Restaurant 101: The Importance of Proper Food Safety and Sanitation Training

Read time: 2.5 minutes
By: ServingIntel

If your work requires you to handle food, it is mandatory that you understand proper food safety and sanitation responsibilities. Food hygiene training is essential in that aspect and is the best way for you to learn about proper food handling duties. This also guarantees that the food is safe, and you show compliance with the rules and regulations.  

Food safety and sanitation training allow you to obtain the following advantages:  

Prevention of Cross-contamination  

Inappropriate handling of food can lead to cross-contamination. Harmful bacteria may spread from one area to another. For example, if you are using one board for chopping meat, you should not use the same board for preparing ready-to-eat vegetables. 

It is important to avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen as well as other food sections of your restaurant. The tiniest amount of contamination can cause allergic reactions, and worse, food poisoning. Bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli can transmit easily from food onto utensils, countertops, and people’s hands, and then onto the food that is about to be served.  

Food sanitation training guarantees that restaurant employees know how to avoid cross-contamination and protect customers from illness.  

Food Waste is Lessened 
Improper food handling practices usually lead to food becoming expired or not good for consumption. Storing food at unsuitable temperatures, inappropriate containers, or no proper system for food rotation can contribute. With food hygiene, you know how to store and arrange food accordingly. This helps in maintaining better food quality, reduces food waste, and saves you money and time.   

Improve Effectiveness 
If you work following food and sanitation practices, then the restaurant will have a better flow and run smoothly. It will be easier to promote the division of labor, preventing errors that could lead to staff doing tasks twice. As a result, you can cater to more customers and improve customer satisfaction with high-quality service.   

Positive Workplace Promotion 
Since hygiene training correlates to good practices, it enhances people’s enthusiasm to follow them. This will become a widely practiced culture in the business world and will prevent employees and staff from becoming overly confident.  

Creates a Positive Character 
If you uphold proper food sanitation practices, customers will acknowledge your efforts, trust that your food handling process and your food is safe and will want to do business with you. Food safety and sanitation training gives employees the right information they can use to create and maintain a positive character.   

Takeaway 
Food hygiene training shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you value your business and your customers, receiving training should be a top priority. Not only will this be good for your business and brand reputation, but to yourself too.  

About ServingIntel 
ServingIntel is an international hospitality technology company that creates cloud-based enterprise and point-of-sale solutions serving a variety of hospitality industries, including restaurants, country clubs, hospitals, and senior living communities. Providing complete software, mobile hardware, and business intelligence software through its ServingIntel.com platform, ServingIntel increases revenue and profit in foodservice operations, while enhancing service and quality levels for the guests. 

Reference: 
https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/importance-of-food-hygiene-training/