 It’s Friday night and three of your staff have called in sick. When this happens, would you ever ask the person who seems the least sick to still come in…just for a couple of hours? It can be tempting for short-staffed restaurants to make such a request, but this can have significant consequences. According to Francine Shaw and Matthew Regusci, food safety experts who host a podcast about the topic, more than 40 percent of restaurant foodborne illness outbreaks are caused by employees coming to work sick. What’s more, Shaw said only about 23 percent of restaurants have written policies in place telling employees not to come to work sick. As flu season approaches again, make sure you and your staff are clear on what symptoms should prevent them from coming to work. Some symptoms are clearer than others. Vomiting and diarrhea are among the clearer ones. But how about a sore throat, mild fever or bad cold? Make sure your policy is clear – and don’t be afraid to tell customers that their order may take a little longer because you’re short-staffed due to illness. Explain that you’re just trying to keep them safe.
 Your restaurant could seemingly be doing all the right things when it comes to protecting food – storing it safely, keeping it at the proper temperatures, being mindful of cross-contamination. But those precautions won’t go far enough if you’re lax about having sick employees work. According to health officials, food workers who came to work sick or contagious have contributed to about 40 percent of restaurant food poisoning outbreaks in recent years, with norovirus and salmonella being the most common causes of illness. Even if you have a policy that, on its face, restricts staff from working while sick, it may not be doing enough. An ABC news report about the findings said while 85 percent of restaurants said their policies restrict staff from working while sick, only 16 percent of the policies were detailed enough to require workers to alert managers and remain home if they had certain symptoms of illness, including vomiting, diarrhea, and sore throat with fever.
 If one of your guests were to get sick after eating with you, how quickly could you identify the source of the problem and, if necessary, eliminate it from your menu? Your ability to digitally trace each ingredient on your menu back to its source – and to do so quickly – can help you contain the problem before it impacts more guests and damages your restaurant’s reputation. As you work with suppliers day to day, ensure they can provide standardized data to trace ingredients with transparency. Understand how they will track an ingredient through the system, alert you in the event of a problem, and how easily they can be reached if you have an issue.
 As summer wanes and cooler weather returns, flu season – and perhaps new Covid strains – are just around the corner. Take time now to put your business in a stronger position to respond to (and ideally prevent) staff illness. Fine-tune your cleaning and sanitation practices, as well as review your sick-time policy. Consider what potential medical benefits, such as a telemedicine benefit, might be useful to staff and workable for you. At the very least, make sure everyone is on board with proper and frequent handwashing – and provide sanitizer throughout your facility as an extra precaution. Adherence to proper handwashing procedures could go farther than anything else in helping to keep your team healthy.
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