 It may sound counterintuitive: You want to train your staff to improve in a particular aspect of food safety, so why not drill down on that problem so you can address it? According to a recent podcast interview with Tia Glave and Jill Stuber, cofounders of the consulting firm Catalyst, you get a lot farther by building interpersonal connections first. In their work with food safety leaders, Glave and Stuber recommend focusing on three P’s – who their employees are personally, who they are professionally, and what their priorities are. When your staff feels like you are invested in those dimensions of their lives, they tend to be far more open about information they are collecting on the job – details that can help you identify food safety issues and understand personality traits that may be posing problems on the team. From there, you have a better chance of identifying how best to present lessons to the team, helping them understand why they are important, and motivating them to improve.
 Food safety can sometimes feel like a thankless task – guests are more likely to speak up about a poor food safety experience than a great one. But that isn’t always the case. (And sharing some strong examples of food safety may help others in the business.) Earlier this year, the food safety consultancy Steritech recognized Chipotle with the 2023 Excellence in Food Safety Award – with MOD Pizza and Five Guys earning honorable mentions. Specifically, Chipotle stood out for its multi-tiered approach to food safety. That includes a focus on each link of the supply chain, from how their food is raised through every employee level to ensure safe handling and preparation. Internally, the restaurant has a Food Safety Advisory Council, a dedicated food safety section on its website and the brand invests in local and small business suppliers to help meet its food safety standards.
 We have all been on the receiving end of a person who overcommunicates – too many instructions and too many details can make a person tune out the extra information. But in the context of communicating with staff, tuning out key information can generate harmful risks. Are there any key messages that tend to get lost in a sea of instructions? Lean on your best frontline staff to boil down the most important information you need to communicate for a given task and account for employees’ need to absorb it in different formats. Some information is best learned when a person has to do a related task or teach it to others, while other procedures can be presented in quiz form for a team contest. It also helps to take the temperature of your team on a regular basis: Does everyone have a nonpunitive means of asking questions and accessing information when they need it?
 Unionization is on the rise at restaurants right now, and recent efforts to unionize several Starbucks locations and one Chipotle location have made headlines recently. In the case of Chipotle, employees of the Augusta, Maine store said faltering food safety practices, a rise in cross-contamination and negligence about employee safety contributed to their efforts. As restaurant operators continue to feel squeezed, which naturally pushes them to make difficult compromises about staff and safety, it’s critical to continue to prioritize communication with staff. A recent Nation’s Restaurant News report, which shared the views of labor attorneys on opposite sides of the issue, indicated that employers need to demonstrate to employees that they are listening actively to their concerns in order to find solutions – not simply reacting to demands.
 The pandemic has heightened consumer consciousness of the origins of restaurant food, as well as the safety practices used to protect it. If you’re among the growing number of operators running a ghost kitchen or similar space that keeps your back-of-house operations behind the scenes, it’s all the more important to find ways to be transparent about your food sourcing and safety practices. Your website and social media channels are the virtual windows overlooking your kitchen. Update them with lists of local suppliers, allergy information, health inspection grades, news about digital tools you adopt to monitor food safety, and photos of your safety practices in action.
 Want to improve your safety? Focus on improving your transparency. By having an operation that is open with vendors, suppliers and customers about your safety practices, you’re creating the conditions for improved safety. There are a number of actions you can take to improve your transparency: Trace (and minimize) your menu’s links in the food supply chain so you can tell a less complicated story about how you’re sourcing your menu. Be open with nutritional information and allergens on your menu – One Dine suggests offering a QR code on your menu that links to detailed information about menu items. Make your kitchen more visible – if you physically remove the barriers between staff and guest, you build trust and also reinforce your commitment to operating safely and efficiently. Finally, admit to mistakes when they happen – that could mean responding honestly and professionally to a negative review, or acknowledging steps you’re taking proactively to improve your operation’s safety based on audits or self-assessments.
 The pandemic has been a two-year practice in adjusting to new recommended safety practices – and it’s demonstrated the need for restaurant operators to be able to get information out to staff in real time. In other words, posting flyers on employee bulletin boards has officially become obsolete. Do you have tech tools in place that enable you to push safety alerts and other information out to employees instantaneously via their smartphone? In addition to helping protect food safety and ensure your team is on the same page about vaccine-related regulations in your area, it could also help you empower your team to take greater responsibility and initiative in upholding health and safety protocols in your business.
 Consumers still care a lot about restaurant safety – and according to a new Deloitte survey of 1,000 consumers who had eaten in a restaurant in recent months, they want to see it in action. More than half of the respondents (55 percent) said they would be willing to pay 10-15 percent more at a restaurant if they were told about the safety and cleanliness measures the business was taking to protect their food during transport and preparation. Further, consumers are noticing both traditional cleaning measures and more recent Covid-safety measures more acutely right now. Find ways to make your safety efforts more visible – in cleaning surfaces around your facility, preparing food or protecting employees and guests, and even with signage that explains all you’re doing to protect the people you’re serving and employing
 The pandemic has ushered in a new era in food safety – and made employees and consumers more aware of the practices restaurants use to protect health. Ongoing training is key to making food safety processes take hold, along with using multiple approaches for workers who learn in a range of ways. For example, Panda Express, which is a 2021 winner of the Fast Casual/Steritech Excellence in Food Safety Award, uses a training process that includes auditory, visual and tactile instruction, paired with hands-on learning. Kenny Chuang, executive director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance for the brand, told Fast Casual that this approach has helped cement comprehension of food safety terms, equipment and procedures across the business.
 Has your restaurant ever faced a food safety spillover? According to new research, when a competitor or a nearby restaurant experiences a food safety outbreak, consumers tend to make assumptions about the safety of your supply as a result. The research, published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, found that a theoretical E. Coli crisis at one restaurant made people hesitate to eat at other restaurants serving similar foods even though they were not involved in the outbreak. It’s all the more reason to enforce a top-down food safety culture within your restaurant – and communicate promptly with staff about outbreaks connected to the types of food you serve. It will not only help protect the safety of the items on your menu, but it will also build your team’s ability to communicate more confidently about it with guests if and when outbreaks occur.
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