By Eric Hahn, Founder and Research Developer for RestaurantEdge.com
Ever had the health department come into your establishment, pass your kitchen with flying colors, only to have your wait station rack up violations? Don’t be surprised, this happens more often than one may think.
A recent poll conducted on RestaurantEdge.com asked the question: “Who Knows Food Safety Best.” Out of a 110 respondents to the poll, the poll concluded that 72% believed the Back of the House knew food safety best, while only 5.5% thought the Front of the House knew food safety best. These results are consistent with health department inspections nationwide. While the back continues to embrace the standards they are expected to adhere to, the front of the house is lacking in the most basic standards they are expected to understand.
This doesn’t mean run out and put your entire front of the house through an expensive training program, it means that food safety and sanitation should part of their basic training and understanding of their position in a foodservice establishment. If your front of the house is handling bread and butter, salads, salad dressings, desserts, condiments, or side dishes that compliment your menu, are they handling them correctly? On the beverage side, do they clean the coffee equipment, soda guns or fountains, beer spouts, ice bins, or glass cleaning equipment? All of which can grow and produce harmful bacteria’s that could pose a risk to your customers. Thus, incorporating cleaning and sanitation guidelines to your front of the house is a wise idea, and should be a part of your normal opening and closing routines for your operation.
The front of the house needs to understand that it is also their responsibility to clean, sanitize, and adhere to basic food safety and sanitation standards that your kitchen would similarly understand. Operations that fail to include basic food safety and sanitation standards to your front of the house are cutting themselves short.
But all of this goes further yet. Are your bussers clearing plates at the dish station? When they clear a table, are they using same towel over and over again to wipe the table? Do they know or understand which parts per million (PPM) are in the cleaning solution they use to clean trays, tables, or other front of the house equipment? If not, they should. They are just as important to the overall hazard analysis, critical control point or (HACCP) rules that your kitchen knows.
How about your hosts? The same criteria mentioned above suits them, too. Are your hosts wiping off menu’s with the your busperson’s cleaning solution? How often are they washing their hands when they come in contact with soiled dishes, bus tubs, silverware or tablecloths?
When combined, it’s important to realize that your front of the house can breed bacteria and other harmful toxins just as fast as it can occur in the kitchen. Make it part of your opening and closing routines, and your health department inspector will be proud of you!
Chef2Chef News Desk