Opening a restaurant can be stressful and rewarding at the same time. Staffing, menu specials, purchasing are all going to be part of your day-to-day concerns. To be successful you will also need to make food safety and regulatory compliance part of your operation. Before you serve your first guest you will need to convince the local and at times, state, and federal health authorities that you know how to manage the risks associated with your particular operation. There are 6 keys you’ll need to ensure a passing inspection score.
Key 1: Know Your Jurisdiction
Constructing a new restaurant is different from taking over the operations of an existing facility. An established restaurant will likely only have to deal with the local health inspector once prior to opening. New construction or significant changes to an existing facility will require plan review, and permitting by your local health authority and the city development inspectors. Mixed-type business could fall under multiple public health jurisdictions. Some restaurants for example, directly import Seafood, or have Wholesale sidelines which can put them under State, FDA and USDA Jurisdiction as well.
Inspection intervals are important to note also. County and state health inspections occur a minimum of once per year, the Federal agencies use a risk-based approach. FDA intervals are one, three and five years apart, dependent on risk. If your activities fall under USDA FSIS jurisdiction, you will need an inspector onsite every production day.
Key 2: Identify Compliance Resources and Requirements
Avoid fines and delays by knowing what your health authority is looking for. In Portland, Oregon, Multnomah County is responsible for restaurant inspections, they have resources online here: https://multco.us/services/restaurants. Your local or health department should have a list of all the current food code regulations which apply to your business on their website. Your health authority should also have a guidance documents, which reflect the agency’s thinking on the regulations and contain practical advice.
Key 3: Know Your Critical Control Points
Most restaurants don’t need a formal HACCP plan but they do need to understand and implement the HACCP concept of the critical control point. A critical control point (CCP) is defined as a step which control can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level. The most common CCPs you see as a restaurateur relate to finished cooking temperatures, food holding temperatures, and chilling times.
It’s important to make sure all your employees know the CCPs for your menu it is also important to have them actively track the time it takes for bulk foods to cool. Set your employees up for success by engineering their space for food safety. Put up a poster with meat cooking temperatures near the grill and keep permanent markers post-it notes near your prep table. Above all, routinely discuss CCP related procedures with your staff because there will be no time for review the day of a surprise inspection.
Key 4: Hire Smart
Hire employees who have a food-handlers training certificate and can who demonstrate proficiency in a variety of kitchen tasks. Short staffing is a common occurrence, you’ll need to make sure your substitute cooks and waitstaff have the same level of food safety awareness as your regular staff. Finally, be sure to keep accurate notes regarding employee training, and ensure that the training address’ the food safety hazards unique to your operation.
Key 5: Monitor Employee Health and Hygiene
Outbreaks of Norovirus, Hepatitis-A, Salmonella, and others can emerge as a result of having unsanitary conditions or unhygienic practices. According to the CDC, sick food handlers specifically caused 53 percent of the foodborne norovirus outbreaks by contaminating food and may have contributed to another 29 percent of the outbreaks. Foodborne Illness’ are highly contagious, keep sick workers at home!
Many times, employees will not show signs of illness while they may be carriers and shedders of foodborne illness, it is for this reason employee break areas need to be separate from the kitchen and coolers. You will need to monitor hand washing behaviors when they return from the bathroom, or break areas. When you observe deviant handwashing practices, have the employee make an on-the-spot correction so they don’t develop bad habits that could potentially earn you an unwanted citation or worse.
Key 6: Prioritize Sanitation
Create a cleaning schedule for your entire facility. Prioritize high risk areas by assigning them a short cleaning interval. Bathrooms should be cleaned at least once, daily, and monitored at a frequency appropriate for the volume of customers you have. QSRs and fast casual formats should consider hourly bathroom inspections and at least 2 cleaning intervals per business day.
It is important not to neglect other areas: ice machines, coolers, the spaces between your appliances and walls, even the utensil drawers should be fair game for your cleaning schedule!
Consider making your cleaning schedule into a monthly or weekly chart with day, times and responsibilities assigned to each employee. Place the chart in the break area or on the door to the employee restroom so it stays at the forefront of your staffs’ priorities. Have staff members sign off on the chart with their initials after each job is completed.
Conclusion
Now that you know the 6 keys to passing your first health inspection—like a boss, it’s up to your employees to follow these principals, and up to you to enforce them. A way to enforce your food safety process’ is to conduct a surprise inspection yourself, or with the assistance of a food safety professional.
The food safety and regulatory compliance professionals at Quality and Compliance Solutions LLC can get your food business on track. We specialize in helping small firms take the leap from successful restaurant, to FDA or USDA licensed processor. Please contact us with any questions and visit our website at www.qandcs.com.