Good food safety training and practices are vital at all times.

Everyone is feeling the pain of a struggling economy right now, and the restaurant business is no different. With business down, we are all looking for ways to cut down on overhead and operational costs, product costs and anything else that can keep the bottom line from moving down any further than it already is.         

Over the next six months, you can expect to see several restaurants closing, menu prices declining, people getting laid off, hiring freezes – and everything else that happens when money is tight. Having said that, where does food safety fit in?

An ongoing struggle for my company and myself is to convince restaurateurs that food safety is a necessity for an establishment to thrive, and not a peripheral that is taken care of only when there is extra time and money.

So many restaurants get bydoing only the bare minimum when it comes to food safety, and you can expect this even more of this during harsh economic conditions. The problem most restaurant operators have when it comes to food safety and food safety education is that it is basically viewed as preventative medicine, meaning it is not always apparent how food safety can increase an establishment’s revenue. This couldn’t be the further from the truth, and here’s why.

By answering the following questions, you can illustrate my point: Since times are tough right now, are you personally considering getting rid of your car insurance to save money? What about your homeowner’s insurance? Obviously, the answer is “no” to both. My point here is that food safety is, in many ways, insurance for your restaurant. It is insurance that your food will be handled correctly and customers won’t become ill from eating your food. It is insurance that you are making the best effort you possibly can to see that the products you serve won’t harm your customers. And lastly, it is insurance that if a patron does become ill, you can step forward and say you took every step necessary to make sure the food was safe.

When times are tough, you should not lose focus on food safety for the same reason you should not cancel your car insurance: If something bad does happen, it will be at a time where you can least afford it. For example, perhaps a year ago, your establishment could weather the bad publicity and financial settlement of a foodborne illness outbreak, but now with fewer people dining out, you probably won’t be able to recoup the overall settlement cost and your brand name. For this reason, now more than ever, you should be concentrating on food safety and the overall safety of your product.

Safety on a Budget
So the next question is, what can you do to maintain or improve your establishment’s food safety focus while staying within your thin budget? Here are a couple suggestions:

• Online food safety training – With today’s Internet technology, you are able to train your entire staff on food safety at around $10 or less per employee. Anyone who handles food in your establishment – not just the cooks – should have a basic understanding of general food safety guidelines.
• An audit of your operation’s hand-washing procedures –  Your employees should be washing their hands any and every time they come into contact with something that could contain possible contaminants. Have your managers take a couple shifts to observe how often people are washing their hands, and if it is not enough – which is usually the case – then conduct a basic seminar and explain to your staff why hand-washing is important, and how to properly wash and dry their hands.

• Hot and cold temperature logs – This is one that not many restaurants do, but it is highly recommended and will give you an idea of how well your employees are following your HACCP plan. Have someone on each shift take various temperatures of hot and cold food items and write them down in a log. This will tell you how well your employees are following your establishment’s HACCP plan. If they are within a couple degrees for each item, you know that your employees are mindful of the correct temperatures. Most restaurants spend a lot of money to have a HACCP plan written because their state requires them to, but many of them rarely consult it after it is completed, which is a shame. Here you have a handbook that tells you exactly how your food should be prepared, but no one ever looks at it once they complete their training. The process of keeping a log is a great way to keep your employees mindful of temperatures at all times.

• Clean – This may sound rudimentary, but your establishment should be clean. I don’t mean the type of cleaning and vacuuming that should occur every day, rather, I’m referring to pulling out equipment, clearing of all shelves and a rigorously scrubbing and chemical cleansing of anything and everything in your restaurant. This should be done at least once every two months, but it doesn’t have to be as labor-intensive as it seems. Turn it into a party for your employees; play some music, order some pizza and let everybody go to town on the place. Not only are you making sure your operation is sanitary at all times, but your building cohesion within your staff. It’s not often that front and back of the house get to work together on specific tasks, so this will help build the relationship. For around $1,000 a year, you will be able to guarantee that your establishment is sparkling clean at all times.
  

• Self Inspection – This one’s easy: Grab a copy of your local health department’s inspection checklist and do a self-inspection of your establishment. If you see things that would be considered violations, mark them off and take immediate corrective action. This is not only a way to virtually insure you will pass every health inspection, but it will also ensure nothing in your place will compromise the safety of your food products. While most restaurant operators consider the health department a necessary evil, their guidelines were put in place for a reason, and its not just to annoy restaurateurs. If you can do an inspection every month and only find one or two violations, I can guarantee you have a much better chance at avoiding a foodborne-illness outbreak.

Never Compromise
These are just some ideas when it comes to maintaining a high level of food safety in your establishment without hurting your bottom line.

If you look around your store, I’m sure you would be able to find creative and inexpensive ways to ensure the food you serve is safe to consume.

Eventually, the economy will rebound, and when it does, it will be a powerful statement to both you and your employees that your organization never compromised its food safety standard.

Lee Biars is the director of industry relations for Safe Food Solutions. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or www.safefoodsolutions.com.