If you have cooked in or run a restaurant in Melbourne, you know that you are playing to a tough crowd! Not only does the city have great restaurants serving all types of food at a range of prices, but you will also find that it is a town with a long memory.
If customers are provided with the right combination of food and atmosphere they’ll come back, possibly with friends in tow. The rumour mill also works for negative experiences however so if customers find themselves with food poisoning as a result of food from your establishment they are very unlikely to return.
When you are looking at a food poisoning outbreak, you are looking at your restaurant getting a lot of publicity that it doesn’t need. You’ll find that you may be risking a citation or a warning at best, and complete shut-down at worst. This is how important adequate hygiene is to your restaurant.
Guests who are unlucky enough to eat at a time when your food safety isn’t as high as it should be may become quite sick, and while many cases of food poisoning can be quite mild, others are extremely severe or unpleasant. This is most common when children or people with weakened immune systems are exposed to tainted food.
Bacteria may easily exist on raw food like eggs, seafood, uncooked rice, or even raw vegetables. For the most part, good washing practices and cooking will take care of the problems there, but if these foods come into contact with food that has already been prepared, the bacteria are able pass themselves on. Some bacteria can even be transferred through unwashed hands onto food that is ready to serve. Other pathogens or bacteria will develop on food that as been allowed to grow too warm or that has begun to spoil.
While it’s worthwhile to assume that everyone who works in the kitchen is cognizant of food safety, the reality is that very few are. Cooks come and go, wait staff come and go, and it’s a high traffic area. Make sure that you crack down hard on food safety violations, make sure that every work station is washed down with bleach water at the close of the day (bacteria grow most readily when left alone), and be ruthless about sanitation standards.
Likewise, segregate food storage; raw food should never come in contact with dishes ready to be served. Make sure that your milk is refrigerated, make sure that raw food is taken from the freezer or refrigerator just prior to being used, and in general, assume that your kitchen should be as sterile as a hospital.
In reality there are hundreds of ways that a food poisoning outbreak could occur. This is not however a reason to fear. Whilst most restaurant managers are fairly well versed in the essentials of food safety it is always worthwhile consulting with an expert to ensure that nothing gets overlooked.