Training

[lynne]

How do you all train for safety and sanitation factors in the workplace? Is it a big bang all in one day? (done in a lot of educational food service ops); is it scattered throughout? do your folks go through one "training session" before starting in the kitchen? or do you cross your fingers and hope people know the information before stepping foot in the kitchen?

How many kitchen employees are required to have a food handler's certificate?

I'm currently working on a program for a friend that was a cross your fingers kind of person--and she discovered common sense does not prevail among her college students. When I look back on all my food-related jobs, I never had any training or information given to me back in my pre-sanitation 101 days.

So, how do you handle it?

[Katherine]

One thing I've found is that there's no such thing as common sense--what makes perfect sense to one person makes none at all to someone else. That's why we need to have training to understand why the codes, etc. are written as they are. I worked in a kitchen where the owner's father was the chef. His sanitary practices were 40 years out of date. We were really lucky, you couldn't tell either of them anything about it.

[lynne]

It can be scary to see what some of those practices are. I worked at a restaurant on the Harbor in Baltimore for a very (very) short period of time. I honestly believe that the only reason the restaurant stayed in business was that it relied 100% on the tourist trade.

Not counting the numerous rats and roaches everywhere (and nothing being done to counteract them) there was the raw and cooked chicken served together; raw food and cooked food cut on the same boards, shrimp would sit out for hours before being anybody would think about refrigerating them...The list goes on. It was supposed to be the job to have while in school--NOT!!The only job I ever quit without notice. I figured if I couldn't/wouldn't eat it, there was no way I was going to serve it! I actually got reamed out for refrigerating raw chicken instead of letting it sit out 2 hours before opening!

How would you as an employee react to this? How long would you put up with it.

Katherine, you said it was a problem--how do you deal with it in your kitchen?

[cape chef]

In my state of Ct. It is the law that at least one employee per shift be certifide in applied food service sanitation ( serve safe) I have a staff of 22 8 are utility staff and the rest are cooks and two sous chefs. A number of years ago the state started offering the serve safe program. Before it was mandatory. I first took it in 1990 and let me tell you it opened my eyes.I always thought I was on the ball when it came to proper food handling, But the class at that time ten weeks 3 hours once a week really showed me what I needed to do and practice in my kitchen. I have since sent almost all my staff through serve safe at a local community collage and it has been a huge benifit. I would recommend that all concerned contact there local inspector ( I know) and get some info on classes. also Haacp is another great program and any venders who have gone throgh this program should have our support

[layjo]

Yeah same thing here. At least one employee on a shift must have foodhandler's sanitation certification renewed every two years with refresher classes and acceptable percentage on exam. In our kitchen we have various posters and info posted on walls near work stations and the chefs are good about giving feedback to the cooks about correcting potential situations. And in regular meetings we discuss and pinpoint different happenings and possible senarios.

[lynne]

Layjo,

Have you always cooked in Texas? Did you have a problem getting the State of Texas to accept an outside food handlers certificate? I had a MD and Serv-Safe yet they insisted I sit through the whole 2 day Texas class; not just the refresher course. The major difference I see is MD had 50 pages deally with crabs and in Texas they had 50 pages on smoking pits and how to "sanitize" pecans. (NC concentrated on BBQ and peaches) What does your state focus on besides the commonalities we all share?

Are all states 2 years or do some have longer?


[This message has been edited by lynne (edited 10-28-2000).]

[layjo]

Yeah, I have worked in Houston, Texas all my life. I took a Servesafe related coarse in culinary school. But we are required to take the local certification for The City Houston Health and Human Services. There is also one for the County that i live in, they accept certification from the surrounding areas of Texas I belive, but Houston does not accept anyone elses but their own certification. Well alot of new things and concerns come about every year. They disscus the facts about the basics of sanitation and tempuature control, storage procedures, newly revised things, and policies to look for in the comming months or within the next year...things like HACCP requirements. "Sanitize Pecans" hum...I can see something different...but like i mentioned alot of new policies are comming into affect as outbreaks and findings come about. I'm up for renewal next summer.

[Chef David Simpson]

I think Texas has the highest amounts of outbreak cases in the US. This is probibly why their so strict.