Education News

Handwashing is the single most effective means of preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses which can cause infections and foodborne illness.

Employees can be a significant source of harmful microorganisms. Proper handwashing can be the most effective action workers can take to control direct and indirect contamination of food, utensils, and equipment.

When To Wash Hands
•Before starting to work with food, utensils, or equipment.
•During food preparation, as needed.
•When switching between raw foods and ready-to-eat foods.
•After handling soiled utensils and equipment.
•After coughing, sneezing, using a tissue, or using tobacco products.
•After eating and drinking.
•After touching bare human body parts.
•After handling animals.
•After using the toilet, wash hands at a handsink in the bathroom; and again when returning to work.

Correct Way to Wash Hands
- Always Follow These Six Steps!
Before washing your hands, remove any jewelry and only wash your hands in sinks designated for handwashing. Do not wash your hands in utensil, food preparation, or service sinks.

1. Roll up sleeves and wet hands with warm water.
2. Using soap, not a hand sanitizer solution, work up a soapy lather that covers hands and forearms.
3. Rub hands together for at least 20 seconds (sing Happy Birthday); make sure to wash palms, back of hands, between fingers, and forearms.
4. Use a fingernail brush to clean under fingernails and between fingers.
5. Rinse hands and forearms in warm water. Keep fingertips pointed down while rinsing.
6. Dry hands with single-use paper towels or cloth roller towel. Turn off the faucet with paper towels to prevent re-contamination of hands.

Does your restaurant serve smoothies or other blended delights? If so, this tip is for you. Properly cleaning and sanitizing your blenders is crucial to food safety. Simply spraying the unit out and leaving it to dry after each use is not enough. The PH of some smoothie ingredients combined with the fact that some blenders are only rinsed and not washed can create a perfect environment for bacteria and mold growth. This can lead to black mold forming around the blender blades and rubber ring. Blending units should be completely broken down, by removing blades and the rubber ring. Units should then be washed, rinsed and sanitized after every four hours of continuous use to protect against food borne illness.

Special thanks to Michael Squibb, with Fulton Co. Environmental Health & Wellness for suggesting this weeks’ tip.

One of the leading causes of food-borne illness is improperly cooled food. Cooked foods that are to be stored need to be cooled to 41°F/5°C or lower as quickly as possible. This should be completed within four hours, unless you use the two-stage cooling method.  In the first stage of this method, foods must be cooled to 70°F/21°C within two hours. In the second stage, foods must reach 41°F/5°C or lower within an additional four hours, for a total cooling time that should not exceed six hours. It is critical to your establishment’s food safety process that time-temperature logs be maintained. It is recommended that time-temperature logs be kept on file for three to six months.  Please click here for a sample time-temperature log.


Reference:
The Culinary Institute of America
ServSafe Coursebook 5th Edition

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Want the recipe to make Cinnabon’s addictive cinnamon rolls at home?  You’ll get a peak at the Atlanta chain’s secrets on Oct. 14 on the CMT channel at 9 p.m.

Todd Wilbur, who for years has shared secret recipes in cookbooks and on talk shows, has a new series called “Top Secret Recipe” on CMT. The Oct. 14 episode will be devoted to Cinnabon’s Classic Roll. Wilbur will try to crack the Cinnabon recipe in three days through trial and error to copy the Cinnabon Classic Roll from scratch. He’ll then go up against a panel of judges for a blind taste test.

The show also looks into the history of the Cinnabon brand, featuring interviews with the co-founder and current franchise partner Greg Komen and the creator of the roll "CinnaMom" chef Jerilyn Brusseau.

Cinnabon, a unit of Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., has more than 800 franchised locations around the world.

FOCUS Brands also owns Moe’s Southwest Grill, Carvel Ice Cream, Schlotzsky’s, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Seattle’s Best Coffee (in international markets and on some military bases).

Article

Managers and employees share in the responsibility of applying safe food handling practices that reduce the potential for food borne illness. Trained staff will be able to identify and take corrective action to eliminate high-risk practices that increase the potential for food borne illness.

The Georgia food code requires that there be at least one Certified Food Safety Manger (CFSM) per establishment. Please note that a certified manager can only represent ONE establishment. For example if Bob is an owner of 12 restaurants his ServSafe® certification only meets the state requirement for one of the 12 locations. Bob would need to have separate managers certified for each of the remaining 11 locations. Failure to have a CFSM in each establishment is a violation of the Georgia Food Code and will result in a deduction on the inspection report.

Beyond the CFSM requirement the GA Food code also has a component that requires Person-in-Charge (PIC) if the CFSM is not on premise. There must be a designated person in charge at the food establishment during all hours of operation (either a CFSM or another designated manager/employee). The person in charge must be able to demonstrate knowledge of food borne disease prevention and is responsible for assuring safe food handling practices. Failure to have a PIC is also a violation of the food code requirement and will result in a deduction on the inspection report.

Responsibilities of the Person in Charge (PIC). A person in charge shall be on the premises of the food service establishment at all times and shall ensure that:

(a) Operations not Conducted in Private Home. Food service establishment operations are not conducted in a private home or in a room used as living or sleeping quarters

(b) Authorized Personnel Access. Persons unnecessary to the food service establishment operation are not allowed in the food preparation, food storage, or warewashing areas, except that brief visits and tours may be authorized by the person in charge if steps are taken to ensure that exposed food; clean equipment, utensils, and linens; and unwrapped single-service and single-use articles are protected from contamination

(c) Authorized Persons Compliance. Employees and other persons such as delivery and maintenance persons and pesticide applicators entering the food preparation, food storage, and warewashing areas comply with this Chapter

(d) Employee Handwashing. Employees are effectively cleaning their hands, by routinely monitoring the employees’ handwashing

(e) Monitoring of Receiving. Employees are visibly observing foods as they are received to determine that they are from approved sources, delivered at the required temperatures, protected from contamination, unadulterated, and accurately presented, by routinely monitoring the employees’ observations and periodically evaluating foods upon their receipt

(f) Proper Cooking Techniques. Employees are properly cooking potentially hazardous food (time/temperature control for safety food), being particularly careful in cooking those foods known to cause severe foodborne illness and death, such as eggs and comminuted meats, through daily oversight of the employees’ routine monitoring of the cooking temperatures using appropriate temperature measuring devices properly scaled and calibrated.

(g) Proper Cooling Methods. Employees are using proper methods to rapidly cool potentially
hazardous foods (time/temperature control for safety food), that are not held hot or are not for consumption within four (4) hours, through daily oversight of the employees’ routine monitoring of food temperatures during cooling

(h) Consumer Food Safety. Consumers who order raw or partially cooked ready-to-eat foods of animal origin are informed that the food is not cooked sufficiently to ensure its safety

(i) Proper Sanitizing. Employees are properly sanitizing cleaned multiuse equipment and utensils before they are reused, through routine monitoring of solution temperature and exposure time for hot water sanitizing, and chemical concentration, pH, temperature, and exposure time for chemical
Sanitizing

 (j) Clean Tableware. Consumers are notified that clean tableware is to be used when they return to self-service areas such as salad bars and buffets

(k) Bare Hand Contact. Employees are preventing cross-contamination of ready-to-eat food with bare hands by properly using suitable utensils such as deli tissue, spatulas, tongs, single-use gloves, or dispensing equipment

(l) Food Safety Training. Employees are properly trained in food safety as it relates to their assigned duties

(m) Reporting Responsibilities. Food employees and conditional employees are informed of their responsibility to report in accordance with law, to the person in charge, information about their health and activities as they relate to diseases that are transmissible through food

(n) Imminent Health Hazard. If an imminent health hazard exists because of an emergency such as a fire, flood, interruption of electrical or water service for two (2) or more hours, sewage malfunction, misuse of poisonous or toxic materials, onset of an apparent foodborne illness outbreak, gross unsanitary occurrence or condition, or other circumstances that may endanger public health, then operations are immediately discontinued and the Health Authority is notified.

The Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA) has received reports from members that fake health inspectors are continuing to contact local restaurants and may be trying to illegally obtain sensitive information about restaurant employers or employees. More recent reports also indicate that impersonators have been wrecking havoc on local restaurants by placing extremely large delivery orders that are a hoax.

Similar incidents have been reported in California, Hawaii & New Mexico. There are also reports that scammers may be targeting Asian restaurants.  

Advise Your Team
According to health officials, a number of restaurants have received phone calls from a person claiming to be a health inspector and introducing a new procedure to arrange a health inspection.

The caller asks the business owner to follow a procedure to get a special code to confirm the inspection. The business owner later receives a second call asking for the confirmation code.

The calls are part of a larger fraud, health officials say, involving setting up verified accounts with a national online auction service. The purpose of the code request is to get the business owner to provide false verification to the online auction service, so that the original caller can establish an online account.

Protect Your Business
The county health department does not announce inspections in advance, nor will health employees call to set up an inspection or call in advance of an inspection.

Also, be sure to check the ID of any health inspectors entering your restaurant. There have been instances where people claiming to be health inspectors lead managers to the back of restaurants and rob them.

Never give personal or business identification over the phone unless certain of the identity of the other person.

•If you receive a suspicious call, hang up and call local law enforcement.
•If you have questions about the legitimacy of an inspector, call your local health department.
•If you experience a scam, notify the Georgia Restaurant Association at 404.467.9000 or info@garestaurants.org.

In recent months there has been an influx of questions regarding how restaurants should handle disputes with their health inspections. Thankfully, Fulton Co. Commissioner Robb Pitts, has went above and beyond in answering the questions and concerns of our industry. Please see his letter, for a step by step guide in how to challenge inspection scores in Fulton County. Although his statement is specifically designed for Fulton Co. restaurants, the process for challenging scores is similar for all GA counties.

Please click here for the latest Food Recalls.

Hand washing is the single most effective means of preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses, which can cause infections and foodborne illness.

Food service workers can be a significant source of harmful microorganisms. Proper hand washing can be the most effective action workers can take to control direct and indirect contamination of food, utensils, and equipment.

When To Wash Hands
•Before starting to work with food, utensils, or equipment.
•During food preparation, as needed.
•When switching between raw foods and ready-to-eat foods.
•After handling soiled utensils and equipment.
•After coughing, sneezing, using a tissue, or using tobacco products.
•After eating and drinking.
•After touching bare human body parts.
•After handling animals.
•After using the toilet, wash hands at a handsink in the bathroom; and again when returning to work.

Correct Way to Wash Hands - Always Follow These Six Steps!
Before washing your hands, remove any jewelry and only wash your hands in sinks designated for hand washing. Do not wash your hands in utensil, food preparation, or service sinks.

1. Roll up sleeves and wet hands with warm water.
2. Using soap, not a hand sanitizer solution, work up a soapy lather that covers hands and forearms.
3. Rub hands together for at least 20 seconds; make sure to wash palms, back of hands, between fingers, and forearms. Need help determining the full 20 seconds? Edna Stigger of Fulton County Health Department recommends singing the Happy Birthday song.
4. Use a fingernail brush to clean under fingernails and between fingers.
5. Rinse hands and forearms in warm water. Keep fingertips pointed down while rinsing.
6. Dry hands with single-use paper towels or cloth roller towel. Turn off the faucet with paper towels to prevent re-contamination of hands.

If your Raw & Undercooked Food Disclosure does not meet very specific design criteria, then you could be out of compliance with the Georgia Food Code. According to section 290-5-14-.04 Food.(7)(e) Food Identity, Presentation, and On-Premises Labeling, the disclosure and reminder statements must be worded in:

• Legible Type
• All Capital Letters
• No Smaller Than 8pt Font
• Or, if on a menu board, no smaller than the smallest lettering used for a menu item.

Please be advised that we have recently received reports of health inspectors docking points for disclosures which are not up to code.

Click HERE to see a compliance menu. Provided by Ruth's Chris Steak House.

For more food code resources, as well as information on our Food Code Briefings, visit www.garestaurants.org/briefing.