Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions

Hurricane Irene – food safety in a power outage and more

Health Inspections: Ugh or Yippee? … For Real

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

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

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

FOOD SMARTS: For Real … ‘Wassup with HACCP?’ Part 2

Food Smarts - For Real: ‘Wassup with HACCP?’ Part 1

Food Smarts - For Real...'Record Your Temperatures'

Food Smarts: Happy Holidays and New Year’s Food Safety Resolutions … ‘For Real'

Trouble With Your Food Temperatures

Food Smarts - Happy & Safe Thanksgiving

Food Safety and My Three Biggest Pet Peeves!

FOOD SMARTS: Food Safety for Real

FOOD SMARTS: Consumers: Demand a ‘Call to Action’ With Latest Lettuce E. Coli 0145 Outbreak

Food Smarts: Food Safety and Warning Labels … ?

Food Safety For Real: ‘Everyone is a high risk customer’

FOOD SMARTS: Food Safety Done Properly

To Wear Gloves or Not?

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:29:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:41:00 +0000

"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

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:39:00 +0000

"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.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 11:42:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:04:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:14:00 +0000

OK, now that you understand “Wassup with HACCP,” better, you now feel that you are ready to write a HACCP plan for your food establishment. Where to start?

Again, HACCP is a written plan, specific to each facility’s menu that identifies significant biological, chemical or physical threats. Procedural methods are then employed to reduce, prevent or eliminate these hazards. This means you all will have different written HACCP plans unless you have the same menu as another establishment. HACCP is based on seven principles:

Conduct a Hazard Analysis
Determine Critical Control Points (CCP’s)
Establish Critical Limits
Establish Monitoring Procedures
Identify Corrective Actions
Verify that the system works
Establish Procedures for Record Keeping and Documentation

The first principle of HACCP, Conducting a Hazard Analysis is basically identifying the dangers on your menu. The dangers on your menu are your Potentially Hazardous Foods; high in moisture content, high protein or nutritional value and low acidic foods (4.6-7.5). Conducting a Hazard Analysis is two parts. One, identify your potentially hazardous foods and then, two, identify the control points you handle the foods until it is served. One of our customers recently described it aptly as “a recipe on steroids.” Let’s choose a basic recipe for Chili. Your recipe book might state simply: Brown the hamburger meat with onions and garlic, add vegetables, bring to a boil and simmer for a couple of hours, cool and reheat the next day.

Now let’s make it scientific. We can identify the potentially hazardous food in that recipe as raw hamburger meat and the control points we deal with this food item are: Receive è Storage è Cook è Cool è Storage è Reheat è Maintain Hot

To take a phrase from Emeril Lagasse, “BAM!,” you’ve just conducted a Hazard Analysis. Not so bad … so far … hmmm?!?

The second principle is Identify your Critical Control Points. The truth is that this can get tricky here because as my experience tells me that this really depends upon which jurisdiction you are turning in your HACCP plan. Normally, CCP’s are identified as those processes that make the food go up or down through the most dangerous part of the Danger Zone (70°F - 125°F), i.e. cooking, cooling and reheating. Let’s make it easy and say that all of the above are CCP’s because it’s “critical”/important to not lose control in each of those points you are handling the food. Always consult with your local jurisdiction for clarification.

The third principle, identify your critical limits is basically saying write down the minimums to keep the food safe in that point/step you are handling it. Using the Chili recipe, we know our critical limits would be as following: Receive raw hamburger at 41°F or below, Store at 41°F or below, Cook to 165°F or higher, Cool to 70°F or below within two hours and then an additional four hours to reach 41°F or below, Store at 41°F or below, Reheat to 165°F or higher within two hours, Maintain Hot at 135°F or higher.

The fourth principle, establish monitoring procedures just means, how are you going to measure/monitor that you met your critical limits. Usually that is with your thermometer and clock, but also additionally, you would be using your eyes and nose.

The fifth principle, identify corrective actions is basically that. Write down what you will do to fix something if you are not meeting your critical limit. For example, raw hamburger is above 41°F at the Critical Control Point of Receive, then your corrective action is to: Reject the delivery.

The sixth principle, verify that the system works, basically means your system is working and there is hardly any necessity of corrective actions being required. For example, if you keep having to reject raw hamburger meat often at Receiving, then your system is not verified and you might want to consider buying from another vendor.

The seventh principle is self-explanatory – Establish Procedures for Record Keeping and Documentation. Write down when you take temperature checks and keep records to protect yourself.

We hope this chart sample below can help you to create your own HACCP plan. Remember, always consult with your local jurisdiction first. Some jurisdictions want each item laid out and others are asking for grouping of ingredients. It would be a shame to work very hard and then have to rework it all.

CCP’s	Equipment Utilized	Monitoring Procedures	Corrective Action

HACCP serves many purposes; protect your public’s health, serves as written proof to your health inspector that you know proper procedures and lastly it protects you if you are accused of a foodborne illness and have to go to court.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:26:00 +0000

Are some of you wondering what is this HACCP (pronounced as “has-sip”) thing? For those of you who do know something about HACCP, I can now imagine your pained expressions. That is the usual reaction when I mention HACCP to someone who knows about HACCP. Have you just been asked to write a HACCP plan by your local Health Department? Has your Health Inspector asked you to provide HACCP training to your employees? Many questions – many answers coming. HACCP is an acronym that stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. HACCP is a Food Safety Management system that focuses on the concept that if significant biological, chemical or physical contaminations are identified at specific points within a product’s flow through an operation, they can be prevented eliminated or reduced to safe levels. Blah, Blah, Blah … what does that really mean?

I remember the first time I sat in Food Service Manager Certification class and hearing the same info, thinking, “I have no idea what this means.” To tell you the truth – I felt overwhelmed and in over my head. I think that can be explained by the language that is used to describe HACCP. To give you some history: HACCP was originally developed by NASA who consulted with Pillsbury who had developed the concept in the 1960’s in their own manufacturing plants. My first question to self, when I learned this was, “Why is NASA getting involved with Food Safety? What did they care?” Then I connected the dots and realized that it was very important to NASA to avoid foodborne illness for their astronauts for the lunar launch.

HACCP was initially enforced in the U.S. for fish and meat plants. Nowadays, it is nationally required if an establishment is seeking a variance. The common denominator for most of these activities that require a variance is that they are “methods of food preservation.” In a nutshell, the variance is required for the following activities and will not be granted unless written proof (a written HACCP Plan) is demonstrated that the establishment can handle the food safely through the entire flow of the food item. This makes sense, as when preserving food, if done improperly, there is much opportunity for bacterial growth to occur. Some of the activities that require a variance and thus, simultaneously, a written HACCP plan are:

Smoking Foods as a method of food preservation
Curing Foods as a method of food preservation
Using Food additives as a method of food preservation
Using Reduced Oxygen Packaging as a method of food preservation
Serving Molluscan Shellfish from a display tank as a method of food preservation
Custom process animals for personal use as a method of food preservation

Most of our customers and most of you are not doing these activities, so how does it affect you? In real life you do what your local health inspector or jurisdiction requires of you, for example in the State of Maryland, HACCP is required as per COMAR, “Health-General Article, §21-321, Annotated Code of Maryland, and the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) 10.15.03 Definitions of priority assessment levels are found in COMAR 10.15.03.33C. A HACCP plan is required for all high or moderate priority facilities. Facilities which serve only hand dipped ice cream or commercially packaged potentially hazardous foods do not require a HACCP plan.”

Translated, this means a HACCP plan needs to be provided before an establishment gets approval to open or if they do construction or a remodel of an existing building. Some establishments were grandfathered and did not have to provide a HACCP plan, but now they are being asked to provide one to their local Health Department. Catering companies and mobile trucks that serve food are also required to provide a HACCP plan. Additionally in Maryland, we have been getting requests by restaurants to help them with their HACCP plans even though it was approved in the past. This is because they are being reviewed in many cases every 5 years.

Some of our customers have told us that their local Health Inspector has asked them to provide HACCP training to their employees. I translate “HACCP Training” synonymously with “Food Safety Training.” If you provide “Food Safety Training” to your employees, you are in compliance with HACCP training. HACCP serves many purposes; protect your public’s health, serves as written proof to your health inspector that you know proper procedures and lastly it protects you if you are accused of a foodborne illness and have to go to court. Next month, we will go over how to write a HACCP plan.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:22:00 +0000

by Juliet Bodinetz-Rich

Last month we discussed investing in thermometers for your ‘Safe Staff’ and making sure they take actual temperature readings and to remind them to calibrate those thermometers. I realize ‘For Real,’ that a chef is not going take the temperature of every hamburger, pork chop, or steak they cook. I understand that they are using their skills and experience as a chef to recognize these foods are cooked by their color and texture. In real life, to protect your establishment as well as your customers, temperatures should be taken and logs should be documented and kept in these situations:

1) Receiving – Take random temperatures to make sure product is entering your establishment safely.

2) Refrigeration Storage – It’s not going to hurt you to take two or three random food item temperatures in your refrigeration units each day. You need to know immediately if your refrigeration units have stopped working. It doesn’t matter how much I love an owner, I have no pity at all for an establishment if they are finding out their refrigeration unit is broken because their health inspector is telling them. How long has it been broken? Since their last visit last year?

3) Cooking – Soups, Stews & Casseroles (165°F) because you have added raw to cooked ingredients, poultry because of high risk of Salmonella and roasts.

4) Cooling – Write down when you start cooling the food and what time you put it in the fridge. You only have 2 hours to get that cooling food to 70°F or below so you can then put it in the fridge. Write down the time and temperatures you start cooling, put it in the fridge and time completed of cooling. It’s proof that the cooling soup has not been sitting on the kitchen counter all day. Especially if you get a “surprise visit” from your local Health Inspector.

5) Reheating – You only have two hours to get it to 165°F.

6) Maintaining – Instead of waiting four hours and discarding the food item if it’s in the TDZ, do a temperature check at two hours so you can correct the situation. Why throw your money (your food) in the trash?

Record keeping and documentation of time and temperature logs demonstrates that you are actually taking temperatures and controlling Time and Temperature to avoid foodborne illnesses. As exemplified above, temperatures should be taken and recorded whenever food is being held to be served and especially when the food is passing through the most dangerous part of the Temperature Danger Zone: 70°F-125°F, i.e. cooling and reheating. According to the “Magic Rule,” food cannot be in the danger zone more than four hours or else it has to be discarded. But when reheating or cooling food is only allowed two hours going up or down through the most dangerous part of TDZ ~70°F-125°F. Time & Temperature logs help guide your employees to make sure they are following proper procedures and it also serves as demonstration to your health inspectors that proper procedures are being followed. Worst case scenario: you are taken to court for a foodborne illness accusation; your Time & Temperature Logs can help protect you as proof that you were in compliance with local health regulations. No one cares what you say in court and that is why written documentation is so important when you take temperatures. Don’t know how to get started on developing a Time & Temperature Log? We hope these examples can help you to make them on excel for example?

General Food Holding (Hot/Cold) & for Your Refrigeration Units

Cooling Time & Temperature Log

Date

Food

Time

Internal Temp

+2hours

Time

+ 2 hours internal Temp

Corrective Action Taken

Employee initials

+4 hours time

+4 hours internal Temp

Corrective

Action Taken

Employee initials

Reheating Time & Temperature Log

Date	Food	Time	+2 hours time	+2 hours internal Temp	Corrective Action Taken	Employee Initials	Manager Initials

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:04:00 +0000

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Many of you might be thinking of New Year’s resolutions already. I know I am. What are your New Year’s resolutions going to be this year? I find a common thread amongst operators at this time of year, in that many operators really start thinking seriously about their next year’s budget which includes food safety classes.

The truth is that food safety training is important at any time of the year, but I understand how it really needs to takes center stage at the holidays as it is a time you are at your busiest. The surge in year-end holiday business is what you wait for but it is the time when our food safety guard might have some cracks in the shields. It is a time when you need to be the most vigilant.

Do They Hear You?

Maybe you are an owner or a manager who takes food safety very seriously and are always there to see your employees doing the right thing, i.e. “wash your hands.” The unfortunate truth is that many of your employees hear something so many times from you that they tune you out. Sometimes, your employees don’t know why something is asked of them and they think “you worry too much” and only do the right thing in front of you; they don’t follow the rules when you are gone.

Training needs to be real and allow the employees/students to thoroughly understand WHY it’s important to do something the right way, so they can take ownership of their behavior.

And the Health Inspector

Recently when I was getting ready to teach a food safety class, a health inspector was writing up the establishment for putting hot soup the night before into the walk-in. Twelve hours later the soup temperature read 90°F – the chill down had been too slow and the soup remained in the danger zone. Before I started the food safety class, the executive chef explained to his staff what had happened and WHY it was unacceptable.

As an instructor is was a beautiful thing to see the lights in their staffs’ eyes sparkle when during the food safety class we got to the subject of proper cooling and they realized the “WHYs” they have to follow – the rule that had just been laid out to them. Demonstration back is the best confirmation that your employees have learned a lesson effectively. As a manager, you have to be proactive and be constantly monitoring your staff to confirm they are doing things the right way. Also, it is so important to not just “tell the staff off”, but to proudly compliment your staff – they will feel empowered to be “caught” doing something right!

In my waitress days, I thought that I never had to worry about food safety. I believed I could never be responsible for someone getting sick, because I didn’t cook the food. The reality is that food safety is the responsibility of every employee in your establishment.

Food Safety Could Be the Dishwasher Personified

I remember working at an establishment where we had a dishwasher who didn’t smell very nice. He was so odiferous in a bad way; we went to the manager and asked him to “please intercede and tell this employee to shower.” After speaking with the ‘smelly dishwasher,’ he realized that the employee did shower each day, but when he came to work, he was changing into the same clothes for three days in a row.

The dirty clothes became a perfect breeding ground for bacteria to grow and survive. His clothing had all conditions for bacteria to be ‘happy’ to grow and survive, FATTOM. Food, low Acidity (4.6-7.5) Time (more than 4 hours), Temperature (41°F -135° F, it’s hot in that dishroom), Oxygen and Moisture. Indeed an emplyee who didn’t cook the food could have become responsible for causing an outbreak … just from his clothing.

Sometimes it’s worth taking the pressure off your teaching skills by having an outside instructor come in and do your training. Your staff realizes that you have paid monies for this class, which really does reinforce how seriously you take this training and they will HEAR the voice of the professional instructor.

With the New Year on the horizon think what can you do to improve food safety in your establishment and who can best do the training … where the information will be heard, absorbed and put into practice. Put that line item for professional food safety training in the 2011 budget and make your New Year’s a happy food safety year with ‘Safe Staff.’

Again, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 14:17:00 +0000

My, how 2010 flew by. Happy New Year’s! I have some great news! For the last few years the CDC has been reporting consistently that statistically 76 million people will get a foodborne illness here in the USA resulting in 320,000 hospitalizations which lead to about 5,000 deaths per year. I am happy to convey that it appears all this ‘Food Smarts’ talk, education and efforts are not for naught. The CDC has just released the estimated statistics for 2011 as being estimated “that each year roughly 1 out of 6 Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases.”

Still not perfect numbers … 1 out of 6 of us are going to get a foodborne illness this year … but WOW! What a come down from previous statistics. Let’s keep it up! The FDA states that the three biggest factors that make our food unsafe are:

1) Time and Temperature Abuse

2) Cross Contamination

3) Improper Personal Hygiene

Realistically, proper and frequent hand washing is the best procedure and practice to avoid cross-contamination and to practice proper personal hygiene. But what are you really doing to control Time and Temperature Abuse? We know to avoid Time and Temperature Abuse that we have to keep food out of “room temperature” or well known as the Temperature Danger Zone (41°F -135°F). I call it the Magic Rule to my students. The time limit is four hours in the TDZ and then your only corrective action is to discard that food item. We also know it’s important to follow guidelines provided by the FDA Food code on Time and Temperature for proper cooking, cooling and reheating procedures.

There is only one thing you can do to control Time and Temperature. Use a thermometer and a clock! It amazes me how many of my students in the Food Service Manager Certification classes don’t even have or use a thermometer in their professional kitchens, let alone their personal kitchens. How can they know if soup is not in the TDZ whilst they maintain it hot through two shifts of the day? We can know all the rules on proper food safety, but if we are not checking temperatures to confirm …then the knowledge is useless.

Buy your kitchen employees a thermometer! There are different types of thermometers you can buy for your kitchen employees, but the bimetallic thermometer is the most commonly used because not only is it easy to use, but it’s also the cheapest! We all want to save a $ here and there, but my biggest advice, if you are in charge of buying the thermometers is to spend the extra $ to buy the thermometer with a case that has the adjusting wrench attached to the case. The case will protect the stem or probe and also keep it clean. Having the adjusting wrench attached to the case means, it’s all together, and not a separate item that will be lost in “I don’t know where it is land?” Teach them to take temperatures by inserting the probe in the thickest part (typically the centre) and to wait at least 15 seconds for an accurate reading. Teach your staff to calibrate their thermometers and make sure they do it.

Sometimes our thermometers don’t read the temperatures correctly and we have to calibrate (adjust) them to make them read correctly. There are two ways to calibrate your thermometers; ice point method and boiling point method. To calibrate your thermometer using the ice point method, you fill up a container with ice water and insert the stem/probe in the ice water and wait 30 seconds. The temperature of ice water is a constant that we can rely on to always measure 32° F. After 30 seconds in the ice water turn the wrench to make the thermometer needle reads the ice water as 32°F. The boiling point method is completely the same, but our hands are over boiling water and we adjust the thermometer to read the temperature as 212°F. I know that I personally would not want my hand over boiling water as that’s the same steaming process to cook a lobster.

When are you supposed to calibrate your thermometers? At the beginning of each shift is great so you can confirm your thermometer is accurate for your deliveries. If you drop your thermometer it can throw it off so you should recalibrate it and also if it suffers a big temperature change, like measuring something very cold and then something boiling hot. I translate this to convey that if you work in a kitchen there are several times during the day when you should be calibrating your thermometer. That means it’s not a bad idea to keep a container of ice water handy for a quick calibration. Truth, I never see any container of ice water in kitchens for employees to use to recalibrate their thermometers. My idea: Why not use two thermometers during your shift - One with a blue case for cold food and one thermometer with a red case for hot foods? See how this food safety knowledge can also save you time?

For Real … please buy your employees a thermometer and teach them to use them. Maybe the CDC statistics for foodborne illnesses will continue to go down.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:15:00 +0000

I remember moving to America as a child with my family and all of us embracing this wonderful holiday that we have here called “Thanksgiving.” My mum learned how to cook a turkey (which was so wonderfully huge to us carnivores), make stuffing and incorporate our English & New Zealand side dishes to make this American tradition special to our roots us well. I remember her diligently reviewing the supermarket fliers to get the best deal on the price per pound for the turkey, then getting all of the shopping done, which always included that frozen turkey on sale (cheap, cheap, cheap) and all the other fixings to make the stuffing and gravy.

Then the night before, the show would start. She would pull that big bird out of the freezer and leave it in the kitchen sink overnight and then get up first thing in the morning to wrestle with the bird to butter it up and cover it in herbs and stuff it with her special concoction for the stuffing. We always knew to stay out of her way whilst she was wrestling with the bird. We were always comatose after the feast. The Thanksgiving meal is a wonderful American tradition that really celebrates being thankful for family. How many of you have the same traditions?

Now that I’ve been teaching ‘Food Smarts’ for over a decade now, I recognize some gross mistakes were made by my lovely mother. My, how times have changed. A turkey is the perfect potentially hazardous food as it is high in moisture, protein and has a low ph or low acidity. This is a very happy environment for bacteria. When my mum left the frozen turkey in the sink overnight, the exterior defrosted first and that’s obviously where bacteria can develop initially. As more time goes on in the Temperature Danger Zone (41°F -135° F) or best known in layman’s terms as “room temperature” the turkey is a perfect environment for bacterial growth on its surface even though it could still be frozen solid in the middle. There are four acceptable ways to defrost food according to the FDA Food Code. 1) Under refrigeration, 2) under running potable water not higher than 70°F (notice – I said the water has to be running – bacteria loves to grow in still water), 3) in a microwave, but only if you are going to cook it immediately or 4) as part of the cooking process. Considering the size of a big turkey, the best way to defrost it – is in your refrigerator. I have been told that for every 5 lbs, one should leave it in the fridge 24 hours to defrost. Translation: 20 lb turkey should be taken out of the freezer and put in your fridge at least 4-5 days ahead of Thanksgiving Day to have enough time to defrost.

The other biggest mistake my mum would make preparing this amazing feast, is actually putting the stuffing inside the turkey. Sometimes I joke with my students, that they “should do as I say, and not as I do.” I remember personally about 8 years ago, I was in charge of cooking the Thanksgiving meal. I knew because I teach food safety that the FDA doesn’t recommend that you stuff anything for cooking. But, as a cook, I was conflicted as I always believed that if the stuffing was not inside the turkey whilst cooking that it wouldn’t turn out as tasty. I finally followed my own teachings as recommended by the FDA, and voila, stuffing was just as delish! But what truly flabbergasted me was how that big turkey cooked in hours shorter cooking time than what I was used to. Another great benefit of not putting the stuffing in the bird was that the meat turned out juicier and not dried out. Think about it, no stuffing in the bird means the heat is not being retained in the cooking process by the stuffing, thus resulting in less cooking time and the bird came out juicier without being over-cooked.

I would recommend a home cook to purchase a thermometer for this dish if for none else. Salmonella can be harboring on that delicious turkey and make a lot of people sick if left undercooked. Your turkey is properly cooked when it reaches 165°F. Check the temperature by inserting the probe into the thickest part and if you do continue to stuff the turkey that means in the middle of the stuffing.

Remember to wash your hands often, especially after touching the raw turkey and before touching anything else. Don’t use the same utensils for different foods and remember don’t double dip when tasting the food.

Whatever traditions you have incorporated into preparation of your Thanksgiving Feast, be safe and enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving to all

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:07:00 +0000

At BHTS, we pride ourselves that our students become our children or our families and as proud parents we only want them to succeed. Many times, our students want to show us their lovely kitchens and we observe three major mistakes that just break our hearts, all falling under “cross contamination.” My personal three biggest pet peeves are:

1) Servers grabbing glasses by the rim.
2) Kitchen employees eating while prepping foods.
3) Improper food storage in the refrigeration units.

Cross Contamination is defined as: “the transfer of microorganisms from one food or surface to another.”

The biggest error I see in any restaurant as a customer and as an instructor is: employees grabbing glasses by the rim. This is my biggest personal pet peeve, although, I look

back on the past and yes, I did this myself. As a bartender, I would grab glasses by the rim to make the drinks. I should have been more aware to always grab the glasses at all times by the base or rim.

The second biggest error I see is prep cooks eating while prepping foods. Please remember we, at BHTS are not the “police officers” and we are here to help. Imagine the proud owner or executive chef giving us a tour of their beautiful kitchen and there are the prep cooks working diligently to prep the vegetables and … eating at the same time?!? I am sure if we were to ask this prep cook that they might not even be aware that they just plopped something in their mouth. They probably just did it without even thinking about it! It’s an indirect way of spitting into someone’s food as the saliva from the prep cook’s mouth gets on their hand as they plop the food in their mouth and then keep working … thus contaminating everything they touch. I don’t think the prep cooks do this consciously and as a boss you have to remind them with proper training and supervision.

The third biggest mistake I see is: Incorrect Food Storage in refrigeration units. I see so many restaurants that will place fresh hamburger on the second shelves and that hamburger juice can drip down onto a ready-to-eat food below. The FDA has determined the correct order of food storage is based upon their danger. I interpret the food’s danger as defined by their required minimum internal cooking temperature. Store food in your refrigeration units based upon their dangers/minimum internal cooking temps in the following order from top to bottom: ready-to-eat-foods (0°F), seafood, whole cuts of beef, pork (145°F), ground meats, ground fish (155°F), and whole or ground poultry (165°F).

Why would you place poultry above hamburgers? The chicken juice that could fall down onto the hamburger below will only be cooked to 155°F and you have to cook that chicken juice to at least a minimum cooking temperature of 165°F.

I hope my three biggest pet peeves help you to look at your own restaurant from a different perspective. Sometimes, we get so engrossed in our work, that we become blind to the obvious. I recommend that you step back and really look at your establishment with a different perspective as if you were a health inspector or even a customer. You will be amazed at what you will see and can improve!

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:36:00 +0000

There is no better place to start a series food safety articles in Foodservice Monthly than to begin at the beginning. I have observed lately that many new restaurant owners buy a new restaurant and are so excited to have a new business, that they sometimes forget the basics.

I’ve seen new owners buy two fryers and not even have their menus developed yet. It’s a little bit like that old expression, “buying the saddle, before the horse.” I notice that many owners as they go through the process to open up are so bogged down with details from restaurant design, buying equipment, purchasing POS systems, deciding how many taps to install, credit card processing and complying with Health Department requirements, that they lose sight of some of the tenets of running a well-managed operation: To serve Safe Food and to have Safe Staff. I am going to say that Food Safety Training is key to success … that’s my business. But let’s get real here.

How many of you have ever had a foodborne illness? I am willing to venture all of you! The reality is that some of you might not have realized it was a foodborne illness and thought it was a case of the “stomach flu” going about. The CDC reported recently that one out of every three people worldwide have a food borne illness each year. Statistically in the USA, approximately 76 million people report a foodborne illness each year. I and most experts venture that the numbers are much higher. Let’s get real … remember the last time you had a foodborne illness, did you really report it to your local Health Department? I didn’t’ think so. We are too busy to add something else to our list of “to do’s. Of those 76 million foodborne illness incidents, 320,000 people end up hospitalized as a result and between 5-10 thousand people die each year in the USA as a result of a foodborne illness. Perhaps statistically, 5-10 thousand deaths a year due to foodborne illnesses in a country with a population of 360 million initially doesn’t sound too bad. But, the reality is that just one death is way too many – especially if it is preventable. There are so many ways to check out of this world, that the truth be told, it’s a travesty to think one can go due to something as simple as “Whoops, I forgot to wash those spinach plants.”

First, let’s recognize what is a foodborne illness. A foodborne illness is an illness or disease carried or transmitted to people by contaminated food, water or other people. Contamination is basically a harmful substance in the food that should not be there and that’s what makes us sick. The FDA has identified that there are three types of contamination: Biological, Chemical and Physical Contamination. Biological contamination is the biggest source of foodborne illnesses. The CDC says that more than “250 different foodborne diseases have been described. Most of these diseases are infections, caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can be foodborne. Other diseases are poisonings, caused by harmful toxins or chemicals that have contaminated the food, for example, poisonous mushrooms. These different diseases have many different symptoms, so there is no one "syndrome" that is foodborne illness. However, the microbe or toxin enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract, and often causes the first symptoms there, so nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea are common symptoms in many foodborne diseases.”

One origin of a virus is feces. We recognize hepatitis A and norovirus as two viruses associated with salad and shellfish. Salad and shellfish are major culprits of hepatitis A and norovirus, because of their high possibility of touching feces: shellfish in sewage water for example and salad because the crops are not always irrigated with safe water supplies. I hate to be the one to tell you, but if you get a foodborne virus, basically you got it because you touched someone else’s feces.

We recognize the most well-known bacteria names and associate them with the most risky foods, i.e. salmonella with poultry and e-coli with hamburger and salad. I am not a biologist as are not most of you. I really don’t care what the illness is called, the symptoms are primarily the same: upset stomach, nausea, vomiting and or diarrhea. The symptoms vomiting and diarrhea can lead to dehydration which is not pleasant for any population, but those in the high risk population it can lead to cardiac problems that they might not have had otherwise. When one is dehydrated, the heart has to work extra hard, which can affect one’s pulse rate and blood pressure. This explains how a four-year-old with a lowered immune system can result with a cardiac problem that they would not have had otherwise.

I know times have changed since I first started in the restaurant business as a bus girl over 25 years ago. We didn’t have this knowledge or education back then where it was acceptable for us to smoke in the kitchen and being told by the owner to safe the uneaten bread for the next table. We know better now. Maybe your establishment has undercooked chicken for the last 10 years and nothing has gone wrong that you know of … ?! The point is that we know better now.

Your cooks are not looking at a customer before they cook their food. Your customers do not have a sticker on their foreheads saying, “I’m a sick person, please be careful,” so we have to implement proper procedures and precautions at all times and make it become a habit, not just a passing thought. If you don’t really think that much about food safety, you should at least consider your bottom line. What good are all those beautiful fryers, the best restaurant design in the world, your POS systems, how many taps you have and who cares who you use for credit card processing if you have sick customers?

In the next stories, we will look at what we can do to avoid foodborne illnesses bit by bit and how the front and the back of the house are both responsible for our customers’ health.

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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 and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. Juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:30:00 +0000

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its state health partners have confirmed, “that the strain of E. coli O145 detected by the New York State Public Health Laboratory, Wadsworth Center, in Albany, in an unopened bag of shredded romaine lettuce distributed by Freshway Foods, matches the outbreak strain of E. coli O145.”

As of May 12, the outbreak is responsible for causing at least 23 cases (plus seven probable), of which three people are in “critical condition with potentially life threatening complications due to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS is a serious condition in which the body’s blood-clotting mechanisms are altered, causing blocked circulation or bleeding in the brain or kidneys.”

The Ohio plant, Freshway Foods Inc., has voluntarily recalled chopped/shredded romaine lettuce products which might be contaminated. Freshway Foods, Inc. processes and distributes lettuce from small growers in large quantities to institutions and grocery stores. The recalled lettuce is under the brand names Freshway Foods and Imperial Sysco Brands. The lettuce has also been sold as ‘grab and go’ salads from Kroger, Giant Eagle, Marsh Grocery Stores and Ingles Markets. The tainted lettuce with a use-by-date of May 12 was sold in 23 states including Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC. Freshway consumers have been asked to call Freshway Foods’ information desk at 888-361-7106 (8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Eastern Time, M-F) or visit their website for updates: www.freshwayfoods.com. For the complete Freshway Foods recall:

www.freshwayfoods.com/recall/docs/20100507_ProductList.pdf

Researching this outbreak has raised several questions and many concerns. First, let’s distinguish and understand what is E. coli 0145? There are six harmful E. coli strains which produce the Shiga toxin. The origin of this bacteria is fecal. We all should be familiar with the very famous Shiga-toxin producing E. coli strain called E. coli 0157:H7. It is found primarily on hamburger meat and was responsible for many outbreaks including 1994’s Jack in the Box which sickened seven hundred and caused four deaths. What shocks me is that the USDA and food producers only test for this strain, E. coli 0157:H7 and does not test for other strains in our foods because the other strains are considered ‘adulterants’, a harmful additive by the FDA.

How does E. coli 0145 get on lettuce? Remembering that the source of E. coli 0145 is fecal matter, there are several ways feces can reach the lettuce:

Runoff water from a pasture where cattle are kept
Airborne particles from cattle farm via wind to the farm
Wild life feces
Humans harvesting the lettuce
Irrigation practices

As of today, May 13, the origin of this outbreak is still being investigated. It looks like the source is being pinpointed to a specific farm in Yuma, Ariz. As of May 12, the Freshway Foods Inc. plant has been cleared by the FDA of the E. coli 0145. This confuses me. How can it be found in their bags of lettuce, but not be found in their plant? Even if the source is the farm, it has to get in the bag via the plant?

It could have been prevented

The maddening situation is that it is possible this outbreak could have been prevented. As consumers, there should be a ‘call to action’ for changes made by farmers and produce providers:

Farms should be a certain distance away from cattle farms so feces particles containing E. coli 0145 cannot contaminate produce via runoff or airborne particles.
Farmers should not be allowed to use unsafe waters mixed with sewage for crop irrigation.
Porta Pottys and portable handwashing stations should be required on all farms by law. It is incomprehensible that it is not required by law currently.
It should be mandatory that plants test each lot of produce for all six strains of E. coli before offering for sale.

As a consumer:

We should ask all of our vendors to confirm that they are buying from a plant that provides a guarantee and confirms they have third party audits.
Always wash your produce; regardless if its labeled pre-washed.
Keep raw meat separate from ready-to-eat foods.
Wash hands properly with soap and water (minimum: 10 to 15 seconds) after using the bathroom, changing diapers, during and after visiting fairs, petting zoos, hospitals or nursing homes.

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training and has over 25 years industry and training experience. Her team of instructors’ specialty is food safety and ServSafe training in English or in Spanish and writing HACCP Plans in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro Area. http://www.bilingualhospitality.com, juliet@bilingualhospitality.com or 443-838-7561

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:24:00 +0000

“Congratulations!”

You have been in business for 10 years, 15 years, 30 years, or just starting out. You have your menu designed and you have complied with all Health Department requirements. You are open for business. You have taken your Food Service Manager Certification course and now you are petrified. What if your customers get sick? What if someone dies? Are they or their family are going to come after you in court? You now reconsider taking oysters on the half shell off of the menu and what about those rare steaks or eggs over easy that don’t meet minimum internal cooking temperatures? OMG, what about that 92-year-old customer who comes in every Tuesday for your half-price burger special and orders it with the works – rare!?

Are you going to refuse your customer his usual order of the rare hamburger with a side of eggs-over- easy or those raw oysters on the half shell? Should you make him sign a legal waiver before he eats his risky food order? No, of course not, but what can you do to protect yourself?

Have you ever thought about putting an advisory label on your menu? Some local, state or national governments have done the thinking for you. The Wikipedia Free Dictionary defines a warning label as “a label attached to an item, or contained in an item's instruction manual, warning the user about risks associated with the use of the item as intended by the manufacturer or seller. Most of them are intended to limit civil liability in lawsuits against the item's manufacturer or seller. That sometimes results in labels which for some people seem to state the obvious.”

We can thank the 1994 lawsuit against McDonald’s for our bigger warning labels on our coffee cups, “Caution: Hot.” Legitimate and frivolous lawsuits have made many products you purchase in this day and age have some very strange warning labels like: “Warning: This product contains nuts.” on a container of peanuts, to “Do not eat packet” found on Homel Pepperoni and looking at my curling iron, it states: “Warning: Keep away from children” and “Caution: This product can burn eyes.”

One of my favorite clients goes straight to the point and on his menus has put the following warnings: “Eat rare steak at your own risk” and “Eat eggs-over-easy at your own risk.” Some jurisdictions require language that conforms to more serious legalese. We can laugh, but they are on the right path to protecting their establishment and themselves.

Consider protecting yourself and your establishment by putting a consumer advisory on your menu. An example: “Those in high risk populations, i.e. the elderly, pregnant women, young children or sick – please consult with your physician before consuming … (list all potentially hazardous ingredients from your menu here i.e.) under cooked eggs, alfalfa sprouts, raw shellfish, undercooked hamburger meat, non-pasteurized juice.”

The advisory label can also be a tool to warn those with the eight most common food allergens: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat.

How far will our industry need to go with warning labels on our food? That is a much debated question now. There was much talk that “Fast Food” should have warning labels like cigarette packets. We realize that there are some insane warning labels out there, but for the time being, it might be smart to be ahead of the issue by placing a consumer advisory on your menu. Talk to your chef and your staff – find out what they are hearing from experts and your customers. We all know someone with a serious allergy or medical condition – it is not as far-fetched as it once appeared to be.

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noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:03:00 +0000

September is National Food Safety Education Month and the theme this year is: "High-Risk Customers: Serve Your Fare with Extra Care." That got me thinking.

The story and important information on the nationwide egg recall that follows my column heightens my concern.

National statistics say that in our very advanced nation, the United States of America,there are more than 76 million reported foodborne illnesses each year which lead to approximately 325,000 hospitalizations resulting in 5,000 – 10,000 deaths each year. I personally believe the numbers are much higher as it makes me wonder how many more foodborne illnesses go unreported each year. I like the number I heard years ago from the CDC which reported that worldwide, one out of three people annually get a foodborne illness. Sounds more accurate to me.

High Risk Populations are those with lowered immune systems; the very young (0-4 years of age), the elderly, pregnant women, and those with illnesses that compromise their immune systems, like AIDS or cancer. Within these populations, we can intuitively believe they might be more susceptible to getting really sick, but sometimes you can’t identify their risk factor just by looking at a person. My advice to my students is to “always act like everyone you are serving is at high risk and to always behave as if you were sick and didn’t know it yet.” Bottom Line: High Risk

Populations do not wear stickers on their forehead to announce they are a sick person …be careful.

The truth is that anyone who gets sick with a foodborne illness is going to be miserable and I am going to give those sick people sympathy. We’ve all eaten something and gotten an upset stomach afterwards and maybe you’ve had to run to the toilet with diarrhea. That happens and many of us are fortunate enough to deal effectively with annoying ailments. But, I do get scared if someone in a high risk population gets sick. Why? I believe that sometimes we joke about and become very blasé about foodborne illness, but the reality is that it’s very serious stuff.

I personally have first-hand experience working with the repercussions of a foodborne illness. I worked for six years at MEDEX Global Solutions, a traveler’s assistance company that manages cases for those having medical emergencies around the world. I would direct them to seek better care or just to help them get home to receive treatment. I remember one case that I worked on that really upset me. There was a family, husband and wife with three daughters in the Dominican Republic for a joyous occasion; one of the daughters was getting married there. The husband/father got gastroenteritis (which I have learned is a fancy word for upset stomach or a foodborne illness that you don’t know the name of). A few days later with symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting, the wife found him on the hotel room floor … suffering from a heart attack.

I worked on the case by connecting our Spanish speaking doctor to confirm with the doctor there that the patient was stable and able to be transported for emergency care back in the US. I arranged all logistics for air ambulance transfer with the medical team and arranged his readmission into Miami for the required surgery. I made the travel arrangements for the wife and a daughter as well. Unfortunately, the patient died in

Miami. I was gutted. The family was so wonderful and it was just such a sad scenario all around.

The deceased had been in his very early 70s with no previous history of cardiac illness. Foodborne illness is not something to be laughed at as to “ha ha, someone has the runs.” It’s for real! When someone gets a foodborne illness and really no matter the illness name, the symptoms are going to be pretty much the same. The body works to get rid of the contamination two ways, up or down. This can result in dehydration. When a body is dehydrated, the heart has to work harder which can affect one’s pulse rate and blood pressure. This is what happened to the deceased, resulting in a heart attack in a person with no previous history of cardiac problems.

September is National Food Safety Education Month and the theme this year is: "High-Risk Customers: Serve Your Fare with Extra Care." I think it’s great to identify High-Risk Customers and realize why extra care should be given to these populations, but my motto: “Act like everyone is in the High Risk Zone,” might go a long way.

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:25:00 +0000

Cross Contamination is defined as: “the transfer of microorganisms from one food or surface to another.”

There are many things we can do to avoid cross contamination in our restaurants. Some you can/should incorporate in your establishment are:

• Wash hands between different tasks and handling different foods. That includes putting on a clean pair of disposable gloves after washing hands properly. Never reuse the same gloves for a different job handling task.

• Clean and sanitize all work surfaces and utensils after each use.

• Prep your raw meats and ready to eat foods in different sections of the kitchen or at the least if you don’t have a big enough kitchen to do this, prep foods separately at different times.

• Purchase specific equipment for each type of food i.e. color coded cutting boards. For example, use a red cutting board for meats, yellow for poultry, and green for veggies and fruits. This way, you will always have peace of mind when cutting lettuce on a green cutting board that no chicken juice has ever touched the green cutting board because you have put physical barriers in place.

• Store food in your refrigeration units based upon their dangers in the following order from top to bottom: ready-to-eat-foods, seafood, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meats and ground fish and whole or ground poultry.

• Don’t grab anything where the customer’s mouth will go, i.e. don’t grab glasses or cups ever by the rim and always grab silverware by the handles.

• Never re-serve any food other than that which is completely sealed in a package, i.e. ketchups, mustards, etc.

• Mandate that your staff wear clean uniforms.

• Insist your staff wear minimal jewelry and nothing other than a plain band as a ring on their hands or wrists.

Finally, investigate the possibility that purchasing pre-cooked or pre-made ingredients can not only save you money, but also can help minimize the opportunity for “cross contamination” to occur. Many restaurants make their own chicken salad. Many employers might pay their prep cooks for ex. $13 per hour to make their chicken salad from scratch which can take many labor hours if they follow these steps: Receive –> Storage –> Cook –> Cool –> Storage –> Prepare –> Storage.

Sometimes, to save money, you have to pay more up front. For example, the restaurant owner decides to pay an extra $1 per pound to buy pre-cooked and pre-chopped chicken to use for the chicken salad? Yes, she is paying extra at the beginning, but look at the labor hours that have been eliminated at $13 per hour. Paying that extra dollar per pound for the chicken in the long run can save an operator a lot of money.

I am in the “food safety business” not “how to save money business.” From a food safety aspect, the advantage of buying a pre-made ingredient is that you now eliminate many steps in the flow to make that chicken salad. Your new control points in handling the chicken are only: Receive –> Storage –> Prepare –> Storage. By minimizing the steps you handle the food – you’ve also eliminated opportunities where cross contamination can occur.

I always find “food safety” fascinating. Some people think it adds more work, but if you use your Food Smarts, you can actually make your job easier! ! !

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.

Food Product

Internal Temperature

Corrective Action Taken

Employee Initials

Manager Initials

noreply@blogger.com (Juliet Bodinetz-Rich) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Studies have shown that personal hygiene is one of the leading causes of foodborne illnesses, due primarily to food-handling employees not washing hands properly or often enough. One aspect of personal hygiene that has come into much discussion in ServSafe classes is whether or not to use disposable gloves when handling food.

I take the surprising position of no, with exceptions. If I owned a restaurant, I would not make my kitchen employees wear gloves. However if they were to handle food in front of my customers, I would enforce the use of gloves, due to the public thinking: “How gross – they are touching my food with no gloves on!” I believe gloves are not used properly because they give a false sense of security. Food-handlers might take out the trash, handle money, and then continue to handle food, thinking they are safe because they are wearing fresh gloves.

Glove-wearing is never a substitute for hand washing! Proper hand washing entails using at least 100°F water and soap to scrub your hands and wrists for a minimum of 10-15 seconds and drying with a single-use paper towel. If you do not wash your hands, you will contaminate your gloves the instant you put them on with dirty hands. In addition, by wearing gloves, the wearer loses that tactile sensation that tells them when their hands are dirty or slimy, and need to be washed.

Maryland State regulations require the wearing of gloves when serving ready-to-eat foods if utensils such as tongs, spatulas, deli tissue or automatic dispensing equipment are not used.” COMAR 10.15.03.09F. In addition, if a food handler is wearing fingernail polish or has artificial fingernails, gloves are required. COMAR 10.14.03.14(H)(2).

Gloves can be used as an extra precaution to ensure food is not contaminated.
But, keep in mind that:

1) gloves are to be worn for one task only;
2) the same gloves are not used while working with ready-to-eat food and raw food; and
3) gloves must be discarded when they are soiled or damaged, an interruption occurs in the operation, or after 2 hours of continuous use. COMAR 10.14.03.14(J).

I recently heard yet another compelling reason to use disposable gloves with caution. One of my best friends, Debbie, was recently at the Jersey shore and had just eaten tilapia at a seafood restaurant that makes their own Catch of the Day. She enjoyed the fish, but within 10-15 minutes was presenting with symptoms of skin redness, tingling, rash and swelling, heart palpitations and difficulty breathing. Her mother took her immediately to the emergency room, where she was treated for anaphylactic shock. Her sister confirmed with the restaurant that they used latex gloves to prepare the fish, as Debbie already knew she had a latex allergy, which becomes worse with each exposure. As a result of the restaurant visit, she now has to carry an EpiPen with her, in case it happens again.

I always knew that latex gloves were a concern in dental practices and the medical world. For example, Johns Hopkins does not use latex gloves at all. For this reason I’ve always suggested to my ServSafe students that they refrain from using latex gloves, not only to avoid allergic reactions for their employees, but also theorizing that traces of allergens will effect the food.

There are circumstances where food-handlers need to protect themselves with gloves. If a food-handler has a cut, then disposable gloves are necessary to cover bandages or band-aids over clean hands so customers are protected from bloodborne pathogens and from any hidden surprises in their food. In order to avoid allergic reactions to latex for their employees and customers, food operators can use Nitrile gloves. Nitrile gloves are completely latex-free and do not contain allergy-causing proteins. They provide an excellent alternative for people who experience latex sensitivity, as well as eliminate the potential for adverse allergic reactions associated with latex protein.