bagged separately from meat, poultry and seafood products when packing them to take home. This is a sure way to cause illness. Cross-contamination is bound to happen if these items are bagged together.

STORAGE

Did you know that proper storage could affect quality and safety?

Store fresh fruits and vegetables (like strawberries, lettuce, herbs, and mushrooms) in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 41°F (5°C) or below. There shouldn’t be any mold or unidentifiable objects in your refrigerator. These things are spreading contamination, get rid of them!

All produce that is purchased pre-cut or peeled must be refrigerated to maintain both quality and safety.

SEPARATE

Fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw must be kept separate from other foods such as raw meat, poultry or seafood — and from kitchen utensils used for those products. If not cross-contamination is likely to occur. Here are a few food safety precautions:

Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils and counter tops with soap and hot water between the preparation of raw meat, poultry and seafood products and the preparation of produce that will not be cooked.

If you use plastic or other non-porous cutting boards, run them through the dishwasher after use.

PREPARATION

When preparing fresh produce, start with clean hands. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water 100°F (38°C) before and after preparation.

Remove any and all damaged or bruised areas on fresh fruits and vegetables before preparing and/or eating. Produce that looks spoiled must be discarded.

Wash all produce thoroughly under running water before eating, cutting or cooking. This includes produce grown conventionally or organically at home, or purchased from a grocery store or farmer’s market. Using soap, detergent or commercial produce washes is not recommended.

Whether or  not you plan to peel the produce before consuming, it is still important to wash it first so dirt and bacteria aren’t transferred from the utensil onto the food product. Melons and cucumbers and other firm veggies should be scrubbed with a clean produce brush.

Dry product with a clean paper towel to remove any remaining bacteria that may be present.

Of course eating fruits and vegetables is not the only thing that will help you maintain a healthy heart. A well balanced diet and exercise are part of the plan as well. And, I would be totally remiss if I didn’t mention that while a happy healthy heart is our number one goal - if you are lying on the floor beside the toilet and it’s because your forgot to wash your veggies; your happy healthy heart is going to feel very, very sad. 

We at Food Safety Training Solutions, Inc. wish you a lifetime of love with a healthy heart.