How often do you check your cold hold and hot hold temperatures? In food service we must be careful to maintain proper temperatures on temperature control for safety foods (TCS), sometimes referred to potentially hazardous foods (PHF’s). Temperature control will control the growth of pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms that could cause spoilage. Regulation Remember, […]
Monitoring cold and hot holding temperatures Read Post »
Have you ever noticed your bartender doing some unsafe practices when making your drink and thought, “It’s cool the alcohol will kill it!”. You may be onto something when it comes to bacteria. Certain amounts of alcohol can kill the bad stuff in our gut! But wait, there is something you should know. Although wine
Can your beverage make you sick? Read Post »
Easter is almost here! What a fun time coloring and decorating hard-boiled eggs with friends and family. But have you ever wondered about how to safely handle your hard-boiled eggs? Below are some of the top questions I get asked during the ServSafe Manager Training. How can eggs make you sick? The pathogen of concern
Easter Time Egg Questions Read Post »
Raw sewage is flowing into our streams and rivers and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. Where is this sewage coming from? A key source is an antiquated storm water and sewage system for Baltimore City. In 2002 the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) sued Baltimore City and an original consent degree to correct overflow
Baltimore City sewage and the Chesapeake Bay watershed Read Post »
When a facility has a functioning Food Safety Management System (FSMS), team members perform better, and customers will receive a consistent message when visiting. In Maryland a HACCP plan is required for every moderate and high priority facility when they start up. Often, they become forgotten until a health inspector asks to review it. A
Retail: Is your food safety management system healthy? Read Post »
Social media can be an excellent source to share information. But when bad information is shared it can unfairly harm a business’s reputation. I often see posts where someone claims that they became sick or got food poisoning from a restaurant. The problem is most often you did not get sick from the last thing
You think the last place you ate made you sick? Here is what to do. Read Post »
Do you use time as a control? Are you wondering what that means? Here are some examples of when my clients have successfully used time as a control on TCS foods; Breading mixes that are in almost constant use. You may be breading items like fish or chicken every 15-30 minutes and refrigerating the breading isn’t
Time as a control for food safety. Read Post »
Did you know that there is no federal regulation that for zero tolerance of Salmonella and Campylobacter on the chicken you purchase? That is right, your chicken could and probably is swimming in potentially harmful bacteria. There is an initiative to reduce the amounts that are present but feds are not considering a zero tolerance
Washing your chicken is dangerous Read Post »
There are 4 common methods of thawing food. You can place in the refrigerator, in the microwave but you must cook the food immediately after, and as part of the cooking process, or under running water When you are thawing foods under running water you need to follow these simple rules to protect the
Food Safety Tip: Thawing TCS (aka Potentially Hazardous Food) Read Post »
Cold holding is an integral part of food safety. Holding food at incorrect temperatures is one on the top 5 reasons there was an outbreak in this county. Monitoring Depending on your jurisdiction you may not be required to log the temperature more than once or twice a day and often there are no
Food Safety Tip Tuesday: Cold Holding in a refrigerator Read Post »
