Food Safety Tips

Thermometers

Temperature might just be your biggest ally when it comes to preventing foodborne illness. From storing your product in the walkin, to thawing and serving product to the masses, maintaining proper temperatures is key to limiting and slowing the growth of bacteria. No matter the manufacturer, it's important to frequently check and calibrate your thermometer for accuracy.

• Inventory Check

  When your product arrives, be sure to gather a temperature reading before it even hits the shelves of your walkin. Use an infrared thermometer (like this FoodPro Thermometer by Comark) to get an accurate reading without piercing the surface of your product. If your thermometer is reading a temperature above 40°F, don't accept the shipment and have a few choice words with your supplier.

• Equipment Check

  You should keep fridge thermometers in your walkin, pantry, refrigerator, freezer—basically anywhere you keep food stored. Unfortunately equipment is known to break on occasion, and you don't want to inadvertently serve food that's gone bad. On the other hand, what good is a thermometer if you don't check it? Keep temperature logs. Not only will you need these for the inspector, but hopefully you'll discover if something is broken before you have to throw away all that food; additionally, keeping a record of temperatures also proves useful as something to reference if an incident does occur with one of your patrons.

• Cook and Kill Bacteria

  The most effective way to kill harmful bacteria is cooking food to a temperature of 140°F or higher—and that goes for holding temperatures too. Plan a "bacteria-free buffet" (the FDA's words, not ours) by keeping hot dishes at a temperature of 140°F or higher, and cold dishes at 40°F or colder; failure to do so might land your food within the "Danger Zone," (40°F and 140° Fahrenheit where food poisoning causing bacteria proliferates). When you need to grab a temperature on the fly, we love this Digital Thermometer by Comark.

Color-Coded Kitchen Supplies

Color-coded cutting boards and utensils are your friend when it comes to preventing cross-contamination in the kitchen. Colors help designate what type of ingredient to use with that tool, ensuring that potentially harmful bacteria doesn't make its way into your dish and to the customer:

• Red = raw meat
• Blue = raw fish
• Yellow = raw poulty
• Brown = cooked meat
• Green = produce
• White = dairy and bakery
• Purple = allergen free

Cut Resistant Gloves

When working with sharp tools in the kitchen, injuries are bound to occur. While most chefs might slap a glove on and continue with service, others may not even take that step and continue on with what they're doing—creating a potential biohazard in your kitchen. You can, however, prevent a majority of injuries by keeping a few cut resistant gloves in the kitchen. You won't break the bank with these cut gloves, but you'll ensure that only the ingredients you want make it into your food.

Disposable Gloves

In the food service industry, you can't go wrong with keeping a stock of disposable gloves, hair nets and beard covers on hand. These disposable items make it easy to keep hair and other unwanted materials out of your food, making it safe for people to eat. A must in most cafeterias, catering and other foodservice activities, these items are an easy way to prevent cross-contamination.

Countertop Warmers and Buffet Servers

Countertop warmers and buffet servers keep food warm at the proper holding temperatures during service. To prevent bacteria growth and keep customers safe, food should be kept out of the danger zone (between 40°F and 140°F) — that means your hot dishes should be kept in equipment that can maintain a temperature of 140°F or higher. You never know when the health inspector will schedule a visit, so make sure that you're prepared.

Cooling Paddles and Blast Chillers

A quick way to speed up bacteria growth on your food is to put hot food directly into the refrigerator or walkin without letting it cool first. Not only will you compromise the dish you're trying to cool, but you'll put the rest of the ingredients in your refrigerator at risk because your hot dish will raise the refrigerator's internal temperature. Plus, if food stays warm for too long, it can spoil.

So what do you do? Try using a Rapi-Kool Cold Paddle from San Jamar to safely cool your food and reduce the amount of bacterial growth. Dishwasher safe and made of food-grade plastic, you'll cool down your soups and stock more quickly and safely. Looking for a faster solution? Blast chillers rapidly cool dishes to get them out of the danger zone (40°F to 140°F, where bacteria grows most rapidly) without effecting the food in your refrigerator or walkin.

Day Labels

Day labels are required by the FDA and are helpful, multi-colored safety stickers that indicate when sandwich meat was sliced up, or when someone loaded up a bin with fresh lettuce. When you take the guess work out of keeping your stock fresh, you'll never have to worry about expired ingredients. Day labels dissolve easily in water, making it a breeze to reuse the same container again; often marked in both English and Spanish.

Food Storage

Part of keeping guests safe is practicing proper food storage. Make sure to date any product that's received and indicate a "use by" date to ensure freshness; trust us, it makes it much easier to practice food safety when you follow the first in, first out (FIFO) method. And though it may seem like a no-brainer, make sure all food is stored at least six inches above the floor with one of our dunnage racks.

In addition, your food should be stored in a clean, dry location where it is not exposed to splash, dust or other contaminants. Meat should be stored on the lowest shelf possible to ensure that meat juices cannot drip and contaminate other food items. Don't forget to invest in air-tight containers (like these popular Camsquare Containers by Cambro); they will increase shelf life and protect your product from bacteria and infestations.

Food Sanitizers and Test Strips

Test Strips and food sanitizers ensure you're eliminating all of the unwanted extras left behind on dirty countertops, dishware, etc. Test strips are simple, quick tests you can do to test the chlorine or ammonia levels in your cleaning solution — it will indicate whether or not your chemical mixture is correct (and doing its job). There are even test strips to show if the machine is reaching the NSF-approved final rinse temperature of 180°F. You'll soon find that properly cleaned dishes not only keep diners safe, but makes your food and drink taste better too.

Sanitizer and Cleaning Buckets

San Jamar's Kleen-Pail® system makes it easy to keep cleaning and sanitizing solutions separate per HACCP dedicated-use guidelines. The color-coded system makes it easy to stay organized and follow proper safety protocols. Green Kleen-Pails® are used for cleaning solutions while red Kleen-Pails® are used for sanitizing solutions; both Kleen-Pails® feature Trilingual (English/Spanish on the front, English/French on the back) printing that helps meet health codes and reinforces employee training.