The Fourth of July is a popular holiday for entertaining. Whether you’re hosting a cookout, beach picnic, or poolside fiesta, follow proper food safety precautions to keep the foods – and your guests – safer. With warm summer temperatures, outdoor entertaining, a buffet style feeding frenzy, and the chaos
Continue Reading Don’t skyrocket to the bathroom or hospital this Independence Day
Day after day, I watch the list of foodborne illness casualties accumulate. As a food safety expert, I receive a ridiculous number of recall alerts and foodborne illness outbreak notices daily. And I watch in amazement as the food service industry continues to be in denial about our country’s
Continue Reading Will the foodservice industry ever knock down it’s brick wall of denial?
It seems like edible cannabis is available everywhere these days. Dispensaries are popping up around the country, and people can easily purchase edible marijuana online, including on popular e-retail sites like Etsy and Amazon. It’s available in a variety of forms, including capsules, lollipops, gummy bears, cookies, chocolate bars
Continue Reading Is the edible marijuana industry doomed to become a pot full o’ pathogens?
To create a food safety culture in any organization, there first must be understanding of what this means.
I frequently discuss the importance of having a food safety culture with operators of a variety types of companies, and they all tell me the same thing: “my company has a great
Continue Reading Shared values are the foundation for a culture of food safety
When designing a commercial kitchen, many people consider how the space will look, when they should be primarily concerned with how it will function. The design should maximize efficiency and productivity, but it also must promote proper food safety protocols.
No matter how much time and
Continue Reading Food safety experts can help design kitchens to reduce risks
I’ve been in the food service industry all of my life. As a child, I remember spending the warm summer days sitting on the front porch of my Grandma’s country store – a convenience store of yesteryear – in Harrisonville, PA.
When I was a few years older, my parents
Continue Reading A Day in the Life of an Inspector: Is that a dead goat?
The holidays have come and gone, and many of us have started the countdown to kickoff Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston. Like so many Americans, I get pretty excited about the Super Bowl – especially if my home team, Pittsburgh, is playing.
Now, I’m not going to profess tremendous
Continue Reading Seven-layer dip to die for? Keep your Super Bowl buffet safe
It’s estimated that the average person will get norovirus five times during their lifetime. Globally, there are 685 million cases of norovirus each year, with approximately 20 million of those cases occurring in the United States. Norovirus is the number one foodborne illness – and the leading cause of foodborne
Continue Reading Norovirus isn’t rocket science: Wash your freakin’ hands
