Foodservice Safety

  We assume the food we are served is safe. Yet foodborne illnesses have become front-page news. One of the most noteworthy incidents is the Jack-in-the-Box outbreak in 1993, when four children died after eating contaminated hamburgers. Less lethal, but more widespread, potato salad produced by Iwans Deli & Catering, Orland Park, IL, and sold over a June 1998 weekend sickened an estimated 4,000 to 6,500 persons with enterotoxigenic E. coli.

  Whether we like it or not, the topic of food safety is here to stay. And the issue looms particularly large for the foodservice industry. By 2010, says the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association (NRA) in its report entitled "The Restaurant Industry 2010, the Road Ahead," close to 54% of the food dollar, or $577 billion, will be spent on meals eaten or prepared away from home.

  While the trend toward eating away from home is good news to the foodservice industry, it nevertheless is a double-edged sword. In the event of a foodborne illness, the number of people affected could be quite large. For the operator, an outbreak could become a public-relations nightmare severe enough to put a company out of business, as the owners of Iwans know all too well.

  Even more is at stake if the injured parties sue, which happens with increasing frequency. If the outbreak is large enough, the operator's name is splashed across the headlines for the initial event, and then again with subsequent litigation.

  State and local health authorities typically regulate foodservice establishments, although the FDA publishes the Model Food Code, which gives recommendations for protecting the food offered to consumers. These recommendations are developed by representatives at the Conference for Food Protection, which is attended by representatives from government regulatory agencies, the food industry, academia and consumer organizations. The Model Food Code is updated periodically to address emerging food-safety issues. The latest version was issued in 1999 and the FDA, together with groups such as the NRA, will next revise the recommendations in 2001.

  The foodservice industry relies on various programs to help lessen the likelihood of a foodborne illness. Such programs generally encompass two areas - the unit level and the product level. Restaurateurs, for example, should have a working program in place that focuses on handling food safely at all levels in the operation.

  Any food-safety program must also be integrated with suppliers, states Chet England, director of quality assurance and food safety programs for Burger King, Miami. "We don't want pathogens coming into the restaurant in the first place," he emphasizes, adding that suppliers shouldn't assume an operator will cook out any pathogens.

  "In the same vein," continues England, "an operator should never assume that raw food supplies are pathogen-free." These precautions may seem self evident, yet to maintain vigilance is harder than it seems, as evidenced by the Jack-in-the-Box incident, for which Vons Meat, a southern California supplier, was the purveyor.

  If pathogens don't come into a restaurant in the first place, employees won't inadvertently contaminate other foods with them. Once present, pathogens are very difficult to get rid of in the foodservice environment. "Suppliers and operators must depend on each other to assure food safety," maintains England.

  "Food-safety management requires science, prevention and planning," states Tom Dombrowski, vice president of The Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis. "Know your hazards. A manufacturer can't inspect out defects, such as pathogens." Rather, the manufacturer must design in quality - and have a process design that eliminates pathogens. "And," advises Dombrowski, "plan for the unexpected."

  The manufacturer needs to establish the critical control points - the places where things can go wrong. Once these points are identified, the manufacturer can then work to prevent, eliminate or reduce the risks. This is the theory behind Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, or HACCP, programs. "HACCP's prevention approach is the most effective method to manage food safety," says Dombrowski.

  HACCP, says England, is practically rocket science - the program's roots are tied to the space program, after all. NASA wanted to make sure the food the astronauts ate in space was as safe as possible, says Vicki Kloeris of NASA's Johnson Space Center. HACCP identified every point along the way where food contamination could occur - from growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, and distribution to the final destination, the space vehicle. The process worked well, and was eventually adopted by food manufacturers, as well as incorporated into FDA and USDA programs.

  For a different sort of safeguard, more and more foodservice operators are buying food from processors that provide a certificate of insurance. The insurance provides product liability coverage for the food processor - if something goes wrong, and the end user files a claim against the processor, the processor has the ability to make good on the claim.

  An insurance underwriter may ask for several things during the underwriting process. For instance, it may require a processor to send out samples for pathogen, heavy-metal and pesticide-residue testing for all stages from the farm through to processing. The underwriter may also require that a manufacturer have a written and implemented HACCP plan.

  What about food safety on the operator side? "HACCP for restaurants and foodservice is increasingly becoming the norm," says England. "It is the regulatory future for health inspections." Some states, such as Florida, are beginning to use HACCP as a basis for all health department inspections, he says.

  HACCP certainly isn't a bad idea for foodservice. Like the plans in manufacturing plants, HACCP for restaurants identifies the critical control points. It's flexible, says England, and can be tailored to the specific needs of the operation.

  What inspectors look at is the plan itself, along with operating procedures and documentation to demonstrate the plan is working. The FDA's Model Food Code includes a section on writing a HACCP plan, and is a good jumping-off point.

  The foodservice operator must analyze its operation for inherent product hazards and establish a set of control points and limits to prevent, eliminate or reduce those hazards. The first step in writing a program is to look at the processes involved in producing the food, including receiving, storage, preparation, production, cooking, holding, reheating and serving.

  "In a foodservice environment," states England, "menus and processes change daily, and also according to the time of day. The foods served at breakfast are not the same as lunch and dinner." Even in a limited-menu operation, such as many fast-food restaurants, there are typically over 200 food and packaging items to contend with. That number increases dramatically as menus become larger, and also increases exponentially if the menu rotates on a daily basis.

  Before writing a foodservice HACCP plan, the operator should analyze the menu and group menu items together. Some items, such as salad croutons, are considered to be fairly inert, although contamination can occur. Fruits and vegetables such as alfalfa sprouts, lettuce and berries have been found to harbor pathogenic organisms, and unpasteurized juices can present a danger. Eggs and meat, especially hamburger and chicken, must be handled with great care. The raw meat must be handled in such a way that ready-to-eat foods such as tomatoes come in direct contact only after the meat is cooked. This separation helps eliminate cross-contamination.

  The plan should then identify areas of potential contamination and the critical control points where effective corrective action can be implemented. For instance, if a recipe calls for fresh fish, the fish would need to be skinned and gutted, an operation that could introduce pathogens or other toxins into the operation, making it much easier for employees to inadvertently contaminate other foods. However, a high-quality final product could also be produced using quick-frozen fish that's already skinned, gutted and deboned. Frozen product might be somewhat more costly than fresh, but would still likely fall within budget constraints, and would also present fewer potential contamination problems.

  Critical limits, such as the receiving temperature, should also be written into product specifications. For example, the Levy Organization, a restaurant company in Chicago, takes the temperature of product as it is being delivered. Not only do the organization's receiving stewards check the temperature, but they also check the product visually for spoilage. If the product is not at the proper temperature or exhibits spoilage, it is rejected, says Bill Post, president of the company.

  Standards and criteria for the critical limits should be simple and measurable. This allows the manager to monitor the critical control points and take corrective actions when needed.

  Another critical juncture, in addition to receiving conditions, is storing the food properly after receipt or handling. Also important, says England, is handwashing. "In some ways, improper handwashing may be a more serious real threat to the operator than undercooking food," he says. "It is absolutely critical to train employees properly in personal hygiene - handwashing and health - and rigorously manage the performance of the employees in this area. Hand sanitation is vitally important."

  HACCP purists, notes England, do not consider handwashing a critical control point. However, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, the largest number of food-handling errors in restaurants and foodservice environments are hygiene issues, he says. Pathogens can be transmitted from unclean hands to food, usually by an infected food preparer who didn't wash their hands properly, or from contaminated foods to hands, and then to uncontaminated foods that might be served raw. Gloves, if contaminated, do not eliminate the problem, and often provide a false sense of security.

  Yet another critical control point is cleaning and sanitizing the preparation area and equipment after each use and before starting preparation of another food to prevent cross-contamination. Raw meats and their juices or unwashed product should not be combined with food that is ready to serve.

  Finally, when incorporating HACCP, records need to be maintained to demonstrate that corrective actions have been taken and that the system is working. For example, disposing of fresh-cut lemons is the corrective action that must be taken after an employee handles them without handwashing after returning from the bathroom. The corrective action for an improperly cooled cooked item may be a shorter serving time or rethermalization. The documentation in both cases should record any action taken and its motivation.

  A well-designed system should focus on the most significant records. Documentation does not come naturally, points out England, and furthermore, record-keeping is not generally high on a manager's list of priorities. Foodservice managers are more concerned with producing and serving food on a timely basis in a chaotic, yet controlled, environment. So whatever the design of the program, it must be simple and easy to implement, stresses England. And, it must be built into the operating procedures.

  Another major challenge to restaurateurs is the labor force. The labor market is very tight, and many operators are hiring anyone who walks in and applies for a job. "In manufacturing," says England, "someone may retire after 55 years with the company. In foodservice, sometimes if you get 55 days, you're lucky."

  Training in the proper food-safety techniques is paramount for all new employees, and is particularly vital for emplyess from areas of the world where sanitation standards are very different from those in this country. These employees many times need to be taught the basics, such as how to wash their hands properly.

  The tight labor market for all segments of the foodservice industry will continue, predicts the NRA. To compensate, operators may depend more frequently on food manufacturers to prepare a great deal of product. Therefore, product designers must be aware of food-safety issues at the manufacturing level and at the end-user level. This not only brings a whole new element to the issue of foodservice safety, but also helps further ensure and maintain a safe food supply.

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