The global pandemic, Covid-19, put food safety and restaurant health under a microscope. As many restaurants try to adapt to this global crisis by pivoting to delivery service models or limiting seating capacity, employees’ and customers’ obligation is amplified.
Although food health and safety regulations haven’t changed at all since the start of the crisis, restaurants are projected to be transparent with customers and uphold rigorous health standards.
That means, at the bare minimum, you will have to respect your region’s food safety and health codes. The best way to achieve this is with these pro tips:
1. Consider Product Traceability
Whether you are a food safety manager or supervisor, you must ensure your establishment has an efficient traceability system for products in place.
For instance, you can develop a meat traceability system to improve transparency with your customers and be update recalls, which may create an upheaval in your own establishment.
2. Sanitize Surfaces
Cleaning and sanitizing all the restaurant’s surfaces, including cutting boards, storage areas, floor drains, trash cans, equipment, and prep areas, is vital to your health and food safety routine.
This process helps to remove invisible germs, dirt, and food residue from the surfaces, which can come in contact with food.
Sanitizing and cleaning surfaces regularly will also prevent pest infestation. Pests are capable of spreading dangerous diseases, like Listeria and Salmonella, to foodstuffs in the kitchen.
Developing a good cleaning checklist is the best way to achieve this goal. This will ensure you implement procedures for your workers to follow monthly, weekly, or daily.
3. Train Your Workers and Lead by the Example
Although the law doesn’t require you to train your workers or have HACCP training, food safety inspection agents can hold you accountable to those standards. It might be more difficult to convey the need for food safety regulations in a restaurant if you are not well-trained.
If you have never had an opportunity to get proper training, it will be a great idea to enroll in a course or book a day with an instructor. Taking part in this with your team will ensure you build team spirit.
4. Encourage Workers to Keep their Hands Clean
The need to wash hands properly has been drilled into many people’s minds for years. Hand-washing doesn’t just help to avoid Covid-19. Even before the pandemic came, people still used to wash their hands.
So this shouldn’t change even with the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines. Your workers must still remember to wash their hands with enough water and soap for 30 seconds or so. This can be whenever they use chemicals, eat, smoke, drink, sneeze, clear the table, go to the restroom, or touch dirty aprons.
The Bottom Line!
A thorough sanitization and food safety plan is important in an establishment like a restaurant. It ascertains the regulations that the FDA and other government bodies have laid are followed to the latter.
It also reassures consumers or customers about all your food products, and they shouldn’t worry about the kind of services or quality of products being delivered.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
