7 ways to avoid food safety violations

Food safety is a top concern in food truckss, but as employees get less and less training and operators begin to cut corners, food safety often becomes overlooked in the day-to-day operations.

Heath inspections are done at the city, county or state levels depending on jurisdictions and can result in a food truck closing for a short time while they correct infractions.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the greatest causes of illnesses in foodservice stem from sick workers, poor hand hygiene and lack of certifications.

Food safety begins with proper hygiene

First and foremost, it’s your employees’ responsibilities to maintain proper hygiene for food safety. That includes always wearing clean and protective clothing. Hair and beards should be covered with hats and/or hair restraints.

Operators need to make sure that employees « wash their hands and sanitize their hands, especially if they leave the food prep area and they have to go to the bathroom, » Esperanza Carrion, VP and general manager for Sani Professional, a cleaning solutions company, said in a phone interview. « It’s very important that before they go back to the prep area that they have cleaned their hands thoroughly and have sanitized their hands. And sometimes people forget. »

Practice proper surface sanitation

Carrion said the common rag and bucket used to clean surfaces is often a cause of contamination in food safety.

« The protocol is you have to leave that rag immersed in the solution, the sanitizer. Number one, the sanitizer in that bucket is not even potent anymore because its being used and reused. (Employees) wipe the table with all the food debris or dirt. They put it back in the bucket and take out the rag again. (Contamination) gets transferred from table to table. » The rag is not left inside the sanitizer.

It’s preferable to use a spray bottle and a clean rag or paper towels to sanitize a surface every time.

After using a cutting board, it’s imperative that the surface is sanitized before moving on to another food. This is especially important for food safety where meats are concerned.

« Before you move to the next item, you have to clean and sanitize that surface, » Carrion said. She recommends cleaning in pairs so employees can be attributable to one another.

Wash foods properly

Fresh vegetables and fruits that come in from outside often carry dirt and contamination.

It’s especially important for food safety to wash fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, lemons and lettuce. Lemon wedges, cut for drinks like ice tea and ice water, are especially susceptible to food-borne pathogens as staff stick their hands in the container to pull out wedges without properly sanitizing their hands each time.

Maintain proper temperatures

« A huge part of food safety is the proper temperatures, » Carrion said. « We have this range of temperatures for cold and hot, so that’s also very, very important. You have to go for food safety first above everything else before trying to be cost or energy efficient. »

Clean your equipment

While grills, fryers and stoves take center stage, ice machines are problematic and are among the most common health code violations. Human error is a significant reason. Ice becomes contaminated with improper employee handling or improperly maintained ice machines. Unfortunately, the cold temperatures of ice machines don’t kill bacteria and viruses — they slow growth. The ice could smell and taste fine but still harbor dangerous bacteria.

Walk-in refrigerators are often problems for bacteria growth and spreading, especially condensation issues. Condensation water tends to be contaminated with bacteria that can cause wither food spoilage or food-borne illnesses.

Use proper labeling

Food trucks should use date marking to help indicate when foods should not be consumed.

Foodborne pathogens like Listeria monocytogenes can still grow at refrigeration temps, especially in ready-to-eat foods like deli meats and salads. The FDA Food Code recommends these foods should not be kept after seven days of use and should be properly dated and marked.

Cross contamination can affect food safety

Cross contamination can be a nasty business, especially when dealing with raw meats. Safely cooked food can become contaminated when it comes into contact in even the slightest way with raw food. Food trucks that handle raw chicken and hamburger meats should take special caution to avoid clean work surfaces.

Food allergies can also become an issue in food safety, and best practices like cleaning and sanitizing cutting and preparation tools — not just cutting boards — can make a difference. Nut allergies are especially prevalent in consumers, and sanitizing surfaces can reduce the potential for cross contamination.

Training employees becomes paramount in cross contamination.

Using a master cleaning schedule can help weather even the sharpest of inspectors’ eyes. Spread and rotate the cleaning chores so the same employees aren’t cleaning the same equipment. It’s a good idea to make sure they’re learning how to clean different parts of the kitchen. Fresh eyes can overlook complacency and missed dirty spots.

Ultimately, a food truck’s food safety culture begins with operators and they should offer food safety training as part of a new employee’s training, but continual training and refreshers for all staff can reduce food-borne illnesses and the potential for inspection violations.