It's unsettling to think that food served from a restaurant can lead to hundreds of people getting ill and possibly dying, but it happens more often then we would like to admit. It can be the result of untrained or sick employees, serving contaminated products or an overall lack of respect for food safety. A restaurant's involvement in an outbreak can be devastating. It often starts with 1 or 2 phone calls from sick customers. This doesn't seem too alarming since complaints occasionally come from customers, but nothing ever resulted in a confirmed foodborne illness. However, in an outbreak, there could be more calls coming into the health department at the same time. The health department … [Read more...]
Anatomy of a Foodborne Illness Complaint, Part 3: Confirmed Cases
If you have a customer with a confirmed foodborne illness, the local health department will probably visit you. A case is confirmed when a stool sample from an infected person is cultured and the harmful bacteria is found. This process can take a few days. When there is a confirmed case, the health department is contacted and they begin an investigation to try and determine the source of the infection. Many questions are asked of the infected person, including about where they ate. If there are restaurants involved, they will look at the timeline and try and guess which ones could be the source. Some can be ruled out, and others may need further investigation. This may lead them to your … [Read more...]
Anatomy of a Foodborne Illness Complaint, Part 2: False Accusations
How do you spot a false foodborne illness complaint? Oftentimes, this can be very difficult to see. There are generally two main types of false complaints—one from someone who is really ill but didn't get sick from your restaurant and one that comes from a dishonest customer who just wants to extort money. Make sure you ask the right questions. Use the Foodborne Illness Report (also found in the Manager's Toolbox) to help you, and look for the signs. There are some common signs, and a fair amount of research may need to be done before you can make the determination that a claim is false. Common Signs of a False Foodborne Illness Complaint The signs listed here aren't true in every … [Read more...]
Anatomy of a Foodborne Illness Complaint, Part 1: Planning
Every restaurant should have a plan for handling complaints. Most of these plans lay out what the manager needs to do in the name of customer service. This usually consists of having a game plan for retaining the complainant as a customer. The end result might be comping a meal, sending out coupons, or inviting the customer back to prove that you can give them a good experience in your establishment. Most establishments train their employees on this all the time. Foodborne illness complaints are completely different. There still is the element of customer service, but dealing with an angry sick person has its own set of rules. A simple coupon for a free dessert probably won't cut it. … [Read more...]
Anatomy of a Foodborne Illness Complaint: Introduction
Restaurants deal with complaints every day. Customers complain about customer service, wait times, food quality, prices, and more. What happens when the dreaded phone call comes in about a foodborne illness complaint? This can be the most difficult type of complaint to handle because the average manager doesn't have adequate knowledge about pathogens involved, incubation periods, symptoms, testing procedures, or appropriate costs associated with such a case. So what is the best procedure for handling an illness complaint? For the most part, the general public is largely uneducated about this topic as well. People are likely to blame the last place they ate rather than using the time … [Read more...]
Clean and Sanitize to Stop Foodborne Illness
Cleaning a restaurant kitchen and its equipment can be a very time-consuming and difficult job. There are so many areas of a kitchen that need cleaning and at different frequencies. An ice machine, for example, won't need to be cleaned as often as a deli slicer. Cleaning and sanitizing are necessary for preventing the growth of harmful pathogens that can lead to foodborne illness. There are many outbreaks large and small tracked back to dirty equipment. Here are a few: Meat Slicer Strikes Again—Maple Leaf Slicer Implicated in Listeria Outbreak Arby's Implicated in Salmonella Outbreak in Georgia FDA Cites Dirty Equipment in Cantaloupe Outbreak Cleaning Schedules It's … [Read more...]
How Employee Illness Can Affect Restaurants
These days more and more outbreaks are associated with sick employees passing their illnesses to other people while at work. Having employees working while sick is one of the most reckless things any manager or owner of a food establishment can do. Sick employees can transmit illnesses to other employees or, even worse, pass them to customers. Check out what happened at an Illinois McDonald's that led to 34 cases of hepatitis A: Illinois Department of Health Links Hepatitis A Outbreak to Employee Handwashing Sick Employee Policy It is crucial that all restaurants have a solid sick employee policy. Many restaurant managers give employees two options for when employees are sick: 1) … [Read more...]
Dennis Keith has been working as a restaurant and food safety professional for more than 20 years.