A restaurant closing article caught my attention recently. It happened in a neighboring state and involved a well-known eatery in a major city. The article described the results of an inspection after several probable and three confirmed Salmonella cases were associated with consumption of food from that restaurant in June. One of the Salmonella outbreak victims was reportedly hospitalized.
A health department spokeswoman stated that the restaurant was closed and cited for four high-priority violations, including holding food at improper temperatures, roaches and rodent activity. The ill customers are recovering. No mention has been made of insurance payments, legal proceedings or lawsuits, or other negative press. However, when the restaurant reopened in late August, it was again re-inspected by the Board of Health who found no high-priority violations; however, the inspection report indicated that a follow-up inspection was required within 30 days after four intermediate and five basic food violations were cited.
So what went wrong for this restaurant owner? The facility is in a state that requires a certified food safety manager be in the kitchen whenever the restaurant is operating. What was that certified food safety manager doing? Was food safety education not being used correctly?
Well, we can all agree that there was probably much more involved in the unfortunate restaurant than was reported. There always is. Still the bottom line is that customers got sick and went to the hospital. The restaurant got bad press in the paper and on TV. When customers hear about a restaurant causing a foodborne illness, it is hard to keep the doors open. No one wants to eat in that restaurant.
What we know: The restaurant was closed. There was a Board of Health investigation. The restaurant had to be totally cleaned and all food items tossed – total loss to the owner. All employees had to be retrained so the Board of Health would re-inspect. Probably some employees were fired and new ones hired and trained. The newspaper also reported the results of the re-inspection and 30-day next inspection; all not good for trying to rebuild customer trust.
What we expect: Insurance premiums will increase. There will be lawsuits. The restaurant will struggle to regain customers and sales and will eventually close.
Did this have to happen? No, it did not.
The cost of recovery is overwhelming after a foodborne illness outbreak. This is the result of taking shortcuts, doing incomplete follow-up, not paying for a professional pest control service, thinking the other employees will take care of cleaning and a million other excuses. Managers and owners must take responsibility for the cleanliness and food safety in their foodservice establishments. It is everyone’s job to ensure the restaurant is clean and food is safe. We should never have our restaurant’s name in the newspaper with a bad review or a foodborne illness report.
But it happens. So what is a restaurant to do? If your restaurant receives a call from a customer that she or he is ill after eating in your location, take the call seriously. Take the caller’s in- formation, ask what day she/he ate at the restaurant, the time and the menu items ordered and eaten. Then ask her/him to visit their physician. If possible, have samples of the exact menu items, from the day the customer was eating at the restaurant, pulled and put into containers for testing. If there is a foodborne illness, the physician will contact the restaurant and then your insurance company can get involved.
This is one way to handle these calls. Follow the procedures that your insurance company requires and use the forms that they give you to use. It’s also important to go back over all kitchen preparation steps with the food in question – to be sure all times, temperatures, handling, cooking and storage processes were correctly followed.
Be sure to document if any were incorrect – do not try to cover up any errors. It’s too late if a foodborne illness has been reported and confirmed. Now you have to overcome and correct.
The cost of prevention is always more affordable. If we learn about food safety and make sure we are doing the right things with correct handling, cooking, serving and storing of food products in our operations, we can control the outcome. ServSafe® is the food safety certification program for managers developed by the NRA and offered through the Georgia Restaurant Association. The program combines the latest FDA Food Code, food safety research and years of sanitation training experience into either a classroom or online format.
Managers learn to implement essential food safety practices and create a culture of food safety in their own operations. All class content and materials are based on actual job tasks identified by foodservice industry experts from across the hospitality industry.
ServSafe® was the first certification program for the industry and continues to be the leader. This affordable certification program is your first step to prevention. You still must implement what you learn in the program in your operation with your employees.
Regular self-inspections and audits of your operations by consultants are also ways to ensure you are taking preventive steps to help minimize future costs and maximize returns on your investments in your customers. Use checklists, logs and other tools to train employees and systemize operations. These are important for consistency and follow-up on standards of operations and performance.
And speaking about standards of performance, do you have them for your restaurant? If not, how do we know what excellence and quality is in the operation? Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) also detail cleanliness and sanitation levels, as well as food temperatures, cooking temperatures and even dish machine temperatures.
As the old adage says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Recovery is expensive; prevention is much more affordable and should be based on solid ServSafe® education content. Use tools and consultants smartly, and you will set up your restaurant for success.
Nancy Caldarola, Ph.D., RD, is a consultant to the hospitality industry and an active GRA member. Her group, Concept Associates Inc., offers ServSafe® and ManageFirst® classes as well as operations improvement projects, training programs, food safety audits, HACCP, menu engineering and nutritional analysis, and profitability improvement consulting. Visit www. conceptassociates.org for more information and to register for ServSafe classes.
