Safe Food Handling Could Save Your Business
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by: MalcolmJ.Richmond
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Word Count: 577
The restaurant business is built on two things - repeat clientele and a good public image of your establishment. Your reputation IS your business. Even one lawsuit stemming from improper food handling can be a catastrophe for your restaurant.
Not only do you need to take certain basic steps and make sure all of your kitchen employees always do in order to prevent directly harming customers with something like food poisoning, you also have to do things right for the sanitation inspectors who may decide to drop in on you and see how you really run things. Even an employee who sees food handling mistakes in the kitchen may squeal on you, especially if they ever lose their job.
And there is more to this than simply properly storing food and disposing of waste.
One of the basic things that must be done is to constantly clean and keep clean food preparation areas and equipment. This seems simple, but it's simple to screw it up, too. For instance, different cutting boards should be used to prepare meat, seafood, vegetables. Some places use stainless steel counters on which to do cutting, but this can dull your knives and some people say meat absorbs a little bit of "steel flavor" and, while harmless, that's not good. Plastic cutting boards are more sanitary and easier to clean than wooden ones. Each cutting board needs to be thoroughly rinsed or put into the washer after every meal preparation. Chlorine bleach may be used for a deeper cleaning, but make sure the rinse is extremely thorough if bleach is used for cleaning.
Utensils need to be washed as well after each meal preparation in which they are used.
To keep them free of harmful bacteria, meats must always be cooked to a minimal internal temperature. For red meats and pork, this temperature is a minimum if 69 degrees centigrade. For seafood it is 74 degrees. Even if a rare steak has been ordered, it must be cooked to at least this minimum temperature for at least 15 seconds to minimize the risk of food poisoning. Any meat which is not very fresh should be cooked to very well done.
The preparation of raw foods such as sushi call for even greater care. These foods require you to keep your kitchen perfectly clean and a grade-A preparation staff are essential here, as is being sure that your supplier of seafood is very clean. When preparing sushi, disposable gloves and hair coverings must be worn and the preparation area so clean that one could literally eat that sushi off of the floor. Sushi must be discarded if it is not absolutely certain that it is fresh.
It's shocking how many kitchen workers do not constantly wash their hands with soap and water between preparing meals, even if they've touched raw meat. Kitchen workers need to wash their hands between every meal preparation, and really it's a good idea to do quick hand washings between different handlings (such as going from meat to vegetables) during a meal preparation.
By enforcing a strict kitchen sanitation and food handling program, you will be protecting the interests of your customers as well as those of your restaurant.
About the Author
About the author: Malcolm J. Richmond will reveal you how to avoid food safety risks to your restaurant business. Go to the "Food Safety" website for more great recommendations on protecting your business by implementing food health standards.
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