September is Food Safety Month. It’s a great time to pause and plan for safety challenges present within your business.
Here at Hubert, we’re focusing this month on a Cycle of Safety for food service operators. As food cycles through your business, there are safety challenges all along the way. We want to help you be safe and compliant at every step. The cycle goes from food deliveries in the back, to clearing tables in the front of the house.
View and print our Cycle of Safety Checklist to help you plan for the optimal safety of employees and customers at every stage. You can tackle safety challenges by breaking them down into four steps based on how food cycles through your business.
Receiving and Food Storage
Safety starts at the back door. Get a handle on safety procedures with gear and tools your employees need to safely receive and stock deliveries.
SAFETY CHALLENGE 
Meeting the demand for more farm-fresh ingredients can be complicated. Customers increasingly expect transparency about the source of their food. Meanwhile, tracking your sources and ensuring your perishables are safe and fresh can seem like a juggling act.
SAFETY SOLUTION
Maximize the shelf life of your fresh ingredients with a systematic approach. Ensure small steps are taken, such as snapping lids shut and clearly labeling food boxes with dates and sources.
Food Prep and Cooking
When it comes to the safety of your employees and customers, you’re not cutting corners. Our Glove Buying Guide can help you choose hand protection to prevent against cuts, burns and cross contamination.
It’s also important to have the right tools to protect a growing number of diners with food allergies, including one out of every 13 children. We’ve worked alongside some of the industry’s most forward-thinking culinary professionals to create color-coded kits containing pans, smallwares and other tools. A color-coded system is an important step in food allergen awareness.
SAFETY CHALLENGE
The Centers for Disease Control identifies poor employee health and hygiene as one of the top five factors that are most frequently responsible for foodborne illness outbreaks.
SAFETY SOLUTION
Consistent training, routine observations, and enforced procedures are important. Enforced hand-washing will help minimize risks that could be posed by employee behavior. From signs to soap dispensers, Hubert has a large selection of items online to facilitate safe employee practices.
Employees Must Wash Hands Sign
Serving and Holding
Serving food can present many challenges, but with the right tools, you can reduce contamination risks. SafeServ is focusing on foodborne illness this month. You can find some great resources on their website to educate staff and mitigate risks of incidents and outbreaks.
SAFETY CHALLENGE
Maintaining safe food temperatures is not easy in a busy kitchen, but it is critical. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, bacteria doubles every 20 minutes when allowed to thrive on food left at room temperature.
SAFETY SOLUTION
Holding equipment will help you avoid the temperature danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees F. Infrared digital thermometers can help you quickly monitor food temperatures.
How to maintain safe food holding temperatures
Warewashing and Cleaning
The cycle of safety continues when guests are gone. Use our Cycle of Safety Checklist to ensure you have the right chemicals for cleaning tables and dishwashing, as well as the right-size racks for proper drying.
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