When it comes to providing quality food to guests in the restaurant industry, it is important to have a good foundation in food safety. while some health department jurisdictions require at least one certified food safety manager at all times a restaurant is open, some only require one certified manager for the entire operation. Certifications for employees are available, but are generally not required in any jurisdiction.

With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants are starting to work towards better food safety practices. Even ServSafe, one of the certification companies for employees and managers has been offering the employee course for free during the months of April and May 2020.

While increasing food safety practices is always a good idea, the object will be for restaurants to keep working towards providing safe food and a safe environment for their guests. With restaurants having been open for an average of two weeks, as of the writing of this blog post, several restaurants around the country are already being accused of NOT keeping up with the guidelines established for them to re-open.

Unfortunately, with food inspections most likely going back to the regular operating schedule (once or twice a year based on location and funding), catching restaurants that are becoming deficient in their safety practices will be few and far between as pretty much all business decisions are based on money, and following proper safety procedures costs money.

I was explaining this to a friend recently that mentioned that buffets need to start remodeling for cafe style buffet instead of the current self-service style. Because of the current pandemic, cafe style will last for a while, then buffet owners will begin transitioning back to self-service so that they do not have to pay employees to serve the food.

As I stated previously, food safety should be the foundation upon which a restaurant should build. In the past, I have taught my students about what I call the “Triangle of Service”, seen here:

The Triangle of Service is something I have discovered while evaluating just about every restaurant available (before the pandemic). In my evaluation, I found that of the three items listed: Quality, Speed of Service, and Food Safety, a restaurant can ONLY do two of the three items effectively and must sacrifice the third item.

For example:
1. Jack-In-The-Box: Quality (Yes), Speed of Service (No), Food Safety (Yes)
2. In & Out Burger: Quality (Yes), Speed of Service (No), Food Safety (Yes)
3. Taco Bell: Quality (No), Speed of Service (Yes), Food Safety (TBD)
4. Olive Garden: Quality (Yes), Speed of Service (No), Food Safety (Yes)[yes, I know there are those of you that will disagree with my assessment on that one]

Now, this isn’t to say that EVERY restaurant excels in two of the three items. There are some that may not be able to accomplish ANY of the items in my Triangle of Service. Depending on location, I am sure many of you would say that several fast food restaurants are unable to complete all three, and I am sure there are several that will argue that they feel it IS possible to accomplish all three.

Unfortunately, in my 30 years experience in food service and my 25 years experience in food safety, I have found that a restaurant cannot accomplish all three items. Speed of Service is just too demanding of an item that to move quicker, either quality or sanitation must be sacrificed, as corners are cut somewhere. Whether it be in failing to cook items to proper temperatures or failing to wash hands to prevent cross-contamination. If the quality of the product isn’t diminished, then something in sanitation was missed.

So the question becomes, how do we fix it. Unfortunately, we have become a society dominated by instant gratification. Luckily, several restaurants have been focusing on Quality and Food Safety and ignoring speed of service that their business models have expanded over the years. Places like In & Out, Whataburger, Jack-In-The-Box, plus many others, have been working on making quality and sanitation more important that speed of service.

Until the other places that focus more on speed of service can slow down, it will be almost impossible to fix the issue with guests demanding instant gratification for every meal.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about my post, please feel free to contact me.

As restaurants begin to reopen around the country, concern over becoming infected with COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus) is on the minds of a great many people. One such concern that a great many people are discussing is protection at food establishments. Before the outbreak, restaurants were required to keep a clean and sanitary establishment for the guests. Now, it has taken on more of a necessity to keep people safe.

With an illness causing virus that can spread from person to person the way that Coronavirus does, it is imperative that food establishments create a cleaning and sanitation protocol to keep employees and guests safe, while still being able to provide a good experience and a meal free from contamination.

The use of approved cleaning and sanitation supplies is one of the most important elements to keep the restaurant safe. Constant cleaning is essential as well; however, it remains to be seen if food establishments have added constant cleaning to restrooms to keep Coronavirus from spreading in that location. Today’s discussion is about glove use by servers.

Servers have a great many functions depending on the establishment. In some restaurants, Darden restaurants for instance, servers are responsible for serving guests and have very little work outside that goal; however, many other restaurants require their servers to restock supplies, roll silverware inside the napkins, in addition to the serving of guests. Whichever situation, the main goal of the server is to be the focal point of service for the guest, and I will take you through a basic view of what it takes to serve just one table.

For this example, it should be understood that the server is wearing a face mask and gloves as part of the restaurant appeal to keep their guests safe. After the guests are seated, the server would greet the guests, talk about the menu, offer specials, and so on. They may take just a drink order or they many take the entire food and beverage order, depending on the readiness of the guests. In our example they will go ahead and take the full order and remove the menus. After, and depending on the establishment, they would go to the register system and enter the order for the kitchen and and bar drinks (if available).

They would then proceed to the beverage station to make drinks and take them and any other items to the table as required (salads, bread, etc). As the guests try to enjoy themselves, the server will also be taking care of other guests and other tables depending on the number of tables they are required to take care of during their shift. Food is then brought out when ready, desserts may or may not be ordered along with after dinner drinks, and finally the final check arrives.

What I just described to you is the basics of being a server at a restaurant. There is a LOT of work involved that may or may not change the above scenario, but suffice to say, this is the basic situation. So I ask you, when during that scenario did the server change their gloves? When did they wash their hands?

However you answer the questions I just posed, odds are a majority of you will be incorrect. So lets start with the regulations regarding glove use. The FDA food code, which is the basis for almost every state and local health code states that:

“…SINGLE-USE gloves shall be used for only one task such as working with READY-TO-EAT FOOD or with raw animal FOOD, used for no other purpose, and discarded when damaged or soiled, or when interruptions occur in the operation”.

(FDA Food Code 2013 pg 74 & 2017 pg 77)

There are also other times when a glove is “required” to be worn, such as if their is an injury or contaminant (i.e. boil or puss producing item) located on the individuals hand. Gloves are designed to be single use, used for the task at hand, then removed. Under this regulation, each task that the server does, requires them to change their gloves. So in the above example, gloves needed to be changed after each individual task. To break down when gloves would require to be changed:

1. The server takes the full order and removes the menus.
2. go to the register system and enter the order for the kitchen and bar drinks (if available).
3. They would then proceed to the beverage station to make drinks and take them and any other items to the table as required (salads, bread, etc).
   1. If the server makes the salads, that would be a separate task as well.
4. As the guests try to enjoy themselves, the server will also be taking care of other guests and other tables depending on the number of tables they are required to take care of during their shift.
5. Food is then brought out when ready
6. desserts may or may not be ordered along with after dinner drinks
7. finally the final check arrives.

So as you can see, just for this example of “ONE” table, the server should, by regulations, be changing gloves at least seven to eight times.

What about handwashing? If you think that changing the gloves will keep the employee from washing hands, that would be incorrect. Food Safety regulations state that hands MUST be washed before putting on a pair of gloves. (FDA Food code 2013 pg 48 & 2017 pg 50) This means that each time the server is required to be changing gloves, they are also required to be washing their hands. That is a great deal of time for handwashing and changing gloves.

By the way, if you ever see someone blow into a glove to open it up to make it easier to put on, realize they just contaminated the glove and would need to start over with washing their hands.

So with all this information, what should be considered the best practices in this situation. In this situation, and in my professional opinion, is that gloves SHOULD NOT be used by servers; however, the servers should practice and be more diligent in handwashing.

In “SOME’ jurisdictions around the country, it MAY be possible to use hand sanitizer when the hands are not actually soiled (physical visible contamination). The restaurant should check with the local regulating agency to see if this is an acceptable alternative to handwashing as depicted in the above example. Because this particular solution is not currently approved nationwide, I cannot provide this as an actual solution to keeping guests safe; however, I would gladly offer my services to speak with local health officials if you or your restaurant would like to utilize me as an expert.

If you have any questions or comments regarding anything I have written, please feel free to contact me.