Hospitality – Lets Talk Reputation

Lets Talk Reputation

A food business reputation can mean the difference between a packed house or a slow Friday night with empty tables and no one on the waitlist. All food business need to ask them selves, how much does their reputation truly weight in the eyes of the consumers and does it really impact the decision of going or not going to a restaurant? According to this Small Business Trends report survey, 94% of diners will choose your restaurant based on online reviews. Bad reviews can spread like wildfire, especially in this digital age.

This is a trend that isn’t likely to go away any time soon, if ever. Another study conducted by TripAdvisor revealed the same information, that the vast majority of diners consider online reviews before choosing a restaurant. The market is highly competitive nowadays.

Trip Advisor report

This report also revealed that more consumers than ever use and trust online review sites and social media for recommendations on where to eat – both at home and while traveling. Tripadvisor’s latest survey examines the impact of today’s most popular digital marketing channels and what factors influence diner decision making.

Closures

In April of this year, the FSAI closed down 6 premises in Monkstown and Booterstown for breaches of food safety legislation. This was announced by several news outlets including this Irish Times article and the Journal. This information will forever be on the internet , it will be difficult to restore their reputation.

Avoiding closures should be top priority for food businesses, one way to make sure you are compliant is to make sure your staff are up to date with courses under legalisation. From these courses your staff will know what is expected by law and the best practices for health and safety over a wide variety of topics.

Responding

Do you respond to your reviews? Responding to both positive and negative diner reviews can help you improve your restaurant’s service and reputation which will ultimately attract new customers to your business.

In fact, up to 94% of respondents to this survey indicated that they have read a Management Response to reviews, with the majority noting that they found it helpful and that it encouraged them to try a restaurant, despite a bad review as they saw the management taking constructive feedback on board and showing that they care about their customers and are always striving to improve themselves.

Let Us Help You

It has never been more important to make sure you are compliant with legislation. Let us help you. Not sure what you need to be compliant? We can help you with a FREE Training Needs Assessment.

 

New Course Packages

At the request of our clients, we have created Food Safety course packages at a cost savings if you bought them separately.

1. Food Safety (HACCP) 1 & Food Safety (HACCP) 2  Save €17 

2. Food Safety (HACCP) 1 & Management of Food Allergens Save €10

3. Food Safety (HACCP) 2 & Management of Food Allergens Save €11

4. Food Safety (HACCP) 1 & 2 & Management of Food Allergens Save €29

 

Choking risks in child safety

According to the HSE report on ‘Childhood injury in Ireland and the risk factors‘, Choking or Suffocation is in the top 6 most common causes of death in children in Ireland. In 2017 there was 53 injuries related childhood fatalities and over 15000 children were hospitalised. We at My Elearn Safety would like to educate parents and childcare providers so that we all may help to decrease the number of deaths and injuries to children.

According to an article in The Journal, on average an ambulance is called 17 timer per week for choking incidents. This figure caused a calling for childcare staff to be trained in dealing with choking hazards. Childcare staff now must have appropriate training to deal with a life-threatening incidents such as choking.

Source – thejournal.ie 

Top most commonly choked on items in children

Food Items:

• Hard Candy
• Meat
• Bone’s (meat, fish and chicken)
• Slimy fruit and vegetables
• Seeds, nuts and shells
• Popcorn, pretzels, crisps or similar snack food
• Biscuits & Crackers – anything that is very dry
• Hard raw vegetables

Although food is the most common cause of choking in young children. Please stay cautious to other smaller objects that your children may come into contact with or play with. Toys that are made for older children that may have smaller removable parts should be kept out of reach for small children.

Non – Food Items:

• Coins
• Undersized soothers
• Marbles
• Small toys
• Keys
• Batteries and button batteries
•  Ballons – both inflated or deflated. If a child bites an inflated ballon it pops and can enter the lungs.
• Jewellery
• Elastic bands or hair bobbins
• Crayons
• Wet wipes

Avoiding choking in children

• Supervision – This is key! Supervision is the single most important thing a parent, guardian or childcare provider can do to reduce the risk of a choking child.
• Sitting up while eating –  Sit your child upright and don’t allow them to eat while slumped or lying down.
• Discourage movement – Small movements while sitting upright doesn’t cause issues, however discourage large movements and also don’t allow your child to eat while they are walking or running.
• No talking – discourage your child to talk whilst they are chewing and only speak when the food has cleared their throat.
• Bite sized pieces – Before the age of 4, children are not able to properly grind their food whilst in the mouth. Knowing this, don’t give your children large pieces of food to eat. Cut into smaller bite sized pieces and encourage them to chew before swallowing. However if they do not chew before swallowing the smaller pieces shouldn’t lodge in their throat, or has a much smaller risk of lodging.

If your child is choking

If you are a parent, guardian or childcare provider, or even if there are small children in your family. Knowing how to respond effectively can save the child’s life. If you notice a child choking and they are still conscious, alert someone to call the ambulance and start acting straight away. If the child is not conscious, ring the ambulance straight away and see if you you can see the lodged item and remove it with your fingers.

 

If you would like to learn more about what you can do to educate yourself, take a look at our Paediatric First Aid Course overview here , if you have any further questions regarding our course, we would be happy to speak to you, email info@elearn.ie or call +353 1 693 1421.

Health and Safety checklist for Office Kitchen

Benefits of an office kitchen

Having an office kitchen facility for your employees is a great benefit, it encourages employees to make their own lunches which saves money. A common kitchen area also provides a break and social space for your employees to enjoy and recharge for their work productivity.

However Health and Safety should be implemented in all office kitchens to ensure cleanliness, avoid accidents and illnesses. This is for the safety of the employees and also to reduce the possibility of sick days from contamination or catching viruses from other employees.

Below is a list of the different ares of health and safety in office kitchens and a checklist to make sure you’re covered.

Health and Safety Checklist

Fridge

• If there are shared items in the Fridge, e.g. Milk/Butter/ Sauces etc.. is there a person assigned as Hygiene Officer to check for out of out date items?
• Is there a policy in place for employees to look after their own items in the fridge?
• Do you have a weekly or monthly fridge clean out and disinfectant schedule?
• Do you encourage employees to use air tight containers or wrap to avoid cross contamination, especially if there is someone with an allergy in the office.

Counters and Kitchen space

• Are the kitchen counters kept clean and clear?
• Is there a Hygiene Officer or cleaner that disinfects the kitchen area on a regular basis?
• Is there a policy in place for employees to clean up after themselves if using the kitchen facility?
• If there are tea towels provided for your employees, are they washed on a regular basis?
• Is there a fresh supply of Jcloths, dishwasher brushes and/or sponges available to your employees?

Chemicals

• Are cleaning equipment chemicals labelled appropriately?
• Are cleaning equipment chemicals stored appropriately and away from food?

Bins

• Have you supplied the appropriate bins for your employees?
• Do you have a policy in place for food waste not to be put in desk bins? Encourage employees to put food waste in the kitchen bin, a separate recycling food bin is ideal if you have that service available to you.
• Is there a system in place to change bins regularly? Especially if there is food waste in the bin, it should not sit there for more than 3 days.

Safety In the Workplace

Health and Safety in the  Workplace

So there’ll always be safety procedures. They’re not really ridiculous, but not having them would be. No matter what job you work in, it pays to be alert when it comes to health and safety.  Some jobs are obviously more dangerous than others, but accidents can happen in any type of workplace.  The best policy is always to prevent an accident occurring in the first place rather than trying to deal with the consequences afterwards.As an employee, what can you do?

Talk to your employer

Discuss any concerns you might have in relation to safety, health and welfare.  If you have never seen it, ask your employer for a copy of the company safety statement A Company safety statement is the basis for the management of safety and health in the workplace and sets out an action programme for safeguarding employees at work.

Be alert

Be continuously on the lookout for anything that could lead to an accident and be aware of the behaviour of your colleagues too.  An accident caused by a co-worker could easily impact on others so if someone is behaving recklessly, bring it to the attention of your employer.

Don’t take risks

If you feel that something is unsafe, then stand back and think about the best way to deal with it. Then If you can’t deal with it tell your employer.  Workplace accidents are often the result of human behaviour, i.e. cutting corners, rushing a job, taking chances…..think about the consequences of a bad accident and make sure you do everything you can to avoid it.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the responsibility for worker safety, health and welfare rests solely with your employer.  Under the law, employers certainly have a wide range of duties….but so do employees, including those that have part-time or temporary roles, regardless of any employment or contractual arrangement they may have.  All employees must:

• Comply with relevant laws and protect their own safety and health, as well as the safety and health of anyone who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work.
• Ensure that they are not under the influence of any intoxicant to the extent that they could be a danger to themselves or others while at work.
• Cooperate with their employer with regard to safety, health and welfare at work.
• Not engage in any improper conduct that could endanger their own safety or health or that of anyone else.
• Participate in safety and health training offered by their employer.
• Make proper use of all machinery, tools, substances, etc. and of all Personal Protective Equipment provided for use at work.
• Report any defects in the place of work, equipment, etc. which might endanger safety and health.

We do lots of combined courses online and on location, Contact us and we will look after your Safety training.

Health and Food Safety Audit Explained

Health and Food Safety

Food Safety concerns everyone. The European Commission and its Directorate for Health and Food Safety are responsible for checking in the EU and in countries exporting to the EU that the Safety Systems put in place by national authorities to control food safety, animal health and welfare as well as plant health, are all in line with the EU´s very high standards. The Commission works in close cooperation with national authorities to ensure that the highest standards of food safety are upheld and constantly improved, so that all 500 million EU consumers and you can have confidence in the food we eat.

 

Things You Should Know About Food Safety (Part 3)

Let’s continue food safety topic and learn more today about knife safety and also appropriate cooking temperatures.  In our previous blog, we looked at high-risk foods and how to freeze food correctly,  if you missed it you can always catch up and read about it here.

The eLearn team is highly experienced and fully-qualified health and safety instructors we have over 27 years combined experience as Safety Partitioners. Our mission is to educate you about food safety and how to deal with food on a daily basis. If you have more questions, our team of specialist will be happy to answer any of them, check our contact page here.

 

Knife Safety

You probably don’t hear about a lot about knife safety, but it’s essential to know how to be safe with your knives in the kitchen.

The most important thing regarding knife safety is to make sure your knives are always as sharp as possible and not damaged.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but you’re much more likely to hurt yourself with a blunt knife than you are with one that’s been properly sharpened. A blunt knife requires you to use more force to cut, which means that if you do slip, you could easily injure yourself, as opposed to the small cut you might get with a very sharp knife.

Do not forget to replace your knives when the blade gets too thin.  A knife that’s been sharpened so often that the blade is starting to thin out becomes a breaking hazard, and the last thing you want is to have the tip of your knife snap off while you’re preparing dinner!

 

Appropriate Cooking Temperatures

After we spoke about food safety, we would like to move to the actual food cooking.

The minimum safe internal temperature for any cooked food is 85C/185F – but many foods require a higher internal temperature to be safe.

It’s easy to tell if food is cooked – it will look and smell like it is, and being able to see the surface or perform an easy test like sticking a fork in it is enough. However, when it comes to things like roast meats – especially roast poultry – or larger serving sizes, things can get tricky.

Chefs and other experienced cooks often have tricks to determine whether food has been cooked to a safe internal temperature, but if you haven’t got the experience to fall back on, your best bet is to get an inexpensive meat thermometer. They’re very easy to use – you just insert them into the meat or dish you’re preparing – and cook until the correct internal temperature is reached. They’re often marked with optimal internal temperatures for common types of meat, so it’s straightforward to see whether your food is safe.

This is especially handy with home ovens, which may not be heating to the temperature it says on the dial, for some reasons.

 

Preparing and cooking your food doesn’t have to be a minefield once you know how to be safe about it!  If you are interested in getting a Food Safety certification, you can find more information here.

Things You Should Know About Food Safety (Part 2)

Things You Should Know About Food Safety (Part 2)Today we would like to continue food safety topic and talk about high-risk foods and how to freeze food correctly. If you missed our first blog, you can find it here.

Food safety is about handling, storing and preparing food in order to prevent infection and help to make sure that our food keeps enough nutrients for us to have a healthy diet. If food and water is unsafe, it means that it has been exposed to dirt and germs. Or, it may even be rotten, which can cause infections or diseases.

High-Risk Foods

We all know that raw poultry and fresh seafood are high risks, but what other foods do you need to be concerned about? Here’s a few you might not have known about:

Cooked rice, pasta, and noodles. The high carbohydrate and moisture content of these foods make them an ideal breeding ground for bacteria (and if left long enough, mould).

Milk and cream are also a high risk because of high sugar and moisture content. Soft cheeses also fall under this category, though if refrigerated correctly should last much longer.

Ice cream! You might never have thought that ice cream could be on this list but due to barely-cooked eggs and milk, it can be high risk. Have you ever seen that gooey, slightly darker crust on an opened tub? That’s a film of bacteria.

Fresh fruit and vegetables. At a bare minimum, these need to be washed thoroughly before eating. It’s not just food-borne bacteria you need to worry about with fresh produce, but soil-borne bacteria and the ingredients in pesticides (even organic ones) and fertilisers.

Eggs. Whether raw eggs are high-risk or not will largely depend on hygiene practices where you live. However, cooked, or worse, semi-cooked eggs are very high risk foods and should be consumed quickly or refrigerated, and not allowed to sit for longer than necessary.

Freezing Food Correctly

Some food safety charts assert that frozen food will remain safe indefinitely. In ideal conditions this would be true, but if you’ve found a way to get your freezer to a state of ‘ideal conditions’ I would love to know all your secrets.

That said, freezing food is a great way to preserve it long-term. Provided you freeze it wrapped correctly in cling film or kept in the original packaging, food can stay for a year or longer in a good freezer.

It is essential that food be as fresh as possible when you freeze it, so if you know you aren’t going to use it before it spoils, you should freeze it straight away rather than waiting for the last minute. Freezing works by halting the growth of bacteria, so having less bacteria in the food before you freeze gives you the best chance of having it come out safe and tasty.

If you defrost food partially or entirely, use it within 36 hours. Do not refreeze defrosted food.

If the covering on your food has torn, leaked, or is otherwise damaged, discard it. If anything doesn’t look or smell right when you defrost it, discard it.

Do not defrost frozen food on the bench. Either apply heat (like the defrost setting on your microwave) or let it defrost in the fridge. Placing it on the bench to defrost exposes food to the temperature danger zone, potentially for much longer than the safe period.

Preparing and cooking your food doesn’t have to be a minefield once you know how to be safe about it!  If you are interested in getting a Food Safety certification, you can find more information here.

Things You Should Know About Food Safety

Why Is Food Safety Important?

Foodborne illnesses are a preventable and underreported public health problem. These illnesses are a burden on public health and contribute significantly to the cost of healthcare. They also present a major challenge to certain groups of people. Although anyone can get a foodborne illness, some people are at greater risk.

Safer food promises healthier and longer lives and less costly health care, as well as a more resilient food industry.

Preparing and cooking your food doesn’t have to be a minefield once you know how to be safe about it! We would like to cover the primary and most important parts of food safety for those who are unsure about it or just beginning to prepare food for themselves. Cooking is an important life skill that’s well worth the learning, but it’s better to do the right way. Within next few weeks we will give you some food safety tips that will be handy for you to have.

So, let’s get down to the basics of food safety:

The Temperature Danger Zone

The temperature danger zone is probably an essential concept in food safety. It’s between 4C (40F) and 60C (140F), which is the temperature zone in which food-borne bacteria multiply rapidly.
Within four hours in this temperature zone, bacteria on food will likely have multiplied to dangerous levels and should be discarded.
Refrigerators need to be set below the minimum end of the scale – that is, they should be colder than 4C/40F, to ensure that bacterial growth is kept to a minimum. Refrigerating food extends its life considerably.
When being kept warm, the internal temperature of food must be above 60C/140F (this applies to refrigerated temperatures also, but it’s easier to cool food all the way through than heat it all the way through).
Freezing food slows bacterial growth almost to a complete halt, though frozen food does not remain safe indefinitely (more on that further down).

You can get more information about Food Safety certification here.

Asbestos Safety

Attention all Employers regarding Asbestos Safety:

FACT: Inhalation of asbestos will cause lung damage and possibly lung cancer. THERE IS NO
CURE! Asbestos Safety is a major concern.

Question: Have you done all you can legally and morally to make sure all your employees are safe
and do not contract a potentially fatal disease from working in your workplace?

Employers Duties:

All employers have a duty to manage and conduct work activities to ensure the safety, health &
welfare of all employees. In order to comply with their legal requirements, employers must identify
hazards in the workplace.

Asbestos may be identified as a high risk hazard in such working activities as upgrading of existing
buildings e.g. schools built prior to 1980, demolition works, repairs to roofing in farm sheds,
replacement of boilers and pipework, replacement of windows, removal of partition walls. If the
asbestos is damaged and the fibers are released into the air, they will certainly be inhaled or
swallowed by anyone in that danger zone resulting in very severe consequences for them.

Fibers are so tiny that you cannot see them with the naked eye.

Asbestos was used worldwide and valued for its fire retardant properties.

Around 456 BC, Herodotus, the classical Greek historian, referred to the use of asbestos
shrouds wrapped around the dead before their bodies were tossed onto the funeral pyre to
prevent their ashes from being mixed with those of the fire itself.

Romans were said to have woven asbestos fibres into a cloth-like material that was then sewn
into table cloths and napkins. These cloths were cleaned by throwing them into a blistering
fire, from which they came out miraculously unharmed and whiter than when they went in.

Do not take chances when it comes to Asbestos safety. Its not worth it.

If you would like to learn more about protecting yourself and your employees from the dangers of asbestos please check out our courses in Fire Safety.

For more information view our online safety courses.

Also see https://mesothelioma.net/mesothelioma/