Food Safety Month: Preventing Foodborne Illness in Your Restaurant
Practical prevention steps that protect your staff, your guests, and your reputation.
From our partners at the National Restaurant Association
Proper prevention practices can significantly reduce the risk of contamination and foodborne illnesses. Follow these essential tips to protect your staff, your customers, and your reputation from outbreaks.
Putting Personal Hygiene First
Most foodborne outbreaks at restaurants are caused by food handlers unknowingly transferring pathogens from their body onto food. Neglecting personal hygiene greatly increases the risk of transferring harmful pathogens to food.
The number one way to avoid a foodborne illness outbreak at your operation is to ensure your staff are following proper hygiene protocols. One of the most important personal hygiene practices food handlers should follow is knowing when, where and how to wash their hands.
Practicing proper hygiene in the restaurant also includes knowing when and how to use gloves, keeping hands and nails clean, wearing appropriate work attire and not showing up to work sick.
Here are more essential tips for maintaining a clean, healthy crew:
Controlling Food Time and Temperature
Another common cause of foodborne illness in restaurants stems from unsafe bacterial growth in food. Certain types of food, known as Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) foods, allow for more bacterial growth than others. When left at certain temperatures for an extended amount of time, bacteria in these foods can grow to dangerous levels.
Controlling the time and temperature of TCS foods is critical for limiting bacterial growth that can cause your guests to become sick. Making sure your kitchen staff knows the time and temperature controls for TCS foods (Spanish Version) is crucial for preventing foodborne illness from time and temperature abuse.
Ensure food handlers know how to properly take food temperatures using a thermometer. Take TCS food temperatures during receiving, storing, prep, thawing, cooking, holding, cooling and reheating.
Check out these tips for keeping TCS food safe in your restaurant:
Preventing Cross-Contamination
Cross-contamination happens when foodborne pathogens are transferred from one surface or food to another and can lead to dangerous outbreaks. Cross-contamination can happen at any time, from receiving and storing food to preparing and serving it.
Aside from keeping known contaminants out of your kitchen, employees should be aware of how to properly store, prep and serve raw and ready-to-eat foods to limit the transfer of pathogens. Staff should also undergo food allergen training to prevent potentially harmful cross-contact.
Here are some tips for preventing cross-contamination:
Cleaning and Sanitizing in the Kitchen
It should go without saying that a dirty kitchen is a breeding ground for unsafe germs. Establishing good cleaning and sanitizing practices in the kitchen can help reduce the spread of harmful pathogens onto food.
The first step toward ensuring a safe, clean kitchen is making sure employees know when and how to clean and sanitize. Your food handler staff should know how to correctly use a dishwasher and three-compartment sink, how to clean and sanitize stationary equipment and how to properly handle garbage.
Follow these cleaning and sanitizing tips to keep your kitchen safe:
Want an easy way to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses in your operation? Download The 3-Legged Approach to Preventing Foodborne Illnesses poster and hang it where employees can easily reference it to help prevent an outbreak.
