PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susan Farace, SMF Training & Consulting, 410-687-1015

Susan Farace Earns Certified Professional of Food Safety Distinction

Essex, MD October 8, 2014 Susan Farace, owner of SMF Training & Consulting has earned a Certification of Registration as a Certified Professional of Food Safety (CP-FS) from the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). This prestigious certification demonstrates Susan’s continued growth as an expert in the food safety industry. NEHA describes the CP-FS certification as the “prestigious credential [that] integrates food microbiology, HACCP Principles and Regulatory Requirements”.

Susan, a Baltimore native, owns and operates SMF Training & Consulting in Essex, MD. She has been an instructor for the nationally recognized ServSafe® program for the past 5 years and has training thousands of students in the Baltimore / Washington area. The CP-FS certification demonstrates that Susan is qualified to complete third party food safety audits.

For more information about Susan or SMF Training & Consulting, please visit www.SueFarace.com or call Sue directly at 410-687-1015.

SMF Training & Consulting

617 K Stemmers Run Rd

Essex MD 21221

410-687-1015

www.suefarace.com

Okay, maybe I am a little behind on this post.  Since I am not the cook at Thanksgiving the cranberry sauce I am served normally comes from a can.  The other day while looking in the refrigerator for sides to go with my roasted chicken I found a bag of cranberries I purchased for Christmas and forgot to use.  The only thing I have ever used fresh cranberries for is table decorations, they are beautiful in a glass vase with a tea candle floating on top.  But I digress, I don’t want to waste the little berries, and I do love cranberry anything.  The wheels started moving and making my first batch of Cranberry Sauce began.

The ingredients that I choose came from what I had on hand as it was a cold snowy day in the east and I was not going out for more.  After searching a few recipes, most calling for sugar only and orange juice, I came up with what I would use from what I had on hand.

Here is my list of ingredients:

Cranberries float when fresh

• 1 bag cranberries (rinse in water and discard any berries that do not float)
• 1/4 cup clover honey
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• zest from one lemon
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 cup lingonberry juice (not concentrated but made to directions)

Put everything in a pot and bring to boil then turn down to a hard simmer.  Cooking time is about 10 minutes but refer to the pictures below and you will see when it is done.

After cooked place in a heat safe bowl and cool until able to be refrigerated.  Remember never place anything in the refrigerator over 70 degrees, it will increase the temperature of your unit and food inside.  You can use an ice bath too quickly cool down hot foods.

Just starting to cook, a lot of foaming and cranberries are popping open

Cooking almost done, notice foaming is almost gone

Sauce is finished, almost no foaming

If you have never heard of Lingonberry Juice you can purchase from IKEA, it is comparable to cranberries.  Being Scandinavian myself I have been enjoying Lingonberry Juice for a while, but now even Dr. Oz  has noticed the little red berries.

Lingonberry concentrate from IKEA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – November 3, 2013 – Reser’s Fine Foods, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon is voluntarily expanding its October 22, 2013 recall of refrigerated ready-to-eat products because they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria is an organism which can cause serious and sometime fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and individuals with weakened immune systems. Healthy people may suffer only short term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant woman.

The recalled refrigerated ready-to-eat products were distributed nationwide and Canada.

The product is sold in retail and food service establishments. The packages will be marked with a Use-by-Date or Best By Date and followed by a plant identifier code of 20. Products affected by this recall are listed below.

There are no confirmed illnesses associated with these products.

The recalled products were manufactured at the Topeka, KS salad manufacturing facility. No other Reser’s Fine Foods, Inc. manufacturing facilities are involved in this recall.

Consumers who purchased the product may take it back to the store for a refund or discard it.

For more information please contact Reser’s Fine Foods Consumer Hotline 1-888-257-7913 (8am-10pm EST) or visit the FDA website: www.fda.gov.

www.resers.com

We have been having a lot of fun and education over on our Facebook page.  Our series on the #4keys to #foodsafety is moving along and we are now talking cleaning and sanitizing.  Our Facebook contests have expanded to Twitter and the weekly prizes keep getting better and better.  THEN….

We are watching the news and they are talking about the Salmonella Recall for Chicken from Foster Farms.  They show a person washing chicken under a steady stream of running water then placing it in baking dish that is 2-3 feet away…the chicken dripping all over the counter and possibly the floor.  There was no mention of cooking the chicken to 165 using a food thermometer for checking temperature.

First off, please do not wash chicken. You take the risk of spreading any bacteria that is present to other surfaces in your kitchen.  If you open package and smell an odor return it.  Fresh chicken should not smell.  Second, get a food grade stemmed thermometer and make sure that your chicken is cooked to 165 degrees.  Salmonella will be killed at this temperature.  Third practice your #4keys, clean and sanitize all surfaces that could have come in contact with the raw chicken juices and wash hands before and after handling raw poultry.

Be food safe!!

Now back to the fun…check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MarylandFoodHandler for our most recent contest…

We are passionate about food safety.  In a continuing  discussion on the four keys to food safety we are covering in detail all the important topics we discuss in our training class.  We want you informed and educated on food safety.

Please visit our page at MarylandFoodHandler to learn more.

For more information on our classroom training please visit us at www.marylandfoodhandler.com

It is easy to enter, all you need to do is comment your favorite pizza toppings on the Contest Photo

Training your staff in the four keys to food safety is the best thing you can do for your business.  There are many reasons why it is so important to train all your staff in good food safety practices.  First and foremost you do not want to get anyone sick.  But, there are also financial concerns such as product loss and customer satisfaction to consider as well.  Let’s review some of the key points.

Good Personal Hygiene 

• Washing hands when changing tasks.
• Wearing clean uniforms.
• Changing and handling aprons appropriately.
• Keeping finger nails trimmed.
• Having hair restrained.
• Not working when having diarrhea or vomiting.

Avoiding Cross Contamination

• Properly storing food in the refrigerator and freezer
• Having a good work flow
• Using different colored cutting boards

Proper cleaning and sanitizing

• Using an effective sanitizer.
• Using a three bucket system for cleaning and sanitizing food contact surfaces.
• Cleaning and Sanitizing when required.
• Handling chemicals safely.

Avoiding time and temperature abuse

• Using correct and calibrated recording devises.
• Knowing correct cooking temperatures
• Understanding proper thawing, reheating, hot holding and cooling techniques.

When your staff understands proper procedures your customers will notice and so will your bottom line!  Contact Sue today at 410-382-4325 to arrange for a food handler training at your facility.

What does your image say? 

My daughter plays travel soccer and we are often out of town.  Stopping for a bite to eat when you know the risks of food-borne illness can be a little tricky.  Sometimes we pick a franchise because it is my experience that they have better food safety training programs in place.  But I do love the uniqueness of an independently owned restaurant.

However, before I choose a restaurant I am not familiar with I do a little investigation.  I first look at some of the social media sites like Four Square to check reviews.  Using Google on my phone I can usually see a picture of the building and yes I do judge a book by its cover in this case.  Is there a decent sign, does the entrance look inviting and is there a parking lot that looks safe?   When it all checks out and I arrive at my destination I enter the building and check the entrance.  Are the floors clean? Is there dirt and grime around equipment legs?  If I can see the staff in the kitchen are they wearing clean aprons? Is hair restrained?  Are the staff following basic food safety procedures?  If I answer no to any of these questions it is a good sign management doesn’t understand or care about food safety.  My first impression can be enough for me to turn around and go somewhere else.

Look at your business through the eyes of your target customer

If your target customer base is shrinking it may just be your image.  Here are some tips to getting your image back on track.

• Train all of your staff in good food safety practices.  Do not forget to train waitstaff and bussers as well.  Everyday.  This is a never ending job.  Pick a food safety topic and focus on that for a week.  Next week, pick something else.  Before you know it everyone will be demonstrating good practices.
• Check social media sites for your reputation.  Respond to all complaints in a respectful way and offer a resolution.  Never delete negative comments.
• Stand outside your facility. Does the outside represent what your brand is?  Will it attract your target customer?  I don’t know how many times I have seen beer signs displaying food specials for a sit down restaurant.   I see a beer sign I think bar or tavern – not a restaurant that I would take my family to. If you are a bar that sells food that is fine.  If you are restaurant that also sells beer – take them down!
• Clean up!  A dirty floor up front makes me wonder what the back of the house looks like.  And don’t forget about tidying up around the back door.  This is often a forgotten place filled with crates and debris.  I will drive around a building to check out the back.
• Nice looking and clean menus.  If you hand me a sticky or stained menu – I am out of there.
• Invite a secret diner to visit your restaurant during your peak times and slow times.  Yes your slow time as well.  Often staff get to relaxed and food quality goes down during slow times.
• Know your brand!  Send the same message across all social media, print media and in person.

If you need help with identifying your brand or repairing your image I can help.  Please contact me at 410-382-4325 for a free consultation.  

For training education we offer the food safety manager training and food handler training at our location or yours.  

How you like your pizza is a personal choice.

Thin crust, thick crust, crispy or chewy.  Do you like a sweet red sauce, little sauce, a lot of sauce or white sauce.   Toppings, don’t get me started there.  How do you feel about ham and pineapple pizza or crab pizza?  What about extra extra cheese, stuffed crust or square pizza?

Personally,  I like to make my own thick crust with sauce spread thinly or not at all. Fresh toppings are a must and the cheese should be fresh as well.

Let’s start the debate: New York, Chicago, California or somewhere in between…where do you stand?