Bathrooms and how to manage them. Restrooms and food safety.
The restroom is one of the first places the health department visits when they come to your shop. Why is this? Do they need to go to the bathroom? The answer is simple. The restroom is the first visit pathogens like to leave before they enter troubled or doomed food. Why? The answer is simple, poor personal hygiene. Simply put staff members may not be washing their hands or they may not be washing their hands correctly transferring pathogens to the food they prep and serve their customers.
So the visit to the restroom, is to check that there is soup and running water in the restroom. A proper dispenser of paper towels to dry your hands. A trash can. A clean toilet. But also for that sign. EMPLOYEES MUST WASH THEIR HANDS BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK!
Some simple advice that is linked to the Servsafe examination. NEVER dump mop water or dirty liquids into a toilet or urinal. It might contaminate the cleaning equipment and spread pathogens. Apply knowledge that you can learn from taking a course with Westchester Food Safety. Take our quick but extensive Food Manager’s Safety Protection Servsafe Certification. After all the health department requires it.
Learn easy concepts that will help keep your food safe and your employees doing their job well.
Some other advice it’s important that whoever manages a shop make a master cleaning schedule. Restrooms should be cleaned and cleaned when staff members are not preparing food or in between this process. That is why at night when your food establishment is closed you clean the restrooms and toilets and take out the evening trash.
If staff is not cleaning the restrooms well before you start your day, the restroom may need to be cleaned and this can cause unsafe food preparation practices. Employees are or likely to infect food if not trained correctly. Take action and make sure that your staff understands the risks and encourage them to clean after food prep, never before or during.
thoughts on this discussion?