Food Safety
There are at least 5.4 million cases of gastroenteritis food poisoning caused by contaminated food each year in Australia (OzFoodNet), often, the food that makes us sick looks, smells and tastes normal, however, most food poisoning is easy to prevent.
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/foodsafetymatters
While working as a Food and Beverage Manager in a large and very well known hotel on the Gold Coast, it was my daily duty to inspect the buffet table with the chef and comment on layout, taste, texture, and functionality of the buffet. We prided ourselves on the Seafood in our restaurant and we established a niche market with new and interesting products.
On one occasion we were inspecting the prawns and to my shock and horror they were right off the deep end, beyond ripe, what horrified me the most was not the fact that they were off, but that they had passed so many check points and had still made it to the Buffet. I retraced the steps that had brought the prawns to the buffet, to identify a culprit, but found that it was not one step but a combination of circumstances that had led to the deterioration of the seafood.
It was then that I became interested in HACCP. This food safety protocol was developed out of the space program through the 1960’s by Howard Baumar the vice president of Pillsbury in consultation with NASA.
Currently HACCP is not a compulsory program that needs to be developed in Restaurants, as it is usually adapted in food processing, however if we look at the principles the method can and should be, adapted for your restaurant.
HACCP is the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point protocol. The HACCP model puts you in control of food safety from the point that product enters your restaurant, until it is served. It also helps your staff understand their role in proper food handling and preparation.
There are Seven Key Steps:
- Hazard analysis . Work out what the hazards are. 'Hazards' are often things that processors cannot control, and an integrated HACCP system means that producers, suppliers and transporters also use QA to eliminate or reduce the risks before processing.
- Identify the critical control points. These are the steps where the really important things can go wrong, so they are critical to eliminating the hazards. Common critical control points are sanitation and temperature control.
- Set the 'critical limits' for each critical control point. Again, these vary from business to business but examples could be chiller temperature or cooking temperature. If you go over (or under) the critical limit, a problem could be slipping through.
- Monitor the critical control points. See whether you are meeting the targets and track the results. You can see instantly if things go wrong.
- Establish corrective actions. These are the things you do when the monitoring shows there's a problem.
- Verify that your HACCP system is working correctly. It all very well having this terrific system but you have to check that it's actually doing what you want it to do. You might use microbiological testing, for example, to check that the bug counts are what you aimed for.
- Set up records. You need records so people know what to do, check if your results are improving and for keep these records for auditing. It's not hard but it's thorough. It saves you trying to keep it all in your head and it lets the auditors check that you do what you say you do.
Once you have set up these systems USE them, Not only will they protect the customer but they have every possibility of protecting you, as well. I believe that a restaurant with such a system in place would justify themselves in a reduction of insurance premiums, as you can show that you are proactive in preventing food born hazards.
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