 You want your team to attract attention for the quality of food and service they offer – not for the jewelry they are wearing. Jewelry can be a red flag for inspectors and guests alike. Items worn on fingers and wrists can make it more difficult for staff to wash their hands thoroughly and are unlikely to be sanitized sufficiently on their own to meet foodservice safety standards. This increases the potential for jewelry to harbor bacteria and expose food to pathogens or other contaminants. Jewelry may also catch on machinery or other items and accidentally drop into food or pose a safety risk to staff.
 It’s likely to be another summer of extreme heat. That can make your restaurant a less comfortable place to work, which impacts employee safety as well as your guests’ experience. Consider adapting your staff uniforms to accommodate high temperatures, avoiding outdoor service during the hottest parts of the day, promoting menu items that generate less heat during preparation, keeping outdoor service areas as cool as possible with fans and shades, and ensuring staff are getting ample breaks for water and rest. Also, since now is not the time for your HVAC system to let you down, make sure its service record is up to date and you’re able to keep your kitchen and indoor seating areas well-ventilated and cool.
 Restaurants can be chaotic – but if your storage areas make it look that way, you’re inviting food safety hazards. Looking through everything you store, from menu ingredients to cleaning solutions, is anything missing a label? If during the dinner rush your staff has to make educated guesses about the freshness of food items they are preparing or the identity of solvents they are using to clean, you might serve ingredients that have spoiled or introduce toxic chemicals into your kitchen in areas where they don’t belong. Make sure all containers are labeled with their contents, as well as the date they were filled and the date by which contents must be discarded.
 Keeping foods out of the temperature danger zone – between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit – can be more difficult in the summer heat, particularly if you’re preparing and serving food outdoors. Your temperature logs can help keep your food safety on track, but the information they contain can also reveal problems. In an interview with Mashed, Chris Boyles of Steritech said when temperature logs show several blank spaces or list the same temperature for every item, they can indicate to a health inspector that the restaurant isn’t tracking food temperatures correctly. Using digital tools to automate these tasks can help you identify these problems promptly and avoid raising red flags with inspectors.
 You’re hardly alone if you’re short on staff right now – a majority of restaurants are. But you don’t want to plant the seed with health inspectors that you are taking shortcuts with safety as a result. Does your restaurant show signs that it’s operating with a skeleton crew? That could include long waiting times before being greeted or served, as well as an abundance of tables waiting to be cleaned. If so, it may be time to review any time-wasting tasks throughout your operation. What items can be delegated to others or automated with the help of technology? What tasks are non-urgent and can be set aside so you can protect safety? Taking care of those items may help you ensure a guest returns – and assure an inspector that you’re not slipping up on safety.
 If you’re concerned that a slimmed-down menu may not provide enough options to hungry guests, fear not: Nowadays, a packed menu can send unappealing messages that you want to avoid communicating. Perhaps it says you’re trying to accomplish too much with a small staff and kitchen – or that the complexity of your dishes requires you over-rely on frozen ingredients or items made out of house. Maybe your large menu makes guests doubt you’d be able to ensure the freshness of all ingredients. More isn’t necessarily better. Having a menu that is in line with the scale of your kitchen and your staff makes it easier for you to attest to the freshness and quality of each item on your menu.
 Much as we may intend for the systems and training we have in place to keep business running smoothly, there are days when operating a restaurant can feel like playing a game of whack-a-mole. If you find yourself and your staff reacting to problems more often than proactively managing and mitigating them, take it as an alert that it’s time for a reset. Is there a pattern to the problems that continue to crop up? Do the seeming emergencies all require an urgent response from you? Can you scale back on meetings or automate back-office tasks that would allow you to spend more time supporting staff or guests? Instead of continuing to react to crises, step back and dig deeper into the root cause of the problems you’re experiencing.
 It’s barbecue season. Is your staff ready to protect the raw meat and poultry they handle? Bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli occur naturally in animals’ digestive systems, so the safety precautions you take in handling animal proteins play a meaningful role in ensuring these pathogens aren’t passed on to guests. Make sure any frozen meat and poultry you receive arrives frozen and that refrigerated meat is no warmer than 41°F. Keep raw meat separate from other foods in your cooler and store it in accordance with how long it must be cooked – proteins requiring the most cooking, such as poultry, should be stored at the bottom. After handling raw meat, wash hands thoroughly with soap and running water, put on new gloves, and clean and sanitize your preparation area and tools. Cook proteins to the FDA’s recommended temperatures – and use calibrated thermometers to make sure your readings are accurate.
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