Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Power Outages

by Juliet Bodinetz-Rich

The National Restaurant Association had their annual campaign of National Food Safety Education Month in September. If you have not had a chance yet, please take a moment and check out their FREE and invaluable down loads for this year’s campaign “Lessons learned from the Health Inspection” available in English or in Spanish at:  www.servsafe.com/nfsem. The Partnership for Food Safety Education’s campaign was “Home Food Safety Mythbusters program for consumers” with free downloads again available in English or in Spanish at www.fightbac.org .

Personally, I wasn’t sure if the timing of National Food Safety Education Month seemed ironic or right on track. Locally, we got clobbered consecutively with an earthquake, a hurricane, and flooding. Then to further the indignities, Ocean City had a small tornado (with no warning) to wind down the season. Many of you suffered with power outages in your homes and food establishments. Our household was lucky enough not to experience a power outage, but I do remember very well, Hurricane Isabel from 2003 where we were without electricity for over a week.  

What do we do with our food when the power goes out?!? To be clear and direct, we have to keep it cold or throw it out.

Cold food has to be held in your refrigerator at a maximum internal temperature of 41°F. Following what I call the “magic rule,” food has to be kept out of the Temperature Danger Zone (TDZ) (41°F-135°F) and must be discarded after an accumulative time period of four hours. So translated, that means, food cannot measure an internal temperature between 42°F-134°F or it has to be thrown out at four hours. Bacteria levels have increased to such an unsafe number at four hours that there is nothing we can do to kill enough of them off to make the food safe to eat. Our only corrective action to avoid a foodborne illness is to discard the food.

Let’s imagine the scenario: You enter your food establishment this morning and the power is out. You open your refrigeration unit and take an internal temperature check of some of the foods and they are all measuring inside the TDZ at around 50°F.  I am sorry to tell you that you are going to have to throw all your refrigerated food away. I am going to presume that when you measure the internal temperature of the food in your refrigeration unit that you do not know the precise hour the outage occurred, so unfortunately, it’s best you presume that it was more than four hours ago and that you correct the situation by discarding the food that can be presumed to have been more than four hours in the TDZ.

For your records, you should inventory everything you throw away for your internal food and beverage control accounting or for insurance purposes if applicable.

Now let’s say, you have the same scenario, but when you check the internal temperatures of some of your foods in your refrigeration unit that is not working because the power is out, and you are lucky! The foods are still out of the TDZ with internal temperatures measuring around, 38°F. Now the race is on!  You don’t know when the electricity will come back on and you don’t want to lose your food and monies by having to throw it out after four hours in the TDZ. So now what can you do to keep it cold?

• The most obvious, keep the refrigerator door closed.  (That won’t last for long though)
• Buy Dry Ice. If you have enough Dry Ice, it will keep your fridge cold.
• Use a generator if you have one.
• If you have room, put your food in the freezer.
• If your neighbors have electricity – you could use their electricity if you have an extension cord that is long enough to extend the distance.  (I saw that a lot)
• I was very impressed to see one of our customers rented a refrigerated truck to keep their food safe during their power outage. That impressed me as I’d not personally thought of that one before.

 It’s going to be important that you also keep your freezer door closed.  It’s important to keep frozen food frozen solid. Signs of refreezing are frost bite or ice crystals on the food.  Throw out any food showing signs of refreezing. A full freezer will stay colder longer than a half empty freezer.  You can group packages of food together to consolidate the cold in one section if it’s not full enough.

If you suffered any building damage or flooding, it’s important to throw away any food that got contaminated by the flood waters.  You could save the cans if they are not dented or damaged by washing them before you open them. 

Worst Case Scenario:  You are losing the battle to keep the food cold, BUT you are lucky enough to have a gas stove, I recommend that you start cooking and have the BEST block part ever! 

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety, alcohol training and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561. For Latest Food Safety Tips: Become a Fan on Facebook or Twitter: @BHTS

Food Smarts - Happy Summer: Let's Stay Safe at Cookouts

by Juliet Bodinetz-Rich, Executive Director

Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions

I went to a cookout recently and personally observed many critical errors. I sometimes joke with my students, “Do as I say, not as I do.” On this day I found myself correcting situations at the cookout hosted by someone I considered to be “in the know” on food safety. This reconfirmed the truth that food safety guidelines might not change significantly from year to year but they do always need to be practiced. Cookouts are fun, but sometimes we are in such a rush to make a lovely meal, that we don’t pay attention to the obvious, as we are not in our comfort zone … our indoor restaurant or home kitchen. 

At this cookout, I observed carrying of raw meat on a plate to the outdoors with raw meat juice dripping off the plate across the counter top and onto the floor. I observed the coals being too hot before the steaks were put on the grill and this led to the steaks catching on fire and turning black on the grill, but remaining raw internally. In the urgency to get the flaming steaks off of the grill, they were nearly put back on the original plate with raw meat juices. The other raw steaks were put back in the fridge until the coals were not so hot. The problem is that they were put on the top shelf above ready-to-eat foods. My observations really hit home first hand that cross contamination is a major culprit that could lead to foodborne illness when cooking outdoors. 

Food safety has to be practiced in every step in the flow of the food. Whether as a professional cook or as a home cook, we have to always strive to avoid the three leading factors that contribute to foodborne illnesses. No matter: indoors or outdoors; we still have to: 

• Control Time and Temperature
• Avoid Cross Contamination
• Practice Good Personal Hygiene

Here are our suggestions this year for Safe Outdoors Grilling and Serving Food:

1)   To Control Time and Temperature:

• First, BUY a thermometer like you have in your restaurant kitchen!
• Check food temperatures at the minimum every four hours if it’s being held.
• When holding or displaying food – discard food at the minimum at four hours if the temperature is measuring inside the Temperature Danger Zone (41°F - 135°F).
• USE the thermometer! Meat can look cooked, but still be undercooked.
• Cook foods to the proper temperatures on the grill: 
• 165°F - Poultry
• 155°F - Ground Meats/Ground Fish & Marinated Meats/Marinated Fish
• 145°F – Meats (any meat with no wings, i.e. beef, lamb, pork, veal) and fish
• Keep food under refrigeration until ready to grill.
• Prepare small batches of food at a time.
• Keep food on ice or under refrigeration whenever possible. 
• Display smaller quantities of food and replenish from refrigeration as needed. At the minimum, consider having the food displayed indoors for service to avoid being in higher temperatures outside.

2)   To Avoid Cross Contamination:

·         Clean hands! Wash your hands when dirty and before touching a new food.

·         Consider holding/carrying raw meats in a pan versus a plate outside. The pan has sides that will contain raw meat juices so they don’t spill and drip on other surfaces as you are trying to carry it out of the kitchen

·         Make sure all surfaces that touch food are clean and sanitized.

·         Consider using color coded equipment. Besides color coded cutting boards, consider using color coded tongs. This can help you distinguish to use one set of tongs for raw food and another color coded set of tongs for the cooked food.

·         DON’T use the same plate to bring out the raw meats to serve the cooked meats.

·         Don’t store raw meat under refrigeration above ready-to-eat foods.

·         Don’t use the same marinade to baste that you used to marinate meats and fish. Why not reserve a portion of your marinade separate, so you can use it to baste pre-marinated meats or seafood during the cooking process that has not been contaminated by raw meat juices in the marinating process? 

·         Don’t use the same ice that was used to keep food or drinks cold in your drinks.

·         Keep washing your hands! … especially, when changing food handling tasks or after tasting food with your hands and licking your fingers.

·         Keep the food covered as much as possible. We don’t want flies leaving their business on our food. Use lids, plastic wrap/tin foil or consider purchasing the netted covers.

·         Remember to put a serving utensil in each individual dish for serving.

·         Provide clean plates to your guests for second portions.

3)   Practice Proper Personal Hygiene:

·         Wash Your Hands.

I had a lot of fun at the cookout and appreciate all of the host’s efforts to make it so lovely but, I wonder now … ”Will I ever be invited to another cookout after this article?”

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety, alcohol training and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561. For Latest Food Safety Tips: Become a Fan on Facebook or Twitter: @BHTS

Hurricane Irene – food safety in a power outage and more

Here is a reprint of a post by Dara Bunjon - Baltimore's Dining Examiner as Hurricane Irene approached.  She featured Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions in her story.  

Fingers are crossed that we won’t have to worry about Hurricane Irene and power outages BUT when Baltimore Gas and Electric voice mails everyone to be prepared for outages you have to pause and think. Juliet Bodinetz-Rich’s job is food safety for restaurants, her company Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions  teaches the states required food safety training for restaurant staffing.  Juliet remembered being left without electricity for a whole week after Hurricane Isabel.  Her local fire department was available with dry ice during the power outage.

But what should you know about food safety if power goes out. How long with your food last in the fridge and the freezer? Juliet recommends checking out the government’s food safety page which will guide you knowing what to do with the food in your refrigerator and freezer.  Food Safety in a Power Outage

The Restaurant Association of Maryland has put together a webpage focusing on Hurricane Irene with links and pdfs; National Hurricane Center, Federal Emergency Management, Maryland Emergency Management, Hurricane Preparedness, Post Flood Safety, Flood Emergency Response Procedures, Employee Communication Plan and more. 

 If you are open to suggestions, print off those pages of importance unless you want to try reading all this on your smart phone should power go out.

Another reminder, charge up your cell phones now and your laptops.  Make sure your sump pumps are clear, also check out the street drains and clear them of debris. 

Wishing you power, dry basements and no roof  leaks in the days ahead.  Be a boy scout and be prepared.

Health Inspections: Ugh or Yippee? … For Real

"Self-inspections are key to a successfully run establishment."  

Do I dare say, “Oh no! The health inspector is here!” I remember years ago, while working in restaurants, the health inspector used to come in and visit us. I would always get quite nervous. It was that same feeling as if I were 16 years old again; just having drunk a couple of beers and seeing a policeman across the street. You know that guilty, paranoid feeling as if you are about to get caught doing something wrong.  As the years have gone by, I have met more and more health inspectors and understand the overall picture better. I understand and realize now that Health Inspectors are our friends. 

I just taught a class on Monday where I was so impressed by the pride of the restaurant owner and the way he discussed his wonderful relationship with his health inspector. And he was absolutely right! In actuality, I do feel quite sorry for health inspectors as overall, most people are never happy to see them. Additionally, there is less funding, thus less of them with more duties and more of you. At the end of the day, the relationship you have with your health inspector should never be adversarial. I believe passionately, that if an owner of an establishment makes sure his place is managed pro-actively, then the health inspection process will serve as confirmation of a well-run establishment. If errors are found, this will be considered as a learning process on how to run your establishment better. This means a great manager will run self-inspections to confirm things are well managed. I feel no pity for an establishment who is shut down due to lack of refrigeration. Why would they wait till the health inspector informs them that their refrigeration is broken? For this reason, again, self-inspections are key to a successfully run establishment. 

As food operators, we have to remember that we are customers as well and we need to appreciate the role of the health department inspectors to confirm the food we eat out is safe. It makes sense that the inspection process happens when we are busy … as (nearly) everyone looks gorgeous when not busy. When the health inspector comes in they will identify themselves and offer you their badge. VERY IMPORTANT … if they don’t offer you their identification badge, ask for it politely but firmly. It is important to ask them for identification if they don’t offer it, as you need to confirm that is really an inspector and not a scam artist trying to rob the cash registers or to scope out the place for later. It also makes sense that you ask them the purpose of the inspection; standard inspection or due to a complaint? I have been at a client’s location, when the health inspector showed up due to a complaint from a competitor.

Alway cooperate fully when they show up. This does not mean that you ask them to reschedule because you are short-staffed because of some no-shows. If I were your health inspector ( I am not), I would doubly make sure to stay as this is most often when mistakes could happen to lead to foodborne illnesses.   

You should always accompany your health inspector. If they find something wrong, you usually have the chance to fix it right away and additionally, you should take notes if they inform you of something new … so you can train your staff to follow proper procedures. Taking notes – means you won’t forget something because you were too nervous to remember it properly.

You should also keep the relationship professional … which means no offers of food, drink (water is fine), gifts or monies for obvious reasons.

Look, let’s get real … at the end of the day there are good and bad people in all areas of the workforce (sometimes they make it onto our staffs for short periods of time). There are many good health inspectors, whose mission is to sincerely assist you to run and manage your establishment better. There are others in real life who are not so helpful and might be full of the power they have in their role as inspector. Additionally, no one can know everything. If during the inspection process, an inspector tells you to do something like put hot food in your refrigeration unit to cool it faster and you realize this is wrong, ask them about this. Understandably, this can put you in a confrontational role and you might not feel comfortable questioning your inspector. My suggestion in this scenario would be to call your local health department and ask them what are the standard procedures for that activity and then just LISTEN. Notify them if you were told differently. You have to do this at the minimum, so that this inspector can be corrected  so they can do their job properly. This is the biggest complaint from operators about the inspection process … consistency among inspectors.

How long do you have to fix something if something is found to be in error? Typically, right away, but in real life, it should be corrected in the time period allowed. Again, remember, your health inspectors should be considered your friends. Consider them as a business consultant to confirm and advise you on how to run your business better!

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety, alcohol training and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561. For Latest Food Safety Tips: Become a Fan on Facebook or Twitter: @BHTS

Health Inspectors: Always Check ID’s ... For Real

"Never let anyone walk around your restaurant unaccompanied."

Last month we talked about Health Inspectors and the inspection process. I emphasized you must always ask for ID. I remember years ago teaching in Prince George’s County and I was informed by some of my students that there was a gentleman entering restaurants in their local area and claiming to be their local Health Inspector. He was dressed nicely enough in a work shirt and tie. A lot of the restaurant managers and owners would just let him walk about to do his “inspections” … alone! 

Never let anyone walk around your restaurant unaccompanied. It turned out eventually that he was not a local Health Inspector, but a scam artist. When no one was looking, he would take cash from the registers. Last I heard, some of my students told me that he had been caught and was in jail. While writing last month’s article, I wondered about him and Googled the details and I came across a few other scams that target restaurants in Maryland and nationally. 

Most recently some restaurants have been receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be a Health Inspector to schedule an emergency inspection appointment due to a customer complaint. The restaurant owners are given a special code and instructed to enter it later during an automated call to set up a meeting. It appears that if the owner enters the code on the automated call that those responsible for the scam are setting up a fraudulent account with an online auction service.

Also, another recent scam has been that the restaurant owners are again receiving phone calls, from someone claiming to be a health inspector to schedule an appointment or to relay new inspection procedures, but in the process are asking personal details about employees, i.e. their phone numbers.

An ongoing scam for many years has been that phony health inspectors have been entering restaurants and saying they are not in compliance by not posting certain posters and are offering to sell them these posters or to collect a fee or fine for not being in compliance.

For real, let’s make it clear … a health inspector will typically never schedule an inspection; they are not to ask personal employee details, nor are they allowed to collect monies. “None of it is real,” said Joshua M. Sharfstein M.D., Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) Secretary. “This is not how the state or your local health departments work with local food establishments.”

According to Federal officials, they report similar incidents have occurred in a number of states over the last two years. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Baltimore District Office has relayed reports of the potential scams in Maryland to its Office of Criminal Investigations.

“All restaurant and food service operators in Maryland should know that this scam is still around,” said Frances Phillips, DHMH Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services. “If you have any doubt about an inspector who tries to schedule an appointment, call us or your local law enforcement immediately."

• Under no circumstances will a genuine food inspector ask for a payment, either for posters, on-the-spot fines or any other services.

•  This manner of operation (scheduling appointments by phone; using code numbers for identification) is not consistent with the current operating practices of food inspectors at the federal, state or local levels.

•  When an inspector visits a food facility, the inspector should be asked to show their identification, as Federal, State and Local Jurisdiction inspectors all carry appropriate identification.

• If there are any doubts about the identity of an inspector, the facility operator can contact its Local Health Department, the State Office of Food Protection and Consumer Health Services (410-767-8400) or the FDA Baltimore District Office (410-779-5455) to verify the inspector’s identity.

To reiterate last month’s article … Let’s get real: At the end of the day there are nice people and there are bad people everywhere. Please always remember that a real Health Inspector is one of the good ones … he will gladly show you his CARFAX, I mean PHOTO ID.

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety, alcohol training and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561. For Latest Food Safety Tips: Become a Fan on Facebook or Twitter: @BHTS

Food Smarts: Safe Grilling & Cookout Tips ...For Real

Happy July 4th to all of you! This summer has been gorgeous so far, although very hot!  I recently went to a combination cook out to celebrate a graduation, Father’s Day and a Family Reunion. It got me thinking about safe food handling tips for those of you enjoying picnics and
cookouts. 

As we always tell our students, food safety has to be practiced in every step in the flow of the food from purchasing through to serving. This applies to you at home or outdoors too! It does not matter the step you are dealing with the food, pathogens are happy to be in these hot temperatures. In general, bacteria double every 20 minutes in the Temperature Danger Zone (41°F-135°F), but from my research in the past, I understand that bacteria can replicate scarily fast in the most dangerous part of the Temperature Danger Zone, 70°F-125°F. That is why, it is imperative to not leave food out for more than four hours in the TDZ.  Although, the FDA states that we can leave foods in the Temperature Danger Zone for a maximum of four hours, I would recommend sincerely to be checking your food temperatures at least every two hours and consider discarding the food at two hours instead of waiting the allowable four hours in these extreme hot weather conditions.

Whether it is a professional kitchen, a home kitchen or cooking outdoors or at a catered event outdoors, we always have to avoid the three leading factors that contribute to foodborne illnesses.  No matter whether indoors or outdoors; we still have to: 

• Control Time & Temperature
• Avoid Cross Contamination
• Practice Good Personal Hygiene

Here are our suggestions for Safe Outdoors Grilling & Serving Food:

1)   To control Time & Temperature:

• Check food temperatures at the minimum every 4 hours if it’s being held.
• Discard food at the minimum at 4 hours if the temperature is measuring inside the TDZ.
• Use a thermometer! The food can be burnt on the outside but still raw in the middle.
• Cook foods to the proper temperatures on the grill: 
• 165°F - Poultry
• 160°F - Ground Meats/Ground Fish & Marinated Meats/Marinated Fish
• 145°F – Meats (any meat with no wings, i.e. beef, lamb, pork, veal) and fish … pork was recently lowered to the 145 degree standard

• Keep Food on ice whenever possible or in a cooler.
• Keep food under refrigeration until ready to grill.
• Consider having the food displayed indoors for service to avoid being in higher temperatures outside.
• While pulling out the pickle relish that you haven’t touched since last year, check the expiration date.

1)   To Avoid Cross Contamination:

·         Have clean hands! Wash your hands when dirty and before touching a new food.

·         Use color coded equipment. Besides color coded cutting boards, consider using color coded tongs. This can help you distinguish to use one set of tongs for raw food and another color coded set of tongs for the cooked food.

·         Don’t use the same plate to bring out the raw meats to serve the cooked meats.

·         Don’t use the same marinade to baste that you used to marinate meats and fish. Why not reserve a portion of your marinade separate, so you can use it to baste pre-marinated meats or seafood during the cooking process that has not been contaminated by raw meat juices in the marinating process? 

·         Don’t use the same ice that was used to keep food or drinks cold in your drinks.

·         One of my pet peeves at non-professional events: Don’t touch cake, lick your fingers … and keep serving with your hands!

·         Keep the food covered as much as possible. We don’t want flies leaving their business on our food. Use lids, plastic wrap/tin foil or consider purchasing the netted covers.

2)   Practice Proper Personal Hygiene:

·         Wash Your Hands.

·         Don’t drip your sweat on the food

We hope this information can serve as a mini-guide to safe cooking outdoors. And as we always say, “Stay Safe!” but please, just as importantly, remember to “Have Fun!” As per last month’s article, have a fire extinguisher handy if you are grilling outdoors!  Just in case. 

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety, alcohol training and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561. For Latest Food Safety Tips: Become a Fan on Facebook or Twitter: @BHTS

Food Smarts: OMG, someone just said "our food made them sick!" For Real..

One of the worst fears we all have in the “food business” is for someone to say our food made them sick. Yikes! What do you do? You being the independent operator who doesn’t have access to the 9-inch thick corporate manual.

Well first, BREATHE, and stay, calm. I believe that though bad people exist, that most people are good. It’s most likely one of your loyal customers is contacting you because they sincerely believe that your food made them sick and they want you to know so you can fix the problem and improve your business.

Yes, scam artists are out there too, and you have to be just as careful with them as well. The scam artists think that if they accuse you of making them sick; you will give them free food or monies to avoid bad publicity. Whichever scenario it is, you have to stay calm and treat them both the same as you address the situation and investigate the claim. How you handle this situation can affect your business in the long run.

Make sure all the phone calls are directed to one person in the restaurant (the best person is the owner) and that no one else is authorized to discuss food-borne illness situations. One voice avoids misinformation and conflicting stories.

We all know that even just a food-borne illness claim can be the end of a business. If I were a restaurant owner and someone calls me to say that my food made them sick; I am not going to deny that my food could have made them sick just because I teach the Food Service Manager Certification courses and I know how to handle food properly.  Nor, am I going to suggest that it was something they ate somewhere else. The most likely result will be a very upset and angry customer. In a round-about-manner, I have just called that person a liar or a dummy. We could change this person from a good intentioned customer to a person seeking retribution in court.

Always give the guest sympathy. “I am so sorry to hear you are sick and hope you feel better soon.” DON’T EVER say, “I am sorry my food made you sick.” You could end up being the principal witness against yourself if the situation does go to court. Not the way to go.

Again, never DENY. All it will do is make someone defensive … and we all know that expression about making people defensive.

I suggest that you create a form to keep close to your office phone … with the following questions to ask first:

• Name, address, phone number of the person calling and/or the person sick.
• What did you eat and drink in our restaurant?
• When were you in our restaurant?
• Did you eat anything else before or after eating in our restaurant?
• What did you eat? 
• When did you eat? 
• Where did you eat? (I have a client whose customers were certain it was her food that made them sick.  With calm, careful questioning, she was able to confirm these customers had eaten at another restaurant which turned out to be the cause of their foodborne illness.)
• Always ask them to see a doctor to CONFIRM the illness. (This is a clear deterrent to the fake complaint)
• Always record the time and date of this conversation and all further ones in a file you will create and keep
• Be on the lookout for any other calls that will confirm the possibility of a problem

If your establishment is responsible for a food-borne illness or an outbreak you are going to have work with your local health department to confirm you have resolved all issues. This is also the time to provide some extra training to your staff to reinforce proper food handling procedures.

Whether you are guilty or not of causing an illness, the news media can jump all over a foodborne illness story as it does grab the audience’s attention. They can sometimes be in a rush to get a story out and can judge one guilty before all the details are known.  This stigma can be hard to get rid of.  I recommend that this is the time to hire and work with a Public Relations & Marketing firm to help you with crisis management and damage control.

If you are a member of your local restaurant association, it is time to make your dues work for you with a phone for recommendations and advice. If you hire an agency, let them advise you what info to say or what info to not say. You should get them to help you put out your story on your website, Facebook page, Twitter and where ever else you have a social media presence. I also recommend that you call your local health department as they can help you to fix the problems if you are the cause of an illness or an outbreak or to help protect you if you are not.

The last few months we have talked about taking temperatures, HACCP, which includes record keeping. If you do have a food borne illness accusation, your Time & Temperature logs can serve as written proof that you have handled the food properly should you have to go to court.

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety, alcohol training and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561. For Latest Food Safety Tips: Become a Fan on Facebook or Twitter: @BHTS