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All training should positively impact a business’s bottom line. Sometimes that impact comes through improved service or higher sales, but sometimes it is achieved through cost avoidance. A perfect example is food safety training. Educating your staff on safe food-handling practices may not increase your sales, but an outbreak of foodborne illness will definitely have a negative impact on profits.
For many years, all of the food safety training at Zingerman’s happened on the job. An on-shift trainer would explain about bleach buckets, case temperatures, and the importance of having thermometers on hand. We weren’t lackadaisical about it, but we certainly weren’t as structured as we were with, say, knife safety training or customer service training.
About four years ago, the state of Michigan adopted stricter food-handling guidelines and we used that as an incentive to develop and start teaching a Basic Food Safety Class that is now a required part of orientation for any new hire, regardless of his/her job function. Even the new accountant needs to complete the Basic Food Safety Class , as does the new dishwasher, new prep cook, or new managing partner.
Why do we require this training for staff members who normally don’t regularly handle food on the job? We decided that since we are known first and foremost as a food business, all of our staff members need to have an appreciation of the importance of food safety. After all, it only takes one outbreak of foodborne illness to permanently damage a business’ reputation. Plus, the reality is that even those of us who don’t prepare or serve food regularly often help out during the crunch times or walk through the food-prep areas on our way somewhere else, so we need to know the basics.
To start development of our internal class, we sent several managers through the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe program. This program remains our source for manager training, and all of our internal Basic Food Safety instructors must have ServSafe certification. However, we found that we wanted a more basic class that could be taught internally and more economically. So we focused on the topic that seemed most important to non-managers, the four most common causes of foodborne illness: Poor personal hygiene, cross-contamination, failure to properly cool foods, and failure to cook and hold foods at the proper temperature.

Wash, Wash, Wash Your Hands
Since poor personal hygiene is the most common cause of foodborne illness and the area that individuals can impact the most, expectations for personal hygiene are a major focus of the class. We cover the symptoms of illness that must be reported to a supervisor (diarrhea, vomiting, sore throat with fever, jaundice); the departmental dress codes; how to cover cuts, burns, or sores on hands; and how to use gloves for handling ready-to-eat foods. But by far, our biggest emphasis is on how and how often to wash your hands.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that you simply cannot wash your hands too often when you are handling food. And the quality of the hand washing is just as important as the quantity. Thoroughly soaping hands and forearms, scrubbing for a minimum of 20 seconds, and cleaning under nails and between fingers all make a big difference. We use a video that demonstrates proper hand washing (along with general work-area cleanliness and sanitation), and we include a hand-washing exercise in the class with photosensitive lotion and a black light that indicates the presence of bacteria, which is a great teaching tool. Trainees are always shocked at what the black light reveals.

Avoid Cross-Contamination
Transferring microorganisms from one surface to another is cross-contamination. It can be avoided by keeping food contact surfaces both clean and sanitized. We practice making sanitation buckets and checking them with litmus paper. Proper food storage — including rotation, labeling, and storing ready-to-eat foods above raw foods — also minimizes the chances of cross-contamination. Finally, always keep raw foods and ready-to-eat foods separate. This is the point at which we explain when to wear gloves and the correct way to put them on and take them off.

Cooling Foods Properly
The “danger zone” includes those temperatures in which bacteria grow most rapidly (41°F – 140°F). In our Basic Food Safety Class, we explain the different types of thermometers and when to use each; the importance of keeping coolers, cases, and freezers closed; and how to minimize the time spent in the danger zone. The specifics of cooling individual food items (soups, sauces, etc.) are covered on shift for those who have food-preparation responsibilities.

Cooking and Holding Foods Properly
Similar to our instruction on how to cool foods properly, we cover the specifics of cooking and holding foods properly in on-shift training for kitchen staff. In the Basic Food Safety Class, however, we want everyone to understand the importance of holding hot foods at or above 140 F and cold foods at or below 41 F. Also, we never mix fresh with already held food and never mix different batches of food.

Personal Responsibility
As gourmet retailers, our organizations’ reputations rise and fall with the food that we offer to our customers. Making sure employees are knowledgeable about safe food-handling practices is likely to be an excellent bottom-line training investment all the same.

Maggie Bayless is the managing partner of ZingTrain, which is the consulting arm of Zingerman’s, the specialty food retailer in Ann Arbor, Mich. If you have specific topics you would like to see addressed, please send your suggestions to Maggie at mbayless@zingermans.com.