Whether it's the 4 Mile Restaurant & Pub, the Chez Michel Restaurant, the Heron Rock Bistro, the Club Bar & Grill, or any other great restaurant in Melbourne, food safety is of paramount importance. And no matter how great your business is, even simple food handling mistakes in the kitchen could seriously harm you--even possibly put you out of business.
The restaurant business is all about repeat customers and public perception of your establishment. Your reputation is everything. If you have even one lawsuit concerning food handling or food preparation mistakes in your kitchen, it can spell disaster--not just for legal defence fees, either. Your reputation could be seriously harmed, even ruined.
You have to take some basic steps to ensure food safety as well as making sure that all of your kitchen staff are well aware of the risks of food poisoning and other food borne illnesses. Additionally, you must be prepared for surprise health inspections, these can happen at any time. An employee who witnesses improper food handling can also be disastrous for your restaurant, since they may decide to tell others - especially should they lose their job.
There is more to all of this than just proper waste disposal and correctly storing food.
You must keep all food preparation areas clean always. This sounds easy but is often screwed up as well. Different cutting boards have to be use for cutting meat, vegetables and seafood. While some restaurants use stainless steel counters for this (they are very easy to clean), this tends to dull knives and can also give an off flavour to meats - harmless, but hardly desirable. Better than this are plastic cutting boards which are very sanitary compared to wooden cutting boards and are easy to clean as well. After each use, cutting boards must be washed very thoroughly. Bleach may be used - but be sure to rinse very well afterwards if you are using bleach to clean your cutting boards.
Make sure all utensils are washed after each meal preparation in which they are used.
To ensure that all harmful bacteria have been killed, meats have to be cooked to a minimum internal temperature - 69 degrees Celsius for pork and red meats, 74 degrees for seafood. Even if a customer orders a rare steak, it must be cooked to 69 degrees for at least 15 seconds to reduce the risk of food poisoning. If you have any meats which are not definitely fresh, then you must make sure to prepare them very well done.
Raw foods like sushi call for extreme caution in their preparation. Your kitchen must be perfectly clean, as must your staff. Disposable gloves and hair coverings are needed and the preparation area must be spotless. You should throw away any sushi which is not perfectly fresh - and you should be very certain of the quality of your supplies for sushi.
It's shocking how many kitchen workers do not constantly wash their hands with soap and water between preparing meals, even if they've touched raw meat. Kitchen workers need to wash their hands between every meal preparation, and really it's a good idea to do quick hand washings between different handlings (such as going from meat to vegetables) during a meal preparation.
By implementing a strictly sanitised food preparation system, you can be assured that your customers will be safe, your business will be safe from legal suits and bad publicity, and if there is a legal suit you will win because you'll have done the right things.
The restaurant business is all about repeat customers and public perception of your establishment. Your reputation is everything. If you have even one lawsuit concerning food handling or food preparation mistakes in your kitchen, it can spell disaster--not just for legal defence fees, either. Your reputation could be seriously harmed, even ruined.
You have to take some basic steps to ensure food safety as well as making sure that all of your kitchen staff are well aware of the risks of food poisoning and other food borne illnesses. Additionally, you must be prepared for surprise health inspections, these can happen at any time. An employee who witnesses improper food handling can also be disastrous for your restaurant, since they may decide to tell others - especially should they lose their job.
There is more to all of this than just proper waste disposal and correctly storing food.
You must keep all food preparation areas clean always. This sounds easy but is often screwed up as well. Different cutting boards have to be use for cutting meat, vegetables and seafood. While some restaurants use stainless steel counters for this (they are very easy to clean), this tends to dull knives and can also give an off flavour to meats - harmless, but hardly desirable. Better than this are plastic cutting boards which are very sanitary compared to wooden cutting boards and are easy to clean as well. After each use, cutting boards must be washed very thoroughly. Bleach may be used - but be sure to rinse very well afterwards if you are using bleach to clean your cutting boards.
Make sure all utensils are washed after each meal preparation in which they are used.
To ensure that all harmful bacteria have been killed, meats have to be cooked to a minimum internal temperature - 69 degrees Celsius for pork and red meats, 74 degrees for seafood. Even if a customer orders a rare steak, it must be cooked to 69 degrees for at least 15 seconds to reduce the risk of food poisoning. If you have any meats which are not definitely fresh, then you must make sure to prepare them very well done.
Raw foods like sushi call for extreme caution in their preparation. Your kitchen must be perfectly clean, as must your staff. Disposable gloves and hair coverings are needed and the preparation area must be spotless. You should throw away any sushi which is not perfectly fresh - and you should be very certain of the quality of your supplies for sushi.
It's shocking how many kitchen workers do not constantly wash their hands with soap and water between preparing meals, even if they've touched raw meat. Kitchen workers need to wash their hands between every meal preparation, and really it's a good idea to do quick hand washings between different handlings (such as going from meat to vegetables) during a meal preparation.
By implementing a strictly sanitised food preparation system, you can be assured that your customers will be safe, your business will be safe from legal suits and bad publicity, and if there is a legal suit you will win because you'll have done the right things.
About the Author:
Author: Malcolm J. Richmond is instructing Food Safety Programs that enable business managers and their staff to be kept abreast on HACCP Food Safety.
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