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How would you respond to a situation where one of your cooks just used a knife to cut raw chicken, then used that same knife to cut cooked beef? Accidents like this example can occur in restaurant kitchens every day. As a business owner, whether you are the head chef or running things from the front of the house, you need the right restaurant food safety practices in place.
These practices ensure the risks of kitchen accidents and food safety issues are reduced. In the past, this meant you or the person you delegated authority to had to walk through the restaurant and visually monitor what employees were doing.
If you noticed an employee doing something that could result in an accident or that would cross-contaminate food, you had to stop them and retrain them. Then you had to keep an eye on them to verify they were following the right practices. This one employee could distract you from monitoring other areas of your restaurant.
With your focus diverted, it could be easy to miss taking food temperatures, verify walk-in and freezer temperatures, and remember to do other vital tasks to ensure food safety. Plus, there are the checks to confirm equipment is in proper working order, and that any dishes, utensils, knives, cutting boards, and so on are being properly washed and sanitized.
Even if you delegate monitoring tasks to others, you have to trust they will remember to do their part. Fortunately, you do not have to worry about this anymore, thanks to new technologies and other equipment that make things much easier for you and your employees.
Equipment and devices that feature “Internet of Things” (IoT) connectivity, wireless HACCP-compliance temperature sensors, data management apps, and video cameras have put your restaurant in the palm of your hand. These advances also make it easier to identify potential problems before they occur, using predictive analysis of collected data.
You can use your smartphone or tablet to check cooler and freezer temperatures. You have access to cooked food records, warming tray temperatures, cooling tray temperatures, and more. You could use video cameras to monitor your kitchen, even when you are not there to ensure employees are following safe food handling practices.
As you can imagine, staying on top of temperature record logs, monitoring, and other such practices you have put in place is much easier with technology solutions. Not to mention, it frees up your time to spend more time training your employees on the importance of food safety and maintaining the quality of your brand.
Best of all, if you have multiple restaurant locations, you can easily monitor each one, all using the same technologies and app. Should a piece of equipment fail and not be cooling or heating correctly, you will know right away, thanks to 24/7 monitoring and alerts.
To learn more about HACCP-compliance equipment for your restaurant, convenience store, deli, food truck, or other food industry business operation, please feel free to contact ComplianceMate at 678.526.4628 today and request your free demo!
