Be Ready for the Health Inspector With San Jamar Food Safety Tools

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With so many concerns out there around safe food handling, San Jamar is dedicated to providing the most advanced food safety tools to fight bacteria and food borne illnesses.

San Jamar knows and understands the challenges that go along with running a busy restaurant and handling a surprise visit from the health inspector.  Because it could happen on any given day, San Jamar wants you to treat every day as Health Inspection Day. This means not only following food safety guidelines on a daily basis, but also training your staff to understand the importance of food safety.

Today I want to walk through the areas of a typical health inspection and prove how San Jamar products cover all the bases when it comes to passing the test.

food product being mixed1. Food must be cooled by an approved method so that the internal temperature is reduced from 135° F to 70° F within 2 hours, and from 70° F to 41° F or lower within the next 4 hours after that.

Hands down, the best way to ensure proper cooling of food is to use a cold paddle. San Jamar Rapi-Kool® Cold Paddles take the worry out of cooling your soups, sauces, and other liquids because they simply do it faster than the refrigerator. Easy-to-clean and store, you can pre-fill these with water and pop in the freezer or just fill them with water and ice.

2. You must be able to show that all food is being stored, prepared, transported, and displayed in a way that protects from potential contamination.

Cutting boards

The best way to avoid cross contamination is by using color coded kitchen supplies and using smart storage solutions from San Jamar. The San Jamar Saf-T-Grip® Cutting Boards come in multiple colors, have a built-in hook for sanitary storage, plus are designed with anti-slip corners that hold the board in place and eliminate the need for placing a hand towel underneath for traction (a health-inspector no-no).

3. Any surfaces in the kitchen that come into contact with food must be washed, rinsed or sanitized. Most health inspectors would want to see this done in between “tasks” or following any activity where some sort of contamination could have occurred.Washing equipment in colored pails

Here’s where San Jamar Kleen-Pails® come in handy. Your health inspector will love seeing that you take the time to differentiate between your sanitizer and your neutral cleaning solution by using different color cleaning buckets. HAACP guidelines for cleaning and sanitizing clearly define green for cleaning/neutral solutions, and red for sanitizers. San Jamar goes the extra mile and offers cleaning pails in yellow and blue, with a blank spot where you can create a label for the contents.

4. Because chemicals can be a food safety hazard, you’ll need to show the health inspector that you use a thermometer and test strips to ensure safe sanitizer levels.

If your sanitizer-to-water ratio is off or the water is too hot, then the solution could either be too weak to do its job, or so strong that it doesn’t evaporate and ends up in someone’s food. Both dangerous food hazards! Use a San Jamar Saf-Check® System to test your Quaternary or Chlorine cleaning solution for the proper concentration and temperature.

5. Employees Must Wash Hands!

Your inspection will most certainly entail an audit of hand-washing practices. You must have hand-sinks in your kitchen that provide soap dispensing and hand drying devices and San Jamar provides the whole package when it comes to proper hand hygiene. A popular choice is the Oceans line of Touchless Towel Dispensers because they take any brand of paper towels, even those tricky 100% recycled paper products.

6. Food must be properly stored and labeled.
Take the hassle out of food labeling with the San Jamar Saf-T-Wrap Station.
This includes date marking and labeling that follows your HAACP plan. Thanks to San Jamar, you can create a food labeling and rotation system using the Saf-T-Wrap® Station.

Not only do these wrap stations include everything you need to be organized (stickers, pen holder, and flat surface for writing) but choosing a wrap station made of plastic is safer, since cardboard foil and wrap dispensers can harbor bacteria and contaminate food product. Brownie points!

Cold foods, on the line or behind the bar, must be properly held at 41° F or below.

We suggest trying San Jamar Garnish Centers and Caddies. The Dome® and Mini Dome® Garnish Centers are designed for bartenders by bartenders. The chillable trays are portable and can be removed quite easily to facilitate cleaning and restocking no matter how busy the bar is.

8. Never forget about the ice machine.

Health Inspectors will check that there is no potential for contaminated ice from improper ice scoop storage or ice transportation. Grab a few Saf-T-Ice totes and scoops to make sure you pass this part of the inspection with flying colors.

Person scooping ice from ice machine

9. Personal Protective Equipment must be used to prevent the food contamination from transmissible diseases.

Anyone in your kitchen that could potentially cut or burn themselves should be using the proper gloves to protect themselves and the food they are handling. San Jamar has you covered with high-temp Neoprene™ rubber gloves and antimicrobial stainless steel mesh cut gloves.

Purple food allergy kit with Chef in background

10. Allergy awareness.

According to FARE® (Food Allergy Research & Education), 15 million Americans suffer from some sort of food allergy.  Your establishment should take this seriously and consider using San Jamar’s solution to the allergy hazard: Purple Non-Allergen cooking supplies.  Take precaution and rest easy with the San Jamar Saf-T-Zone™ Purple Allergen System which includes a chef’s knife, tongs, turner, and a cutting board all in purple. Educate your kitchen staff to use these utensils only when alerted that a certain dish needs to be prepared allergen free.

In conclusion, we hope this guide will help you feel not only more prepared for the next surprise Board of Health inspection, but also more aware of where hazards exist in your kitchen.  San Jamar is a brand dedicated to providing all the tools you need to achieve the highest level of food safety and protect your business, your employees, and your loyal customers.

Shop All Food Safety Supplies from San Jamar

About Dot Brantley

Dot Brantley is the Online Marketing Coordinator for Tundra Restaurant Supply. Having dabbled in pastry arts, restaurant management, and events coordinating, she brings a unique mix of industry knowledge to the table. Beyond her day job, she loves live music, adventuring in the Rockies, and overall enjoying the newfound glory of having weekends off.

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