National Food Safety Month: 10 Things Every Foodservice Operation Should Check
September is National Food Safety Month—a great time to take a fresh look at the food safety practices that keep customers and employees safe.
Even when food safety procedures are already in place, small gaps can develop over time. Use this checklist to review your operation and identify areas that may need a little extra attention.
1. Check Your Food Temperatures
Are employees consistently checking and recording food temperatures? Make sure thermometers are accurate, readily available, and properly calibrated.
Cold foods should be kept at 41°F or below, while hot foods should be maintained at 135°F or above, per FDA food code guidance.
2. Review Your Handwashing Practices
Proper handwashing is one of the simplest—and most important—ways to prevent foodborne illness. The CDC’s handwashing guidance is a good baseline for staff training.
Make sure employees know when and how to wash their hands and that handwashing sinks are stocked with soap, paper towels, and running water.
3. Prevent Cross-Contamination
Raw foods, ready-to-eat foods, equipment, utensils, and work surfaces all need to be managed carefully to prevent cross-contamination.
Review how foods are stored, prepared, and handled throughout your operation.
4. Check Your Food Storage
Take a look inside your refrigerators, freezers, and dry storage areas.
Are foods stored at the proper temperatures? Are items covered, labeled, and dated? Are raw animal foods stored properly to prevent juices from contaminating ready-to-eat foods?
5. Review Your Cleaning and Sanitizing Procedures
Cleaning removes food and other debris. Sanitizing reduces microorganisms to safe levels.
Make sure employees understand the difference and are following the correct procedures for equipment, utensils, and food-contact surfaces.
6. Calibrate Your Thermometers
A thermometer is only useful if it is accurate.
Check your food thermometers regularly and calibrate them as needed. Don’t forget to clean and sanitize thermometer stems before and after use.
7. Check Employee Health Policies
Employees who are sick can potentially spread foodborne illness.
Make sure your operation has clear policies for reporting illnesses and that employees understand when they should stay home or be restricted from certain food handling duties.
8. Look at Your Date Marking
Proper date marking helps ensure food is used within the appropriate timeframe.
Review your procedures for labeling and dating prepared foods and make sure employees know how to identify foods that should be discarded.
9. Keep Pests Out
A clean, well-maintained facility is one of the best defenses against pests.
Check doors, windows, walls, ceilings, drains, and other potential entry points. Make sure food and garbage are properly stored and managed.
10. Make Sure Your Team Is Properly Trained
Food safety depends on more than having written policies. Employees need to understand why food safety procedures matter and how to apply them during a busy shift.
Regular training and reinforcement can help turn food safety procedures into everyday habits — a Certified Food Protection Manager on your team helps make sure that training sticks. (Internal link to Blog 2.)
Make Food Safety a Year-Round Priority
National Food Safety Month is a great reminder to review your operation, but food safety should be part of your operation every day.
Take a few minutes this month to identify what is working well, where there may be gaps, and what your team can do to strengthen food safety practices.
Ready to make sure your whole team is equipped? Explore our CFPM training programs.
