Building a Strong Food Safety Program in Food Service

Clostridium perfringens infections often occur when large quantities of food are prepared and kept below 140 degrees Fahrenheit for long periods of time, which causes spores to survive the cooking process and then grow at the holding temperature, which in turn, contaminates the food and causes foodborne illness. Keeping foods hot (above 140 degrees Fahrenheit) and refrigerating foods (below 40 degrees Fahrenheit) within two hours can help prevent Clostridium perfringens infections.

A Strong Food Safety Program

Having a strong food safety program and culture within a restaurant is critical to its overall health. First and foremost, for any food safety program to be successful, the employees need to understand why food safety procedures are important. This means a focus on education and openly discussing the importance of food safety practices and addressing any concerns is a must.

Establishing a food safety management program is critical to the well-being of restaurant guests and helps reduce the chance of an outbreak happening at your establishment. Components of a food safety management program, according to industry expert Hal King include the following.

Identifying hazards and determining risk. Once you identify the hazards that could cause foodborne illness, it is important to define what they are, determine the impact they have on your business, and then assess the likelihood of that hazard happening. According to King, Risk = Hazard x Probability.

Implementing systems to reduce hazards. These systems can be programs, policies, and/or standard operating procedures that reduce hazards known to cause foodborne illness.

Manufacturing control systems in retail food preparation, including Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). HACCP is a preventive food safety assurance system that King believes provides the most value to a food retail business because it makes corrective action mandatory before a product is finished, as opposed to a nontraditional corrective system that measures the presence of hazard in the finished product. Both the FDA and USDA have established HACCP as a mandated food regulation for all food manufacturing in the U.S.

Corporate control systems, including a product withdrawal/recall system, which require cross-functional collaboration between many parts of the business.

The following are some key practices to include in your food safety program:

• Be sure workers do not come in while ill;
• Make sure workers wash their hands at key moments;
• Provide an alcohol-based hand sanitizer for guests to use when they enter the restaurant;
• Keep restrooms visibly and hygienically clean;
• Follow proper cooking instructions; and
• Implement processes to avoid cross-contamination.

Implementing Good Hygiene Practices

Gloving. According to the FDA, gloves should be worn by food service workers when handling ready-to-eat foods. It is important to note that gloves should only be used for one task; food workers must change gloves when switching tasks. Hand hygiene (e.g. washing hands) should be performed before and after donning gloves.

Cleaning and sanitizing food contact and non-food contact surfaces. Keep the surfaces your food and hands contact clean, especially in food preparation environments, which are ideal for growth and proliferation of bacteria. Be sure to use a surface cleaner and sanitizer designed specifically for the food service industry that quickly and effectively removes germs on surfaces, especially including Norovirus, E. coli, and Salmonella. Surfaces that touch raw food are the most susceptible to these pathogens.

Consider both the front and back of the house. Illness-causing germs are not only spread in the back of the restaurant (i.e. the kitchen); customers can also bring them in. This is why it is important to offer an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in the front of the house, so your customers can sanitize their hands before they eat and after touching menus and other commonly touched and shared objects.