QSR October 2022

SmartChain FoodSafety

A Team Effort The best line of defense against a potential food safety disaster is the staff.

F ood safety is not exactly a forgiv into a nightmare scenario. According to the National Institute of Health, a single 250-person outbreak of foodborne illness can cost a quick-service restaurant up to $2.1 million. The most common causes of food borne illnesses in the U.S. haven’t changed, when looking at recent outbreaks in com mercial foodservice operations. “I always go back to the standard issues that we have seen for several years related to food safety—ensuring employee health and hygiene standards are followed, tak ing end-point cooking temperatures and maintaining time standards, safely stor ing food and chemicals, and eliminat ing cross-contamination,” says Kevin R. Roberts, Ph.D., food safety expert at FoodHandler . “Although the circumstances seem to change, these are always the big gest barriers with which we must contend.” Handwashing is one of the easiest pre ventative behaviors, yet it’s also one of the easiest to overlook. “We work in the hand washing technology space, so we see the real data from the restaurants we work with,” says Sean Podvent, founder, CEO, and head of product at Hand IQ . “According to the CDC, handwashing compliance is as low as 30 percent in restaurants. We’ve seen that at multiple restaurants; however, we tend to see most operations in the 50 percent range while we’re collecting base line data with our technology. If you’re an operator who thinks staff are follow ing your handwashing guidelines, there’s a good chance it’s not actually happening. Just because you can’t see how dirty some one’s hands are, doesn’t mean they aren’t.” This isn’t a recent development, ing business. Even the smallest slip up on a bad day can quickly snowball

SafetyCulture

SAFETYCULTURE

either. “Many of the common mistakes operators make are not new,” says T.J. McReynolds, customer success manager at SafetyCulture . “In fact, they’re mistakes that happen as a result of poor processes, human errors, and a lack of training.” Thorough, consistent training across the entire staff builds a strong food safety culture. This can make an outsized impact, result of poor processes, human errors, and a lack of training.” “Many of the common mistakes happen as a

minimizing risky behavior and reinforc ing good habits. “The benefit comes when managers implement procedures, train ing, and monitoring for their biggest food safety risks: handwashing, bare hand con tact with ready-to-eat foods, cross-con tamination, cleaning and sanitizing, hot and cold holding, date marking, cooling, cooking, and reheating,” says Chris Boyles, vice president of food safety at Steritech . When it comes to multi-unit operations, well-defined and documented standards and procedures are especially important. They help lay the foundation for consis tent food safety practices across the brand. Leadership should be familiar with these practices while striving to stay ahead of the curve. “Management—all the way up through senior management—should be

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OCTOBER 2022 | SPONSORED SECTION