FOOD SAFETY TODAY

September is Food Safety Education Month — here’s how to enhance your efforts

// By Liz Barrett Foster

More than half of all foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States are associated with restaurants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and experts suggest that the challenges facing food safety will increase in the coming years due to factors such as expanding supply chains and antibiotic resistance.

A recent report from consulting firm Deloitte titled, “The Restaurant of the Future: A Vision Evolves,” states that increased cleanliness and safety protocols are important to consumers. Almost half (45%) of consumers surveyed said they would not return to a restaurant that experienced a safety incident, while more than half (55%) of consumers surveyed said they would be willing to pay between 10% and 50% more to know about the safety and cleanliness that surround the preparation and transport of their food.

With consumers clamoring for more transparency, how are kitchens addressing the latest changes both inside and outside of the kitchen?

Safety Under A Microscope

The restaurant industry has always had a laser focus on food safety, but never did the spotlight shine so bright on this issue than during the last two years. When Chef Shawn Loving, CMC, took over as executive chef of Detroit Athletic Club last year, one of his first tasks was to build a to-go program for the club’s membership that would hold up beyond the pandemic. The task involved sourcing new, secure packaging and labels that would elicit increased trust from the consumer. “We chose a stronger to-go container that holds its temperature well, created labels that display ingredients and time of preparation, and utilize tamper-proof labels, which we initial after sealing,” Chef Loving says.

“The pandemic made operators, in general, think differently about presentation and to-go programs as they relate to safety,” Chef Loving says. Although COVID-19 does not cause foodborne illnesses, the pandemic did result in consumers becoming more conscious of food safety as a whole.

Chef Shawn Kohlhaas, principal of Culinary Cultivations and president of the ACF Greater Grand Rapids chapter, points to certifications as one of the foundations of a strong food safety training program. “The most important thing is getting your managers certified in food safety and sanitation, so they understand the basics of food safety,” he says. “Then you can do continuing education or in-service education to gain knowledge from your superiors.”

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ServSafe program, which maintains the most up-to-date food safety standards regarding sanitation, separating raw and cooked ingredients and maintaining safe temperatures, now offers certifications and training programs for specific kitchen positions and segments of the industry. These include ServSafe Manager, ServSafe Food Handler, ServSafe Alcohol, ServSafe Allergens, ServSafe Academic (for culinary schools) and ServSafe Workplace. Of course, all ACF certifications require the completion of coursework and training in the most updated food safety and sanitation practices. ACF members can visit the Online Learning Center (olc.acfchefs.org) for additional food safety instructional videos and training materials.

Delivering Safe Food

The global online food delivery market is expected to reach $128 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate of 5.6% over the next four years, according to a report conducted by Capgemini, a European-based technology consultancy. The importance of food safety will grow along with the market, which is why it’s more important than ever to keep food safety training updated in the kitchen.

If your food is placed into bags or containers that reduce the possibility of chemical, biological or physical contamination, you should avoid food safety delivery problems, according to Chef Kohlhaas, who says that contamination is of greater concern than temperature control during delivery. “You have a four-hour window before food is in the temperature danger zone,” he says. “The quality isn't going to be there, but as far as temperature control, that’s not the big issue with transportation.”

One food safety issue that poses a unique delivery concern is food allergies, specifically when partnering with third-party delivery companies and kitchens. Oftentimes, the menu on a third-party site is abbreviated and won’t show the possible allergens in a kitchen, according to Hal King, Ph.D., managing partner at Active Food Safety, a food safety consultancy. “A customer might have an allergy to something and not know that the food was prepared in a kitchen that handles multiple restaurant brands, posing a risk for cross-contamination,” he says. This poses an even larger threat when ghost kitchens don’t disclose their locations. If there are known allergens such as peanuts, soy, eggs or dairy in your menu items, disclose them on individual menu items online so that customers are alerted prior to ordering.

“If I owned a restaurant and was working with third parties to deliver food to my customers, I would survey my customers to see how their experience was,” King says. “Consider including storage and reheating instructions, using tamper-evident seals and including a hand wipe that illustrates that you care about customer safety.”

Labor And Food Safety

The restaurant industry is a long way off from returning to the employment levels it saw pre-pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. In fact, as of April, eating and drinking establishments were still 794,000 jobs shy of where they were prior to 2020.

However, Chef Loving says it’s important not to let the lack of labor or the pressure of multiple events or tasks win out over food safety. “Successfully pleasing customers or your membership should flow hand-in-hand with safety,” he says. “We must stay the course for our members, customers and clients; they all need our knowledge and expertise during these times.”

Due to an increase in delivery orders and a decrease in labor, prepared food is often held for longer periods of time. But, according to Chef Kohlhaas, food safety standards allow up to a seven-day holding time for prepared foods with proper temperature control, which leaves a lot of room for error. Luckily, Chef Kohlhaas says, “Most operations won't hold on to any kind of prepared food for seven days, not because of food safety, but because of the quality issue.”

Leveraging Technology

New technologies are helping to increase food safety in the kitchen as well. These include technology temperature equipment devices, which can monitor every item in a restaurant’s cooler, eliminating the need for manual temperature checks, and an increased use of data analysis to help streamline and simplify safety checks throughout an operation. Gone are the days of the clipboard and pencil.

It’s important to embrace technology and the ways it can help maintain consistency and safe practices in the kitchen, Chef Loving says. “If ovens can feature tons of technology, what are we afraid of? A chef's value [of safe food] will always be strong.”

Looking toward the future, King foresees technology that might help consumers track food from prep to plate. “We may need better ways to track the time of prep so customers can understand that it was prepped at four o'clock, they received it at five o’clock, etc.,” King says. “Those kinds of things could help customers know food isn’t going to be held out of temperature too long.”

Whether you’re utilizing the latest technology or still putting pen to paper, Chef Kohlhaas says the goal is always to make food safety your priority. “Don't wait for somebody to come to you about a food safety issue,” he says. “Be an advocate and ambassador of food safety in your operation.”