You have enough on your plate (literally and figuratively) without having to worry about health code violations and customers getting sick. Here are our easiest ways to improve food safety without a lot of extra time and effort.

1. Get Better Food Safety Training

Online food handler and allergen courses are more effective at training employees. With a 94 percent pass rate, video-based food safety classes make learning more convenient and offers opportunities for free refresher courses that help maintain high standards and ongoing education. Keeping your customers safe also starts with online allergen training, a key component to serving the approximately 15 million Americans each year with food allergies. Food safety begins and ends with employee training, so choose a program like Always Food Safe's Food Handler or Allergen Awareness training.

2) Stock Up On SuppliesDec 30, 2017 1:02:41 AM

Buying affordable large quantities of sanitation and hygiene gear is one of the easy ways to avoid health code violations. Buying in bulk is cheaper than purchasing smaller quantities of items with hiked prices, allowing you to make smart business decisions for both your wallet and the law. All-inclusive tools like the SmartCompliance First Aid Cabinet also meet the first aid legal requirements for a team of 25 and makes restocking simple, while cut-resistant gloves can prevent you from having any problems at all. Being prepared is essential with increasing food-inspector visits mandated by the FDA.

Here's a list of key food safety products you need to keep in stock:

3) Revamp your Food Rotation System

If you’ve had problems with your food rotation system in the past, don’t hesitate to try a method that can streamline food safety for your team. Incorporating detailed food labels into your routine can strengthen your written prevention plan, a FDA requirement established in 2011 with the Food Safety Modernization Act.

With more than 500 different food rotation labels available, there’s no reason to stick to a hazardous method when the food rotation labels are specifically designed to help prevent food borne illness and cross contamination of food products. If handwritten labels don’t work for your team, a system like the Date Code Genie automates the rotation process entirely for unparalleled speed and organization.

4) Go Beyond the Kitchen

Do you know how many people have touched that $20 bill? You probably don’t want to. With an estimated rotation span of 15 years, cash carries hundreds of species of microorganisms including viruses, E. coli, salmonella and staph bacteria, research has shown. When taking food safety beyond just the kitchen, cleaning your point of sale with a touch-screen safe wipes can go a long way, and a pack of washable microfiber towels can take care of the rest. Don’t forget to clean surfaces that are often forgotten— like drawer and cabinet handles, the phone, push-doors and door knobs— to make sure that food remains uncontaminated while in route to customers. Going the extra mile to keep your restaurant clean will pay off in te long-run, as the FDA now faults restaurants for ignoring man-made risks to foodborne illness.

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