Food Safety

We focused on the basics during my first week at West Oaks Mall, specifically Food Safety.

Health Inspection Audit
A company called Steritech performed a health inspection audit early in the week. This was a rigorous test that closely examined all the food safety areas of the business. It was clear that I had my work cut out for me after this audit.

Training
I instructed all of our team members to watch the Safety and Security dvd and pass the certification test with a 90% or higher. To ensure their understanding of the fundamentals, I went over crucial areas like the Temperature Danger Zone, proper hand washing, and fire safety individually with each team member.

Cross-Contamination
When I arrived, there were no systems in place to separate raw chicken from ready to eat food. For instance, there were no yellow handled tools in the restaurant and yellow gloves were not used to bread chicken. After ordering the right equipment we are now able to easily differentiate tools and gloves for raw chicken and ready to eat foods.

Biological Contamination
Proper hand washing procedures were not in effect, even when a team member would switch from breading raw chicken to preparing ready to eat food. After much discussion and many reminders, the team has significantly increased their hand washing. Also, employee drinks being held and consumed anywhere in the restaurant. This was solved by creating drink stations where team members could store and drink their beverages away from food and service areas.

Chemical Contamination
A lack of organization posed the biggest problem regarding our use of chemicals. We did not have all of the appropriate bottles which caused us to put incorrect cleaners in incorrect bottles. We discovered this because there were 2 bottles with multipurpose labels next to each other with different colored liquids inside. We also did not have adequate storage for our chemicals, which encouraged team members to hang bottles wherever they saw fit – including over paper and food products. This was easily remedied by purchasing and installing bottle shelves by the mop sink.

We were also not using sanitizer in any fashion outside of the dish sink. There were no sanitizer buckets or bottles in the entire restaurant. While there were green packets of sanitizer in the building, nobody in the store knew what they were used for. Everything, including all food surfaces and prep areas, were cleaned with multi purpose and degreaser. This was a MAJOR area of focus and each team member is now fully informed on how to prepare, test, and use sanitizer properly.

Physical Contamination
There were a few areas regarding physical contamination that we needed to work on. Team members were wearing too much jewelry, including multiple rings, dangling earrings, gaudy necklaces, and bracelets. Another team member issue was a lack of hair restraints. This was solved simply by having the leaders strictly enforce the rules laid out in the employee handbooks. Also, a majority of our light shields for the fluorescent lighting were cracked and broken and needed to be replaced.

It was a busy first week at West Oaks Mall but was all worth it when we passed our REAL health inspection with relative ease at the end of the week!