After several years in which many restaurants suspended their sustainable packaging efforts in the interest of protecting health and safety, sustainability strategies are again on the upswing. But as restaurants bring back reusable containers for food and drink or introduce them for the first time, they will have new food safety risks to manage. If you’re allowing guests to refill their own food or drink container, bring in their own non-disposable container for refilling by your staff, or simply return a used container to you for use with another guest, you may need some safety nets in place to ensure you prevent cross-contamination. For example, a report from the 2020-2023 Conference for Food Protection suggests some methods for preventing contamination, including gravity-fed dispensers (portion-controlled or not), single-use utensils for transferring food into the guest’s container, or the use of single-use disposable liners (or washable intermediary containers) that allow employees to transfer food or drink into a guest’s container in a low- or no-waste way. In any case, it will be important for the guest’s container to not touch the food or drink dispensers themselves and for staff to take extra precautions with reusable containers when there are allergens present. Are dangerous bacteria lurking in your kitchen towels? Prevent the spread of germs by sanitizing and storing towels correctly between uses. The most recent USDA Food Code advises towels to be held between uses in a chemical sanitizer solution in the specified concentration. Ensure the towels and solution are not soiled and don’t contain any food debris. Used towels should be laundered daily in a mechanical washer, a sink used only for washing cloths or a food preparation sink that has been cleaned and sanitized. Refer to the food code for a full list of procedures to keep reusable towels free from contaminants.
Certain foods that have been served to guests can be served again to other guests – but those foods need to meet strict criteria. As Statefoodsafety.com reports, food in an unopened package that shows no signs of contamination can be served again. So, undisturbed packets of condiments, creamer, sweeteners and crackers are all fair game. The same cannot be said of the bread basket that returns to the kitchen untouched.
New proposed legislation at both the federal and local levels that is aimed at restricting the use of plastics is also posing some unintended challenges to operators. For one, it’s raising questions about how operators can reliably protect food safety when they must wash and sanitize straws, for example, that they once discarded. Steelys Straws, which manufactures reusable straws, advises restaurants to take these steps when cleaning its stainless steel straws: Designate a small soaking tub with hot, soapy water to clean the straws, as well as a second tub with sanitizing solution. After a straw is used by a guest, place it in the soapy water to soak, and then, if it had been used to drink a beverage with pulp or other ingredients that could collect on the straw, scrub it with a thin cleaner brush. Rinse the soapy straws in clean, hot water and place them in a bulk utensil rack in the dishwasher. Finally, soak the straws for at least one minute in the sanitizing solution to ensure you’ve killed all germs.
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April 2024
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