Australian Food Safety Blog

If you own a restaurant or a catering service, or you have a great deal of experience in the food industry, you already know that safety concerns should be one of the highest priorities. Not only can poorly prepared and unsafe food have dire consequences for your guests, you’ll find that it is the number one way to make sure that your business plummets. Furthermore, if you are someone who operates in Australia in general or in Victoria in particular, you are already aware that word of mouth can make or break you. If you want to make sure that your food-related business is going to survive, keep the following mistakes in mind and make sure that you can’t be accused of making them.

The first mistake that people often make is that they will not pay attention to what temperature that food is stored at. When you are thinking about the bacteria that most commonly infect food, you’ll find that it will tend to start between 5 °C to 60° C. This is a fairly wide range, and if you have to prepare food a long time before you serve it, make sure that you have taken a look what the temperature conditions are like.

Similarly, keep in mind that foods that are raw and that foods that are cooked are a place where bacteria can be spread and then passed on to your clients. Remember that raw food should always bee kept in their own separate containers and that they should be kept on the lowest level of the refrigerator to avoid their dripping on the raw foods below and possibly contaminating them. Remember that all food, raw or cooked, should be stored in the appropriate containers and that they should always be fully covered.

Remember that your water supply is another important consideration. Keep alert for any water warnings in your area and when it comes to food preparation, remember that you should always be safe rather than sorry. Remember that you can always boil the water first or get water from sealed bottles if you feel that there is a problem. Similarly, keep in mind that ice can be problematic and that it is always better to be safe than sorry.

When it comes to food contamination, remember that the consequences can be severe. You might be dealing with things like a guest’s severe illness, problems with the health inspectors, even a shut down if things are seen as being deeply problematic, so take the time to look over the proper procedures for keeping your kitchen clean and hygienic.

by Malcolm J. Richmond

Anyone about to begin a career in hospitality in Melbourne needs to know what the professionals already do: this is a tough crowd to please. The smallest damage to your reputation can ruin you in this town. A career in hospitality can be a very rewarding one, but it is something that requires attention to detail and of course, food safety. Before you step into the hospitality industry, you and your staff need to know the applicable food safety regulations inside out.

Your staff has to be prepared for any situation which may arise in the kitchen in terms of food safety and best health practices. This means that each and every member of your staff has to complete a food safety course. Once your staff has completed this course you’ll know that they’ve been properly trained and are aware of all the relevant food safety issues.

What many people do not know is that food safety goes so much further beyond “wash your hands” and “keep everything at the right temperature.” What you are going to need to do is to look into all the small but equally important things that you need to know to make sure that your hospitality business is among the best.

For instance, have you thought about the fact that you need to label everything that goes into your kitchen?

This will help you avoid needing to open containers and then resealing them when it turns out that they are not what you want. Every time a container is opened, it risks being contaminated and you can cut down on this risk by making sure that everyone knows what is in what container.

Whether you’re in the hospitality business proper or your company has any involvement in food preparation or handling, it is essential that your staff take and complete a food safety course. When kitchen staff is not properly trained in food safety, you place your business in peril.

Food preparation personnel who are not aware of proper food safety procedures can quickly lead to a kitchen which harbors disease causing microorganisms. Any risk of sickening a patron due to your kitchen’s sanitation or food handling procedures is one which should be eliminated.

Especially in Melbourne, a single customer made ill by eating in your establishment could be the end of your career in hospitality. A food safety course is a wise investment in the future of your business – and far cheaper than the cost of a lawsuit!

It can be difficult to keep your kitchen staff properly trained in food safety issues. Since the turnover rate in the hospitality industry tends to be rather high, you’ll be faced with the challenge of regularly ensuring that new hires are aware of all the relevant safety issues. Hiring a certification expert and food safety consultant can help your business make sure that the food you serve is safe with regular training and audits of your food preparation areas.

Particularly in Melbourne, proper training for your staff through a food safety course is vitally important to your work in the hospitality industry.

If you run a restaurant or kitchen of any sort in Melbourne, you already know that it is a tough town when it comes to food safety standards and restaurant reputation.  You will find that there are number of things that can sink a restaurant in Victoria, but nothing will shut a business down faster than sanitation violations.  If it is discovered that your restaurant has health violations, you can watch your business drop like a rock.

The answer, of course, is to make sure that your kitchen stays in great shape and maintains a high standard of cleanliness.  Though this is by no means a complete list, you will find that these suggestions can help keep your kitchen operating at a high standard.

Store cooked and uncooked food separately. This is essential when you are looking at making sure that your restaurant has a high degree of sanitation.  Essentially, cooked food very often goes directly to the tables of your diners.  Raw food, which is uncooked and untreated, may very well still be carrying bacteria or other contaminants that can be transferred to the cooked food.  By keeping them separate, you’ll be able to keep them from affecting each other.

Label everything. It seems simple, but the truth of the matter is that you should label everything that comes into your kitchen.  Make sure that your kitchen staff undergo food safety training and know what is in the various containers. This way they will only open them when necessary and they will not risk contamination through repeated exposure.

Labelling will also help to improve the speed and efficiency of your kitchen.  Similarly, you may also want to think about dating things to know when they were received.

Temperature readouts. No matter where you keep food, you should make sure that there is a temperature gauge nearby.  This can be instrumental when you are keeping cold foods and when you want to make sure that they stay good.

Take some time and really consider what your options are going to be when it comes to installing thermometers in your food storage location; this can help you a great deal.

Food satefety training for your staff? Remember that when it comes to keeping your restaurant sanitized that your workers play a large part.  There does tend to be a fairly high turn around in kitchens, so take some time to make sure that your workers are aware of what needs to happen to keep the kitchen to high food safety standards.  Make sure that you include both front room staff and kitchen staff when it comes to this kind of food safety training.

When you are running a commercial kitchen, you’ll find that you need to think about what your options are going to be in terms of keeping it safe and clean.  Educate your staff and keep in mind the fact that there are professional services out there that can help you monitor your existing procedures and give you a detailed list of how they can be improved.  Remember that a little money spent on this now can prevent large legal fees down the line.

Gavin can be contacted at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au or through his website at www.australianfoodsafety.com.au.

If you have cooked in or run a restaurant in Melbourne, you know that you are playing to a tough crowd!  Not only does the city have great restaurants serving all types of food at a range of prices, but you will also find that it is a town with a long memory.

If you give your customers a great dining experience, you can bet that they will be back for more and that they will tell their friends, but if you mess up, word is certainly going to get around. Every restaurant manager fears a food poisoning outbreak, but if you work in Melbourne, you may have more reason than most to be frightened of it.

When you are looking at a food poisoning outbreak, you are looking at your restaurant getting a lot of publicity that it doesn’t need. You’ll find that you may be risking a citation or a warning at best, and complete shut-down at worst. This is how important adequate food safety and hygiene is to your restaurant.

Guests who are unlucky enough to eat at a time when your food safety isn’t as high as it should be may become quite sick, and while many cases of food poisoning can be quite mild, others are extremely severe or unpleasant. This is most common when children or people with weakened immune systems are exposed to tainted food.

Bacteria may easily exist on raw food like eggs, seafood, uncooked rice, or even raw vegetables.  For the most part, good washing practices and cooking will take care of the problems there, but if these foods come into contact with food that has already been prepared, the bacteria are able to pass themselves on. Some bacteria can even be transferred through unwashed hands onto food that is ready to serve. Other pathogens or bacteria will develop on food that as been allowed to grow too warm or that has begun to spoil.

There are many different ways to prevent a food poisoning outbreak. The first and most obvious thing that you need to think about is the fact that your staff need food safety training: to be taught how to handle and prepare food. Strict regulations about hand washing and sanitation on the food preparation floor are things that you really need to drill home.

You will also find that good storage, where raw food is never permitted to come in contact with food that is ready to serve is something that all staff need to be aware of. It is important to establish routine to ensure that staff form good hygiene habits.

The truth of the matter is that there is a multitude of different ways that a food poisoning outbreak can occur, but you don’t need to live in fear. Most restaurant managers aren’t experts in food safety, which is why they will enlist the services of a good food safety expert before anything goes wrong. If you want to make sure that nothing gets overlooked in the food safety of your restaurant, talk to an expert.  If you are cooking in Melbourne, you already know that you are playing to a tough crowd, so don’t make it any harder than it has to be!

Gavin can be contacted at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au or through his website at www.agbsolutions.com.au.

If you operate a business in which food is a main staple, food safety should be at the top of your priority list. Not only do you have the legal requirements to keep your kitchen and food preparation areas in good, safe conditions. But you also have an obligation to your customers to keep the things they eat and go into their mouth, clean, safe, and of the highest quality.

Health departments and food safety departments outline all requirements; food safety procedures and kitchen procedures that must be followed by every establishment. What happens if you do not follow these requirements? Well, most importantly you run the risk of hurting your customers. All it takes is for one customer to have an illness or unsanitary problem with their food and your business could take a downfall.

When it comes to commercial kitchen food safety, there are requirements to meet in regards to food storage, food preparation, and safe food handling. These requirements are all geared towards preventing illnesses and diseases that could arise when food is improperly handled, cooked, and stored.

Some food safety requirements within Australia include:

Keeping foods that are deemed potentially hazardous at the correct temperature. In most cases, it is really straight-forward. If foods must be frozen, freeze them at temperatures below 5 degrees Celsius. The guidelines also dictate storage of food. Not only should it be stored at the correct temperature, but it should also be stored to provide protection from any contamination and within conditions that will have no affect on the food in terms of suitability and safety.

There are also regulations that dictate how to reheat food. Foods that are deemed potentially hazardous should be reheated quickly. The foods should be heated to at least 60 degrees Celsius and done so at a rapid pace.

If you are displaying food, you should make sure that you are using different serving utensils for each type of food. Cross food contamination is perhaps the easiest of all contamination processes so it should be carefully guarded against.

With the number of laws and regulations provided in regards to food safety, it can be easy to forget or overlook. However, you need to remember that all it takes is just one bad review or a customer to have a negative experience to ruin the reputation of your business. Therefore, it is a good idea to seek advice from a reputable food safety business in order to help you keep your kitchen safe and your equipment in meeting legal standards.

Gavin can be contacted at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au or through his website at www.australianfoodsafety.com.au.

If you are a restaurant professional in Melbourne, whether your restaurant is large or small, you need to make sure that proper sanitation and health concerns are one of your top priorities.

There is a good chance that you know of, or have even been to a restaurant that has suffered from health code issues. The repercussions of this can be immense.  The most obvious and potentially devastating sign of poor food hygiene is sick customers. This of course is an unpleasant situation for customers and in the best case scenario, they will simply never return to your restaurant again. In the worst case scenario, they will sue!

Recovering from the loss of reputation that results from poor food safety can be nigh on impossible. Because of this it makes much more sense to protect yourself and your customers by ensuring that your food safety standards are high to begin with.

When you are looking at the maintenance of good food hygiene, you will find that at the most basic level, it is a matter of cleanliness.  All of the handling and storage areas should be kept clean and anyone handling the food must be aware of what they are doing and take the proper precautions.

Food should be thoroughly cooked, and whether being stored or served, should be at an appropriate temperature to prevent the multiplication of bacteria.

Cross contamination, especially with regard to meat, is also something that requires constant vigilance. Meat should always be stored in such a way that accidental drippings will not contaminate other foods.

An extremely important aspect of good food hygiene in the kitchen is the idea that anyone who handles food in your kitchen should be well trained and aware of the safety procedures in place.  Before and after handling food, they should wash their hands with warm water and liquid soap, and after washing, they should make sure that they dry their hands on a towel intended for that purpose.  Hand washing is the core of good hygiene in the kitchen and it should be undertaken after going to the toilet, handling money, breaks, and after sneezing or blowing your nose.

Even with a good understanding of food safety, it is important to be aware of the fact that there is a lot to be said for consulting an expert.  You and your staff have a lot going on, and in many ways, it can be difficult to look objectively at a familiar situation and make sure that everything is being done right. However these small details that get overlooked can become a big issue and potentially devastate a business!  It is here that professional services that will assess your safety procedures and suggest improvements come into play.  You can use these services to reduce the chance of a food poisoning outbreak.  In a place like Melbourne where news travels fast, you can bet that this is something that you will be glad you invested in!

Gavin can be contacted at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au or through his website at www.agbsolutions.com.au.

If you are someone who is in charge of one, or several kitchens in the bustling city of Melbourne, you already know that the sanitation and health of both your workers and your customers needs to be one of your highest priorities.

There are many things to keep in mind when you are looking at making sure that your kitchen meets the food safety standards standards that have been set by the health code, but the truth of the matter is that for even the most conscientious of kitchens, it can be easy to get sloppy.

When you are looking at the sanitation of your kitchen and the good health practices of your staff, there are many things that are at stake.  The goal of many restaurateurs is to ensure that customers have an enjoyable experience and that they associate the restaurant with good times.  This is much harder to do if they get sick.

There is also the fact that if you are careless with your sanitation you can, and most likely will run into legal difficulties. There are many things that you can do to help leave legal matters out of your life, and taking care of your health issues is one of them.  Also keep in mind that it doesn’t take much to ruin the reputation of even an established restaurant.

There are some very basic things that can be done to reduce the chances of a food poisoning outbreak at your restaurant.  First, make certain that your staff are educated on matters of food safety.  Verify that they are aware that spoiled food does not necessarily look or smell different from food that is good, and let them know that food must be kept hot or very cold in order to make sure that bacterium doesn’t grow on it.

Remember that all food should always be covered and that raw and cooked foods should always be kept separate. Take some time to make sure that food is not defrosted in the open air and that hands are washed before and after handling food.

Also take care that the various hot and cold places in your kitchen meet the requirements of the local legislation, and always store meats on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator in order to keep juices from dripping down onto other foods. These are the basics for a commercial kitchen, but remember that as a general rule, the busier the kitchen, the more stringent food safety procedures need to be.

Amidst the calamity that dinner time can bring to commercial kitchens it can be exhausting to keep even the simplest orders in mind, let alone adhering to proper food safety procedures. However the reputation of your restaurant depends on these procedures so it is vital that you take no chances. The more streamlined your procedures are the more likely they are to be followed by your staff. Consultation with a food safety expert is often a worthwhile exercise. These people can evaluate your current procedures and suggest any improvements to strengthen your restaurant’s ability to produce safe, quality food.

Gavin can be contacted at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au or through his website at www.australianfoodsafety.com.au.

Recently, Food Processing News did a write up about me – Gavin Buckett, in their Spring 2008 edition. While I generally avoid the limelight, I thought I might share the story with you, my devoted blog readers.

Here goes:

Gavin Buckett completed the Diploma of Food Technology in 2002 and the Diploma of Confectionery Manufacturing in 2003.

Gavin found a passion for food through a part time job while studying Accounting in 1989 and has been involved in the food industry ever since. Fifteen years cooking included winning the Blue Flame Award for Victorian Apprentice of the Year and the Daryl Cox Memorial Trophy. Work also included stints in Singapore and Malaysia.

In 2003, while still cooking, Gavin gained tertiary qualifications in Food Technology and Confectionery Manufacturing at William Angliss Institute.

Gavin is a registered food safety auditor and food safety trainer and specialises in the preparation of HACCP certified food management systems and food allergen management solutions.

“I went to William Angliss Institute for a couple of years studying Food Technology and Confectionery Manufacturing. At the graduation dinner for the course, I was talking to the course coordinator and he gave me the contact details of someone who he said I should call. So I rang her up and introduced myself. She had a client who needed help achieving HACCP accreditation and had too much work on. We developed a relationship and I began to take on her overflow work.” That’s how I started my business in 2003 – totally by accident! I made one phone call and all of a sudden I needed an ABN.”

“I started AGB Solutions Pty Ltd with my wife, Angela in 2005. We are a specialist provider of Food Safety Solutions and Quality Assurance Services to all areas of the food industry including food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, restaurants, caterers, hospitals and aged care facilities to name just a few.”

Future plans for AGB Solutions include working closely with the DHS on the allergen training project, preparation of web based manuals for commercial and domestic clients, an increased range of specialised food safety products and regular food safety based workshops.

Gavin can be contacted at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au or through his website at www.australianfoodsafety.com.au.

Here’s a treat for you – it’s the 11 Point Checklist for HACCP Certification that I take all of my clients through, so you can see how it actually works, from beginning to end.

Click on the video above and see how the process works, and remember the guarantee – all AGB Solutions clients WILL PASS their HACCP certication – you aren’t paying for an hourly service. You’re paying for the result – that is getting HACCP accredited and making food safety a priority in your kitchen.

Enjoy the video, share it with friends, and if you have a food safety need that I can help you with, call me on 0422 922 883 or email me at gavin@agbsolutions.com.au .

Here’s to safe food,

Gavin Buckett