Foodborne illness and food poisoning is a real problem for restaurants. No owner wants to be responsible for making customers sick. Having one foodborne illness complaint can be very traumatic, but look at what Chipotle dealt with last year—six outbreaks in six months, 500 sick people across 10 states. They went around the horn twice with three of the most common foodborne illnesses: Salmonella, Norovirus, and E. coli. They lost more than $10 billion in stock value alone. Have a Foodborne Illness Response Plan Most small independent restaurants won’t ever have to deal with foodborne illness at the level of Chipotle’s outbreak, but what do they do when they receive just one complaint? … [Read more...]
The Best Way to Protect Your Restaurant from Outbreaks
Today there was yet another restaurant outbreak in the news. Carbon Live Fire Mexican Grill in Chicago is suspected in a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli outbreak affecting at least 25 people. Not only that, on June 29, the City of Boston closed the Thai Dish Restaurant for too many food safety violations. Looking at these two examples of foodborne illness outbreaks, they are independent organizations that most likely won’t survive the financial and liability impact of closures and sick customers. Given the high stakes, how could they put themselves in this position? Local independent restaurants across America are having a hard time effectively managing food safety. Many of them don’t have … [Read more...]
Social Media Extortion: Foodborne Illness Edition
Everyone's familiar with the old way of foodborne illness extortion—"You made me sick so give me money or I'll call the health department!" This worked quite well in persuading some managers to give up at least free gift certificates. Now there's a new form of extortion happening by way of social media. The Red Rabbit Kitchen and Bar in Sacramento, California, was faced with this reality. The owners were contacted by a customer who claimed he became ill by eating in their restaurant. The customer demanded $100, and if they didn't pay up, he would post a bad review on the popular restaurant review site Yelp. If you aren't familiar with Yelp, it's a site that allows users to post reviews … [Read more...]
Forget Pink Slime, What about Poopy Chicken?
by 1 Comment
In the last couple of months, the outrage over “safer” beef known as pink slime has been overwhelming, but what about chicken? A shocking report was just released by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) on fecal contamination in retail chicken. In the report, the PCRM uncovered that nearly half the chicken tested was contaminated with feces. The poultry industry has yet to develop methods to make sure the chicken slaughter process doesn’t result in fecal contamination of the chicken. An independent analytical testing laboratory did the testing with chicken from 15 grocery store chains in 10 major cities. Kroger brand actually had 100 percent of their samples test positive … [Read more...]
Restaurant 911: Prevent Imminent Health Hazard Closures
"Sorry, we're closed"—These 3 words are possibly the worst a manager can hear from a health inspector. There are very specific events that can lead to an imminent health hazard closure. It could be an interruption in service in one facility or a large-scale emergency that could lead to all facilities closing down. It's important to understand what could lead to a closure and how to develop plans to avoid it. 2009 FDA Food Code Imminent health hazard means a significant threat or danger to health that is considered to exist when there is evidence sufficient to show that a product, practice, circumstances or event creates a situation that requires immediate correction or cessation of … [Read more...]
Total Recall: Hold Suppliers Accountable for Their Outbreaks
Foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants often have many casualties. The customers and restaurants assume the consequences. Paying hefty settlements to victims and the loss of reputation can cripple an organization while the supplier remains untouched. Even restaurants with the best food safety practices can't escape an outbreak, which is why we see outbreaks associated with restaurants almost every day. Jimmy John's keeps getting ripped apart for serving contaminated sprouts, but should we be blaming them for sourcing sprouts that were contaminated from their supplier? Maybe so, but when suppliers ship out product that is contaminated and it leads to an outbreak, they often find ways … [Read more...]
Stay on Top of Food Safety with Health Inspection Checklists
A health inspection can be a very frustrating experience in a restaurant. Someone you don't know is telling you what is wrong with your business. Oftentimes, things are pointed out that you had no idea were problems. If you had known it was a problem, then it would have already been addressed, but it took a health inspector to point it out. These inspections would go much easier if a process was in place to identify these problem areas. This process can be developed by doing your own health inspection. In-house inspections can be very beneficial to not only find and correct problems before the health inspector finds them, but it will also greatly improve the food safety program of the … [Read more...]
Dennis Keith has been working as a restaurant and food safety professional for more than 20 years.