Outbreak: A Food Professionals Worst Nightmare

http://www.information-overload.eu/outbreak-a-food-professionals-worst-nightmare/
by Malcolm J. Richmond

Running a restaurant is a challenging business, with managing menus, advertising, hiring and retaining help and teaching cooks the ins and outs of house specialty dishes. With all this to think about the importance of proper food hygiene can sometimes be overlooked, increasing the risks of food poisoning. In a town such as Melbourne, Australia where good food is part of the lifestyle, an outbreak of food poisoning could prove to be disastrous for any restaurant.

If you give your customers a great dining experience, you can bet that they will be back for more and that they will tell their friends, but if you mess up, word is certainly going to get around.

Every restaurant manager fears a food poisoning outbreak, but if you work in Melbourne, you may have more reason than most to be frightened of it.

At the very least a restaurant at the centre of a food poisoning outbreak will suffer a backlash of bad publicity. Citations, Fines are also a possibility and in the worst case, it may be shut down by the health inspectors. This is how important the prevention of an outbreak is to your restaurant.
Unfortunately the customers who are most likely to get sick from food poisoning are the elderly and the very young, and even if their parents or caretakers don’t get sick, they’ll steer their charges away from your establishment as a matter of course.

Several common causes of food poisoning are undercooked meats, spoiled dairy products, and food borne pathogens. Of these, food borne pathogens are perhaps the most dangerous. The two major culprits here are salmonella and e. coli. Salmonella is commonly found in poultry and eggs, and is killed by cooking them thoroughly; the problem is that anything that has had poultry or raw eggs on it can transmit it to another food item that you wouldn’t associate with the illness. E. coli occurs when food comes into contact with faeces, often as a result of poor hand washing.

There are many different ways to prevent a food poisoning outbreak. The first and most obvious thing that you need to think about is the fact that your staff need to be taught how to handle and prepare food. Strict regulations about hand washing and sanitation on the food preparation floor are things that you really need to drill home.

You will also find that good storage, where raw food is never permitted to come in contact with food that is ready to serve is something that all staff need to be aware of. It is important to establish routine to ensure that staff form good hygiene habits.

There are a number of potential causes for a food poisoning outbreak but most of these can be easily avoided. The majority of restaurateurs are knowledgeable when it comes to food safety but through consultation with an expert it is possible to further reduce the risks of an outbreak and help make certain that nothing is overlooked.

About the Author:
Author: Malcolm J. Richmond highlights the importance of effective food safety on his site where you can also read strategies to ensure that your staff are knowledgeable when it comes to food hygiene procedures.
www.agbsolutions.com.au