Preventative Food Safety Guidelines in the Workplace

Restaurant and food service businesses offer one key service element that differentiates them from other businesses: serving and preparing food and drink for their patrons. As a result, employers within the industry must proactively contend with food and nutrition safety requirements, as the food and drink they serve must be safe, and not adversely affect the health of their customer.

Interestingly, proactive food safety standards were not introduced until the late 1950’s. Before this time, food handling and safety procedures were more reactive in nature, and standards were not put into action until an error occurred. Proactive food safety standards were first introduced when Pillsbury teamed up with NASA to develop protocol to keep astronauts’ food safe for space voyage. With this, a proactive and scientific approach to food safety was introduced: a seven-step series of proactive measures referred to as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).

HACCP is used to proactively identify food safety hazards on a biological, chemical, and physical level. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates HACCP standards for food manufacturing facilities that process: juice, seafood, meat, and poultry. However, HACCP standards are not required for all restaurant or food service businesses within the U.S. yet. Restaurateurs opening new establishment should contact their local health department prior to opening, to determine if an HACCP plan is required in their area. The seven steps of HACCP include:

1. Conduct hazard risk analysis: During this step, analyze where potential problems may occur and determine the risk so you can plan for prevention. For example, keep in mind that some foods are more potentially hazardous then others and plan accordingly, such as raw beef vs. raw vegetables.


2. Determine critical points: A “critical point” is a step, or procedure in food manufacturing process where a user can apply control in order to prevent a food safety hazard from occurring.


3. Establish critical limits for each critical point: Establish critical limits for each critical point to prevent food illnesses from occurring. For example, cooking beef at a minimum of 15 seconds at 160 degrees Fahrenheit; the approved critical limit for killing bacteria.


4. Monitoring: In this step, assign ownership for tracking and monitoring purposes. For instance, cooks should be in charge of checking beef temperatures to verify the minimum cooking temperature is met.


5. Corrective Actions: Establish corrective actions to ensure compliance with guideline objectives.


6. Verification: Establish a system to verify ongoing precautionary procedures and update as needed. In addition, consider checking with your local health department to ensure current preparation and handling methods are up-to-date and accurate.


7. Documentation. Establish and implement documentation and recordkeeping procedures to ensure food safety compliance protocol. This may include maintaining detailed checklists and logs so employees can easily record ongoing hazard prevention procedures.

• Categorized list of potentially hazardous food items: Create a categorized list of food items, grouping items that are similar or like kind together.


• Flow diagram for categorized food items: Create a flow chart for each potentially hazardous food group, from the time of food preparation, until the time the food is served to a customer.


• Employee-training program: Prepare a plan that outlines how supervisory and kitchen staff will be trained on HACCP requirements.


• Operating procedure standards: Post standard operating procedures including the Seven Steps of HACCP Poster in a prominent workplace area, so all employees clearly understand requirements.


• Additional Information as needed: Note that local health department may require additional information unique to your municipality. When this is the case, make additions to your HACCP plan as needed.

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