Food Safety First

Above, reach-in cooling and heating units keep foods at temperature during transport. Note the ServSafe¨ Center, which provides information and tools for food safety. Right, a chef oversees poultry prep (note the use of gloves).

Putting HACCP Safety Practices Into Action, Part I
An on-site operation, a family dining chain and an independent show how food safety practices translate into good business.

At ARAMARK's Pentagon Unit, Food Safety is No Secret The Pentagon, Washington, D.C., is home to ARAMARK at The Pentagon, a large foodservice facility featuring a 37-page menu that feeds approximately 18,000 customers daily. The food choices are astounding and Donald Ritenour, general manager, has the enormous responsibility of coordinating all food safety practices in order to ensure wholesome, quality food. Having spent 25 years in the Marine Corps, he has the supervisory and coordinating skills necessary to ensure a tight, smoothly run operation.

The lunch menus at the ARAMARK account offer a huge variety. Two cafeterias each service between 3,500 to 4,500 customers daily. The traditional cafeteria features hot entrees, healthful foods, seafood, grill, carving, broiling, and sandwich stations, as well as fruit, dessert and beverage bars. A fast-food cafeteria features a wok, hickory smoke grill, chicken station, Mexican fare, pizza, display cooking, coffee and dessert stations. ARAMARK also runs a 310-seat dining room and three snack bars which serve approximately 5,000 customers daily, and are open for breakfast. The bake staff comes in at 10 p.m. in order to ensure the next day's pastries are fresh.

Ritenour and his staff are extremely concerned with time and temperature-a key element of HACCPÑwhen executing safe food handling practices. For example, all of the ingredients used to make tuna salad, such as mayonnaise, celery and onions, are chilled prior to preparation and the salad is placed into 38°F-pre-chilled salad bar pans during the process.

Another procedure to ensure time and temperature control is to prep food in small batches. For example, employees prepare carry-out chef salad bowls in batches of 25, yet they make more than 300 a day, says Ritenour. Cold salads, such as potato, tuna and coleslaw are transported to snack bars and to each service point in insulated containers or electrically controlled carts at 38°F.

The salads also are immediately refrigerated upon delivery to service areas, which feature reach-in units. Temperatures of the product are taken throughout preparation and every 30 minutes during service. The same precautionary procedures are used for all cold foods featured at the salad and sandwich bars.

In the dining room, all foods are cooked to order, thus providing another safety control. "Cooking to order ensures the foods are cooked to temperature and eliminates holding times, which can both lead to the growth of bacteria if not done properly," says Ritenour.

Soups are heated to 165°F before being placed into 10-gallon, preheated vacuum containers which maintain the temperature of soups and sauces between the production and service points. The soups are then placed into 140°F-heated kettles in service. Hot foods for the service lines are kept in electrical cabinets similar to the cabinets used to keep cold foods at temperature.

HACCP won't work unless employees understand the principles and have those principles reinforced every day. To this end, Ritenour placed a ServSafe¨ Center bulletin board in the salad prep room (because salads require very careful handling) to remind employees and managers of critical practices needed to produce food safely.

The board provides the Tip of the Week, as well as information provided by the Educational Foundation. Pamphlets on topics such as handwashingÑa procedure that Ritenour continually stresses-are displayed so that managers can distribute them to employees. The board also features a holder for spare thermometers. Supervisors typically take food temperatures and they must make sure the thermometers are always clean and sanitized before they're returned to their place.

A ServSafe instructor, Ritenour himself trains all employees in food safety. In such a busy operation, why does he feel a need to personally train the facility's 232 foodservice employees? "I conduct the classes myself in order to show the importance of sanitation. If I, as general manager, take on that responsibility, it becomes more important to the employees," he explains.

To be continued in the next issue...