Start a Restaurant

estaurants have a natural challenge that just comes with the territory: cleanliness and food safety. It seems not a day goes by without another horror story in the news about contaminated food products. Restaurants get routinely shut down by the Health Department. Even if things don’t get that bad for your business, all it takes is for a delivery person to see a puddle of muck on the floor in your kitchen for a bad word-of-mouth campaign to start circulating about your establishment. The media reports cases of food poisoning on a daily basis in spite of the fact that the fast food business is flourishing.It seems fast food has become the American way and the public will go blindly forth ordering with the expectation that the food has been prepared in sanitary conditions. From bug problems to breeding bacteria, fast food restaurants especially have countless issues behind their counters. The rules are put into place and enforced by management, inspectors, the Food and Drug Administration, and so forth, are there as the minimum defense, and just the beginning. If you are the manager, awareness on your part isn’t enough; you have to be vigilant in ensuring that every employee knows and follows the rules to the letter.

One of the most common causes of food poisoning is bacteria transfer, which is due to food not being properly cooked or kept at the proper temperature. With such a demand for fast food, it is often all too easy for the employees to compromise their duties for the sake of saving time, and before they know it, they’ve served a meal that carries a nasty risk of food poisoning. The rules should be followed every time, not some of the time, as is unfortunately sometimes the case.

It is up to the management to see that the employees are properly doing their job, and, of course, effective management makes all of the difference in this endeavor. Close supervision is a necessity to help ensure that the work is being performed properly. Employees must care about their job and in return feel valued so that they will be more willing to perform their responsibilities correctly. Too often, factors like low pay, long hours, and little recognition makes employees more likely to burn out and do less than what is expected of them. Also, improper training of staff leads to improper fulfillment of job duties.

Unclean areas like counters or tables where food has been prepared can also spread bacteria and cause food poisoning. That is why it is important for employees to clean up after themselves and make sure that their work space is kept fastidiously clean. Also, food containers that haven’t been properly washed and stock that hasn’t been properly rotated are havens for bacteria. (more…)

Who doesn’t love fried foods? Fried chicken, fried fish, chicken fried steak, fried veggies; lunches and dinners are often accompanied with fried; potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, french fries, onion rings… Detail breaks often include meeting fellow officers for donuts and coffee. The tastier donuts are deep-fried- Of course!

The FDA estimates the average American eats

4.7 pounds of trans-fats each year!

The two primary reasons why doctors caution against eating fried foods are:

1. Since saturated fats are impossible to process, they clog the liver and arteries (early on causing GI issues, and over time immune disorders/diseases).

2. High heat destroys any nutritional value the food might have started with; High heat also chemically changes trans-fat oils into potential carcinogens.

Fast Food restaurants are in business to make a profit. Instead of replacing spent oil with fresh oil, they simply top off the fryers with fresh oil.

If you like fried foods that much, eat them at home, where you control the quality of the oil (coconut is very good), as well the cooking time and temperature. CAUTION: (more…)

Have you ever wondered how clean the carpet is in the restaurants where you eat? It makes you wonder how often they need to clean their carpets. Just think about how many people travel across those floors in a day and all the servers walking back and forth spilling drinks as they fill your glass. Not to mention all the plates of food they drop. Well, have you thought about how often they clean their carpet?

I know what you may be thinking… it all depends on how much business they have. I have been a commercial carpet cleaner for fourteen years, and believe me I know.

THEY DON’T CLEAN ENOUGH.

Let’s compare your house against restaurants, easy enough. The carpet manufacturers say you should clean your carpet in your house every six months for your health. Wow! I bet that was a shocker. Ok, that gives us a number to work with. Say you have four people living in your home that leave and come back five times a day. That equals twenty people a day entering your doorway. Now times that by thirty (now I’m testing your math skills). That equals six hundred people walking through you door a month. That is three thousand six hundred people in six months walking in your door. (more…)