NOVEMBER 2019 NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 2019 NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 2019 NEWSLETTER

Boil Water Notices:  Depending on how close Hurricane Dorian gets to Florida, we may see some boil water notices, particularly along the coast.  The spec to make water safe is a rolling boil for one minute. 

Dishwasher Performance Specifications:  Every dish machine has an “NSF tag.”  NSF International is a company which certifies machinery and equipment for use in food service. You can often see their logo on pans, utensils and food preparation equipment.  The NSF tag specifies correct temperature, sanitizer, water flow and water hardness.  Health codes require all commercial dishwashers to have this tag.  When we test the dish machine, we are making sure it is within the NSF guidelines to properly sanitize equipment.  Nearly all low temperature dish machines use 50-100 parts per million (ppm) chlorine to sanitize and typically 120°, but those numbers can vary.  Check the tag to be sure. 

Sanitizing food contact surfaces:  Like the dish machine, quaternary ammonium (quat) sanitizer has specifications.  Ideally quat sanitizer should be between 200 – 400 parts per million (ppm),but can be as low as 150 or as high as 500.  It also needs to be at a minimum temperature of 75° to properly sanitize.  The store is required to have test strips available to test chemicals from the dish machine, sanitizer buckets, and heat (if a high temperature dish machine is used). 

If you use a sanitizer dispenser, make sure the person dispensing the sanitizer physically checks for the proper concentration, same with the dish machine.  The most common cause of violations on sanitizer is the container being empty.  If you use tablets or packets to make sanitizer, be sure to follow the instructions, too much or too little water will also create a violation.  If your dispenser is broken, you can manually make a sanitizer bucket.   ¼ tsp of quat sanitizer in one gallon of water will get you around 300-400ppm. 

The most important part of the sanitization process is allowing the item to air dry.  The evaporation process essentially sucks the water out of bacteria to kill it.  For this reason, pans and utensils should not be dried with a towel or stacked while wet.  When using quat sanitizer to sanitize knives, cutting boards and food contact surfaces, the air-drying process takes 30 seconds, an eternity when you are busy.  Inspectors will sometimes check to see the cook is waiting a full 30 seconds before using a knife that has been sanitized. The easiest solution is the have multiple knives available.

Rings, Bracelets, Watches, Nails, Nail Polish: The rule against anything on the wrists, anything other than a plain wedding band, fake nails, and nail polish is most often enforced against cooks, but can also be enforced against service staff.  Because most inspectors give the front of the house staff some room on this, Bright Green does not score the front of the house as aggressively on these items as the back. 

Storage of “In use” utensils: In use utensils such as tongs, knives, scoops, etc. can be stored 4 ways.  1) Clean, 2) Hot, 3) Cold, 4) Using Time as a Public Health control.  Because we are dealing with microscopic bacteria, any item with food debris should be handled the same as food.  We teach our customers to hold grill utensils in hot, clean, water above 135°.  Scoops for cold foods can be stored in the food so long as the handle is not in the food.  If you use Time as a Public Health Control for utensils, the utensils must be time marked the same as food, then sanitized after four hours.  Make sure to store ice buckets upside down so they will not hold standing water.  Make sure not to place them directly on a hard surface where water will collect around the lip.  Either hanging, on slotted shelving, or on dry dek. 

Food Manager Class and Test: The next food manager class and test will be in Orlando on Monday September 30^th at 9am.  The location is Chela Tequila and Tacos, 183 South Orange Avenue, Orlando 32801. Please let me know by 9/20 if you have anyone who will be attending the class. 

June 2019 Newsletter

June 2019 Newsletter

Fruit flies:  Since we are in the middle of fruit fly season, I wanted to touch on a few ways they can be managed. Fruit flies breed in areas of standing water with some type of food source.The flies breed in one area and move to another when they grow their wings. This is why they are so hard to dispatch.  In my experience, about 80% of the time, you’ll find them in worn grout lines, unsealed areas around plumbing or in floor drains.  If you see a cloudy, pasty looking surface that appears to be fizzing like soda, you have found them. They appear and long, thin worms as in the photo on the top and breed in areas that look like moldy paste as in the photo on the bottom 

Apply coffee machine hot or boiling water into these areas to instantly kill the larvae, keep them away by completely sealing the area, repairing the floor or grout and keeping the area dry. 

Hand washing:  There is a rather large Hepatitis A outbreak in the Tampa area, so expect inspectors to be keying in on handwashing.  Make sure all your sinks have hot water (at least 100°) soap and towels.  Employees should wash hands for 15-20 seconds total.  Make sure to use the towel to shut off the water after washing hands as everyone who touches the faucet to turn the water on does so with dirty hands. 

Sick Policy:  Make sure your store has a sick employee policy.  We have the additional challenges of understaffing and hangovers when it comes to making decisions to send staff home.  It can be difficult to get some of the staff to work when they are well, all this is understood.  However, guidelines say that an employee who is vomiting, has diarrhea, or jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin), must be excluded from work.  In addition to the Hep A outbreak in Tampa, there have been a few investigations into Norovirus outbreaks in the area related to sick food handlers.  If one of your staff shows up at the doctor and is diagnosed with one of the big 5 foodborne illnesses (E. Coli, Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Salmonella, Shigella) the doctor is required by law to notify your health inspector.  All these illnesses but E. Coli, which is more closely related to cross-contamination of foods, can be best prevented by proper hand washing. 

Cross-Contamination: The biggest source of cross-contamination in the kitchen are gloves and improperly sanitized food contact surfaces. Coach the staff to change gloves when changing tasks (wash hands in between). Don’t touch ready to eat foods with bare hands, minimize contact with foods, especially raw foods, by using tongs, scoops, spatulas, etc.  Make sure knives, slicers, dicers, cutting boards, spoons and spatulas are properly sanitized between uses.