As part of this module, I completed a Sanitation Outline, Food Safety and Sanitation Audit, a Time and Temperature Study, Test Tray Evaluation, and an In-service Education. 

Food Safety and Sanitation is the backbone of HACCP principles and sanitation procedures in the kitchen, every day, all day. Having standard operating procedures in place is a critial part of what allows the engine of foodservice to move at a fast pace while delivering a consistent product. Standard operating procedures define who will perform a task, what is needed to accomplish it as well as where, when, and how a task is to be done. 

In my first weeks at Springwell, I read their manuals and learned their SOPs, their contingency plans, the chain of command, how to minimize risk, and how to implement corrective action. 

Please read my Food Safety and Sanitation Outline which explains the controls, contingencies, and training in place at Springwell.

Also during my first week onsite, I completed a Food Safety and Sanitation Audit with the guidance of the kitchen Safety Captain, Cook Supervisor Donice Pryor. After I combed the kitchen for each item on the list, I made a checklist for corrective action. I also filed maintenance requests. Overall, the Springwell Kitchen recieved a high score of 92.1% on their audit. However, some items on the list did not apply or could not be directly observed during the audit.

While performing the audit, I located the MSDS noteboook for the facility. It was neat, organized, clean, easy to access, and included all chemicals used in the kitchen. 

Sanitation audits are great way to learn what training topics to address with staff. I observed people in the prep area as well as the tray line when I decided the best target for an in-service education would be cross-contamination. 

On October 13th, the food service director held an employee appreciation party after a staff meeting. My challenge was creating an in-service education which would be fun and engaging in a short span of time. To take advatange of high spirits, I developed a simple game following a short pretest and presentation which included handouts. To evaluate learning, the game was arranged to ensure each participant would have an opportunity to answer cross-contamination questions correctly for points. The team players with the most points at the end of the game were given ten dollar gift cards.

Fifteen people were in attendance at the meeting. However, only ten took the training, as some had to leave early for personal reasons. The median pretest score was 3 out of 5. Interestingly, 40% of people did not know that bacteria may splash when thawing a frozen food in the sink! However, by the end of the game, everyone was smiling and on board. Correct answer scores of the post test game were an awesome 93%!

The food service director liked my in-service education so much that he shared it with other food service directors within the organization, and even the CEO took notice. Copies of my handout were laminated and posted in relevant areas around the kitchen. Read my in-service evaluation here.

Check out my materials and lesson plan:

Lesson plan

Pretest

Pretest Results

Post-test Game

Click the handout to view the PDF:

On October 27th, I completed a time and temperature study of the main kitchen which included the walk-in refrigerator, the walk-in freezer, the hot holding case, and the ice cream serving freezer. Every two hours between 9AM and 5PM, I took a reading and charted temperatures throughout the day. I noticed that during the kitchen’s busiest time, between 1PM and 3PM, the walk-in refrigerator creeps up to 42ºF and the hot holding box comes down to 162ºF. As a corrective action, I told the kitchen Safety Captain to take care to keep doors shut and latched as often as possible. As an additional measure, the walk-in latch was inspected by the maintence department, as it was slightly loose. 

On the same day, I also did test trays. I conducted the first test tray during lunch in the main dining room buffet. I conducted a second test tray to simulate room service time and temperature.

In the Sherwood Dining Room, the lunch hour is 11AM to 1PM, and readings were taken at 12:30PM. A temperature probe was calibrated in a cup of ice water before taking the tempurature of the offered dishes on the buffet. In between tests, the probe was cleaned with the appropriate alcohol cleaning towelette. Hot entrees and side dishes were served >135ºF. However, dessert and shaved turkey were not within an acceptable range. Corrective action was recommended that the turkey and desserts be held cold in the adjacent chilled table. The turkey was removed from the line.

Room service for dinner begins at 3:30PM, and trays usually make it to their destinations within 15 to 20 minutes of serving from the tray line. In order to simulate this since I was unable to follow the trays to rooms, I pulled one extra tray from the line and allowed to sit for 15 minutes in the office and then took temperatures of the foods. None of the hot foods were able to be delivered at 135ºF or above. Corrective action would be to use different packaging which could hold heat, a heated tray system, or use different recipes which are either more dense or have less surface area from which to lose heat.

Test tray Sheets