If you have cooked in or run a restaurant in Melbourne, you know that you are playing to a tough crowd! Not only does the city have great restaurants serving all types of food at a range of prices, but you will also find that it is a town with a long memory.
If customers are provided with the right combination of food and atmosphere they'll come back, possibly with friends in tow. The rumour mill also works for negative experiences however so if customers find themselves with food poisoning as a result of food from your establishment they are very unlikely to return.
When you are looking at a food poisoning outbreak, you are looking at your restaurant getting a lot of publicity that it doesn't need. You'll find that you may be risking a citation or a warning at best, and complete shut-down at worst. This is how important adequate hygiene 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.
While it's worthwhile to assume that everyone who works in the kitchen is cognizant of food safety, the reality is that very few are. Cooks come and go, wait staff come and go, and it's a high traffic area. Make sure that you crack down hard on food safety violations, make sure that every work station is washed down with bleach water at the close of the day (bacteria grow most readily when left alone), and be ruthless about sanitation standards.
Lack of adequate food segregation is another issue that needs to be tackled. Make sure that raw food never comes in contact with a dish ready to go out to the dining space; likewise, make sure that you take food out of the refrigeration just before it will be used; letting food sit on a counter top for half an hour during the dinner rush is a recipe for disaster.
The truth of the matter is that there is a multitude of different ways that a food poisoning outbreak can occur, but you don't need to live in fear. Most restaurant managers aren't experts in food safety, which is why they will enlist the services of a good food safety expert before anything goes wrong. If you want to make sure that nothing gets overlooked in the food safety of your restaurant, talk to an expert. If you are cooking in Melbourne, you already know that you are playing to a tough crowd, so don't make it any harder than it has to be!
If customers are provided with the right combination of food and atmosphere they'll come back, possibly with friends in tow. The rumour mill also works for negative experiences however so if customers find themselves with food poisoning as a result of food from your establishment they are very unlikely to return.
When you are looking at a food poisoning outbreak, you are looking at your restaurant getting a lot of publicity that it doesn't need. You'll find that you may be risking a citation or a warning at best, and complete shut-down at worst. This is how important adequate hygiene 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.
While it's worthwhile to assume that everyone who works in the kitchen is cognizant of food safety, the reality is that very few are. Cooks come and go, wait staff come and go, and it's a high traffic area. Make sure that you crack down hard on food safety violations, make sure that every work station is washed down with bleach water at the close of the day (bacteria grow most readily when left alone), and be ruthless about sanitation standards.
Lack of adequate food segregation is another issue that needs to be tackled. Make sure that raw food never comes in contact with a dish ready to go out to the dining space; likewise, make sure that you take food out of the refrigeration just before it will be used; letting food sit on a counter top for half an hour during the dinner rush is a recipe for disaster.
The truth of the matter is that there is a multitude of different ways that a food poisoning outbreak can occur, but you don't need to live in fear. Most restaurant managers aren't experts in food safety, which is why they will enlist the services of a good food safety expert before anything goes wrong. If you want to make sure that nothing gets overlooked in the food safety of your restaurant, talk to an expert. If you are cooking in Melbourne, you already know that you are playing to a tough crowd, so don't make it any harder than it has to be!
About the Author:
Author: Malcolm J. Richmond underlines the value of quality food safety on his website where you can also find tips to make certain that your staff are knowledgeable when it comes to food hygiene procedures.
No comments:
Post a Comment