What Can Be Done to Make Restaurant Food Safer?

Creating rules for your workers to follow can improve food safety. Foodborne illness prevention begins in the kitchen, thus workers must be trained.

Knowing the hazards and how to reduce them will enhance food safety in your business. Food service employers must follow state-safe service rules. Compliance requires reviewing criminal records, recruiting 18-year-olds, and obtaining a Food Safe Certification.

These expire five years after testing. Visit Servsafe.com to update or certify employees.

Management should monitor food safety and address issues as they arise. Restaurants, where mistakes can go unnoticed, need an awareness and monitoring system.

Restaurants can keep customers safe by properly handling raw meat and maintaining food temperatures. All foods must be refrigerated between 39 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, while cooked meals must be kept above 140 degrees. Restaurants staff should also cleanse hands and dishes and avoid cross-contamination between raw and cooked meats.

Restaurant Safety Guide

Restaurant food safety is crucial. Public health and customer relations depend on it. Preventing foodborne infections requires proper food storage, cooking, and handwashing.

Other Food Safety Methods:

1. Sanitize surfaces.

After usage, clean cutting boards, scales, meat grinders, and other commercial kitchen equipment. This cleaning will prevent surface bacteria from spreading.

Cleaning procedures for restaurants:

• Disinfect and wash kitchen surface daily.
• Avoid placing cooked food directly on a kitchen counter or table to prevent germs from spreading to fresh food.
• Before eating, wash all produce. This prevents insecticides and bacteria.
• Maintain Food Temperatures. This ensures no food was stored in the danger zone (41 °F–135 °F).
• Refrigerate food immediately. Refrigerate food within two hours. Freezers must be 0 degrees and refrigerators 40 degrees.

2. Handwash often.

Washing your hands regularly helps prevent germs and illness. The CDC advises personnel to wash their hands for 20 seconds to avoid sickness.

Hand sanitizers are beneficial if employees cannot use soap and water, particularly in germ-filled public locations. Before and after touching your face, nose, and mouth, wash your hands. Don't work if unwell.

Warm water helps soap clean hands for 20 seconds. The correct pH kills germs. Most soaps have an alkaline pH of 9–11.

3. Wash food before cooking.

Cleaning food before cooking prevents microorganisms from raw components from contaminating cooked food. Food must be cleansed beforehand. To eradicate bacteria, wash it with clean water. Cleaning raw and cooked food separately prevents contamination.

Clean raw meat-contaminated dishes and utensils. Staff can wash dishes using hot water and sanitizers. Bacteria and germs can be prevented by washing hands properly, especially before handling meat.

4. Track food recalls

A manufacturer recalls a food product if it poses a health risk. When a producer or the FDA deems a product hazardous, it is recalled. Food recalls helping customers avoid harmful goods. Restaurants can receive FDA food recall alerts through email. Food Safety Now is a food recall app restaurants may utilize. These apps notify eateries of food recalls.

5. Label foods and best-before dates.

When a product expires, its quality may not be affected, but it has reached its peak before going out of supply. Food labels at restaurants protect customers and employees. Labeling menus and food items helps allergy-prone customers. Restaurants can utilize date marks, expiration dates, sell-by dates, and best-by dates.

Keeping track of this process and the food in the kitchen is the greatest method to label everything accurately.

Food monitoring and labeling tips:

• Record food arrivals and departures.
• Label freezer foods.
• Label all fridge-bound foods.
• Label available food packets used in guest dishes.

McDonald Paper can help with labeling and labeling equipment. On the site, you can find any restaurant equipment and supply, and order it with delivery to your restaurant. And even make a custom print on it. Or visit an offline showroom in Brooklyn and see everything for yourself.

6. Keep food cool.

Temperature ensures food safety. The USDA recommends refrigerating perishable goods at 40 °F or lower. Frozen food is best at 0 °F. Refrigerate meat, dairy, fish, and eggs. To prevent food from reaching 40 degrees Fahrenheit, monitor thawing. Avoid food contamination by keeping cold foods below 40 degrees and hot foods above 165 degrees.

Keep raw meats apart from cooked produce. Store eggs and produce together. Check refrigerators with a thermometer. Keep food in the freezer at -18 degrees or lower.

7. Avoid cross-contamination

A serving spoon that has touched raw meat might contaminate a piece of deli meat. When contaminated foods touch, cross-contamination can occur. Raw meat on the serving spoon might transfer pathogens to other items. Make sure personnel follows policy while touching food, glassware, and serving utensils. Staff should follow recommendations to avoid transferring bacteria between foods. When slicing meat, don't use a cheese or salad knife or board.

8. Maintain restaurant equipment.

Restaurant equipment maintenance prevents food contamination and keeps customers satisfied. Maintenance can avoid 50% of equipment failures and food contamination. Get a good maintenance plan and train personnel on how to clean, repair, and maintain restaurant equipment.

Keeping restaurant equipment clean is crucial. Sanitizer alone is not enough for restaurant equipment maintenance. Contaminants cause disease and allergies, resulting in unfavorable reviews and litigation.

Induction plays a crucial role in maintaining the safety of your eatery's food

Induction cooking prevents cross-contamination by heating food within. Induction reduces fire danger. Keeps food safe by maintaining a steady temperature. Most induction cooktops generate the same power as a light bulb due to their efficiency.

Induction cooking uses electromagnetic fields to provide a perfect temperature and energy profile that can be customized for any cuisine, from delicate fish to frozen French fries. It dramatically minimizes the risk of foodborne disease from over- or under-cooking.

Induction cooking also improves uniformity, reducing the danger of supplying undercooked food to clients with allergies or other medical issues.

What is the Importance of Food Safety?

Pathogen-contaminated food may cause illnesses. Foodborne illnesses are harmful to immunocompromised people.

Food poisoning affects one in six Americans (49 million) and hospitalizes 128,000, according to the CDC. The CDC says food safety can prevent most U.S. foodborne infections.

Foodborne illness kills 3,000 Americans and hospitalizes 130,000. The foodborne illness kills 500,000 individuals globally. Food safety is crucial for everyone, especially those with impaired immune systems including small children, the elderly, and people with diabetes, allergies, or asthma.

Some guidelines:

• Keep cold items below 40 degrees and hot meals above 165 degrees.
• Foods over 140 degrees for two hours should be discarded.
• Soap up before eating.
• Avoid hot foods in the "danger zone" (40–140 degrees).