Restaurant employees are required to take specific food and safety measures to ensure the well-being of their staff and customers. These rules are regulated by community, city, state and federal guidelines and various agencies like the health department that conduct routine inspections and scoring. The United States maintains some of the safest food in the world. Despite this, the federal government estimates that at least one in six Americans suffer from food poisoning each year. Proper food handling requires specific steps including cleaning, separating, cooking and chilling. Following these steps will protect you, your staff, your customers and your business.

Proper food handling requires specific steps including cleaning, separating, cooking and chilling.

Handling Raw Foods

Cleaning and thawing your raw foods is an important process. Proper sanitization involves preventing chemical contamination, cross contamination between foods and the spread of germs from unclean surfaces. It’s always important to wash your hand and any surfaces before and after handling foods. All raw fruits and vegetables should be cleaned under cold, running water. When thawing raw meat, never thaw outside of the refrigerator. Frozen meat should be thawed using clean, cold, running water in its original watertight packaging. The temperature between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit is considered the “danger zone” because food that remains at this temperature is at risk for developing illness-producing bacteria.

Avoid Cross Contamination

Cross contamination of raw food items is one of the biggest sources of dangerous, illness-producing bacteria. It is crucial to keep raw food items away from each other. Raw meat and eggs should never come into contact with fresh fruits or vegetables. This means that even the sink used to sanitize fresh fruit and vegetables shouldn’t be used to rinse off raw meat because it will lead to a contaminated sink. It’s suggested that food vendors have designated sinks, cutting boards, knives and other products for both meat products and vegetables. Color-coding the different objects can prevent misuse. This issue so important that it is recommended that you separate your food items in grocery carts, grocery bags and the refrigerator as well.

Use a Food Thermometer

The most important aspect of cooking is ensuring that the food reaches the proper temperature. Color, texture and overall visual appearance are not reliable indicators of how well-cooked foods may be. Instead, a food thermometer should always be used to ensure foods are cooked to perfection. All raw beef, lamb and pork steaks, roasts and chops should be cooked until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Ground meat needs to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Poultry needs to reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Some customers and restaurants prefer to cook their meat longer, and there is no safety concern with doing so. If you use a microwave to prepare certain dishes, then make sure to allow the dish to stand for a few minutes before verifying the internal temperature with the food thermometer.

Refrigeration and Thawing

Proper refrigeration and chilling will prevent foods from becoming unsafe to consume. An appliance thermometer should ensure that the fridge temperature remains at 40 degrees and the freezer is at or below zero degrees. All meet, eggs, seafood, poultry and other perishables should be refrigerated within two hours of cooking. Food should never be thawed at room temperature, but rather in the fridge, in cold water or in the microwave.

Monitor Social Media For Customer Complaints

While the majority of food-related issues are handled legally, social media has become a modern-day court for many food industries. In 2017, Chic-fil-A suffered a public relations nightmare when a Facebook user’s negative experience went viral. Our legal system provides a way for consumers to report food borne illnesses and questionable food vendors. When people turn to social media rather than the food safety officials, public health officials are left out of the loop and are not able to pursue corrections for the issue. When a restaurant is inspected, the food vendor is required to publicly post their report and rating. This information is also posted online. If a food vendor fails multiple inspections, then they could be shut down. These simple steps keep consumers safe. Social media is a great tool for sharing your stories, but be sure to also report any issues to your local food safety regulators.

Restaurant owners, managers and staff all need to be aware of local, state and federal food safety regulations and follow them strictly. Failure to do so could result in illnesses, bad publicity, failed health inspections and a potentially failed business. Proper food handling requires specific steps including cleaning, separating, cooking and chilling. Following these steps will protect you, your staff, your customers and your business.