Season’s Greetings! Holiday celebrations involving food at Florida’s restaurants are a festive way to enjoy friends, co-workers and family. To be certain that uninvited guests, such as pathogens causing foodborne illness, are not invited, be vigilant in upholding food safety during this busy time of year.
Maintain the culture of food safety. Encourage employees to take the time to correctly prepare, thaw, cook, cool and reheat food. Remind employees to take the time necessary to maintain proper hygiene: wash and dry hands as required, maintain clothing, nails and hair as specified. Don’t take short cuts when it comes to the safety of the food that you are serving to your guests.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has posted a Holiday Food Safety resource page that offers a Holiday Food Safety Success Kit, a consumer Holiday Food Safety Video in both English and Spanish, and while targeted for consumers, is applicable for employees cooking at home because we don’t want to bring illness to work, and information about ready-to-cook foods reminding Holiday cooks to prepare all food to correct temperature. In addition to that webpage, the FDA has included a Food Safety Tips for Healthy Holidays web page link that emphasizes clean, separate, cook and chill concepts.