Tag Archives: Training

Poop-free cakes come from sanitary facilities, safety-minded bakers

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I once watched a grandmotherly woman dipping her fingers in a big tub of donut icing and spreading them on fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, as she explained to me that her procedure was much quicker than the spatula-method I was using. That may have been so, but we were working in a retail donut shop where bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat products wouldn’t fly with the health inspectors.

You have the right to treat your own food in any manner you please. But when feeding others, you’re obligated to do all you can to make it safe.

A mom of three in Teaneck, New Jersey, wanted to bake and sell "mortgage apple cakes" to forestall the foreclosure on her home. When more than 500 orders for the $40 cakes came in, Angela Logan was ready to get baking.

But, according to the Associated Press, Teaneck’s health officer notified Logan that it was against state law to use her house as a commercial kitchen.

She would have to bake in a kitchen subject to food safety inspections.

The AP reports that, since the notification, "the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights has allowed Logan to cook in the hotel’s kitchen, where she can produce up to 10 cakes at a time."

That’s very generous of the hotel. I wonder if they gave Logan any food safety training, or just the use of inspected facilities? Both are important if Logan’s customers are going to have their cakes and eat them, too.

Nobody wants to eat poop.

NEHA 2009 Annual Educational Conference training showcase materials

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I’m in Atlanta for the National Environmental Health Association’s Educational Conference.

At 1pm today I’ll be presenting during the Food Safety Training Showcase (Courtland Rm at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta for those of you who are in town).

You can find the materials I’ll be presenting at bites.ksu.edu/NEHA2009.

Toronto takes on feds, province, issues own food safety agenda

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I hear from local public health officials all the time, and the ones in Canada repeatedly say the single food inspection agency — known creatively as, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency – sucks.

The provincial regulators also suck.

So after years of taking it, the City of Toronto is once again trailblazing when it comes to serving the public – those who end up barfing from bad food – and has come up with its own idea of a food safety system that serves people.

Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star reports this morning that in a series of three reports to be presented to Toronto city council on Monday (available at http://www.toronto.ca/health/moh/foodsecurity.htm), foodborne illness in Toronto is rampant and that in order to have fewer people barfing:

• Ontario should consider compensating food handlers who  are too sick to come to work due to "gastrointestinal illness;"
 
•  Ontario and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency should provide "full and timely disclosure of the food safety performance of all food premises
they inspect;” and,
 
• mandatory food handler training and certification, as recommended in the Justice Haines report of 2004 (that was my contribution).

A related story maintains that cases of foodborne illness began to fall almost immediately after Toronto began making restaurant inspection results public in 2001.

John Filion, chair of the city’s board of health, said it is the clearest evidence yet of the public health benefits of transparency.

Good for Toronto, especially when the feds and the province leave the locals out to dry on outbreaks of foodborne illness. In the Aug. 2008 outbreak of listeria linked to Maple Leaf deli meats, Toronto health types said they had plenty of evidence something was amiss in July, but CFIA and others refused to go public until Aug. 17, 2008. So with a federal listeria inquiry set to begin Monday, and Maple Leaf all focused on federal regulations, how are Maple Leaf executives going to handle pesky local health units like Toronto – the ones who actually do the work, uncover outbreaks and create their own headlines.

Could video games be a key to food handler training effectiveness?

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Food handler training, required or encouraged in various jurisdictions across North America has been demonstrated by multiple studies to have various results. Most of the published research has focused on looking at inspection results, but in 2000, researchers in Oregon (April 2009 issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease) explored food handler food safety knowledge.

During April–September 2000 researchers administered a 28- question survey distilled from a longer survey obtained from the Oregon Food Handler Certification Program with 407 food handlers from 67 randomly-selected restaurants.The researchers found that their participants averaged 68% on the test. Significant differences were observed between managers’ average test scores and those of line staff: 74% versus 67%, respectively, and those with Oregon food handler training scored 69%, while those without one scored 63%.

Meatloaf sang that two out of three ain’t bad, but in food safety training, retention-wise, it’s not great.

The researchers conclude that survey demonstrates a limited level of knowledge among foodhandlers about food safety and that analyzing knowledge and comparing concurrent restaurant inspection scores would strengthen the understanding of food safety in restaurants.  The results of the survey also emphasize the need for educational programs tailored to improve foodhandlers knowledge of foodborne diseases.

I’d add that it’s not like knowledge translates automatically into practice. Demonstrating knowledge change is interesting, but not nearly as important as behavior change.

Food handlers need some sort of basic training, but it’s up to their managers and organization to make sure they stay up-to-date and that they have some sort of ongoing reminders (like food safety infosheets.

Reuters reports on a strategy for training that might have some applications with food handlers — video game simulations.

Many businesses use serious videogames designed for the PC but Hilton Garden Inn (HGI) has taken the virtual training concept portable for the first time with "Ultimate Team Play".

Working with North Carolina-based game developer Virtual Heroes, HGI has created a videogame for Sony’s PSP (PlayStation Portable) that allows employees to practice their jobs before they have to interact with customers.

It has the potential to be pretty cool and useful especially if used to demonstrate the team-like nature of foodservice and risk identification, but if it’s pulled off cheaply it could look like Duck Hunt.

Australian state to require food safety training for staff

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To coach little girls playing ice hockey in Canada requires 16 hours of training. To coach kids on a travel team requires an additional 24 hours of training.

So it seems reasonable to have some minimal training for those who prepare food for public consumption.

The Australian state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, has decided to agree, and will insist that every restaurant have at least one staff member who has completed a certified course in food handling.

NSW Primary Industry Minister Ian Macdonald said the State Government is introducing the laws after a spate of outbreaks, adding,

"Thirty-six per cent of food-borne illness outbreaks in NSW are the result of poor food handling. We believe that this is costing in effect $150 million in terms of lost productivity."

Unfortunately, what constitutes a certified course is often crap. The next step is to evaluate what works and what doesn’t – what kind of training actually translates into food service staff practicing safe food prep.
 

UK veterinarians want to tackle disease, not play Diversity Day

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Farmers Weekly Interactive reports that while farmers fight for their livelihoods, the entire UK Animal Health workforce of about 1700 staff will have to undergo workplace training, which includes learning how to play the drums and playing games.

One vet spoke of management’s attempt at Diversity Day (from The Office, right and below) by saying,

"… we wasted an entire day playing games, mucking about and banging drums.I am appalled that taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for this when we are supposed to be fighting disease.”

A spokeswoman for Animal Health said,

"As well as strategy, aspects of the day focus on effective teamwork and how it can help Animal Health deliver better outcomes in the future.

"This was done in a fun and interesting way which involved staff doing activities together.”
 

Canadian train quarantine: System worked well, except that person who died was 43, not 86, not mid-60s

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The train finally arrived in Toronto, some passengers were flaunting free booze as they disembarked while others complained there was no free breakfast (is that a good combination for people stuck on a train an additional 11 hours?), and health-types have proclaimed the great train quarantine of 2008 a success in public health emergency preparedness.

Except for some errant communications bout the female who died.

She was initially identified Friday as in her 60s, by Saturday she was 86, and today, authorities said she was a 43-year-old from South Africa.

UPDATE: No evidence of infectious disease outbreak in train passenger death

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Health officials have determined that the death of a passenger on a VIA train in Canada and the
illness of  another six passengers are not related.

Federal, provincial and local public health officials say there is no evidence of an infectious disease
outbreak in connection with the death of a passenger on a VIA train en route today from Vancouver to Toronto. Lab results so far are all negative for the flu and other respiratory illness.

The train is expected to resume its journey later today.

And that makes Charlie happy.

Update: Via Rail train quarantined in N. Ontario after mystery illness hits passengers

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In an update, Canadian Press reports that a woman in her 60s has died and several others have fallen ill on a halted Via Rail passenger train in northern Ontario that was en route from Vancouver to Toronto. The victim apparently boarded the train in Jasper, Alberta.

Ambulances and police scrambled to the tiny hamlet of Foleyet early Friday morning and have now quarantined the train, which was carrying about 260 passengers and 30 crew members.

As many as 10 people were reported to have flu-like symptoms and at least one person has been airlifted to the Timmins and District Hospital.

The illnesses appeared to be contained to two train cars.

Only emergency response personnel were being allowed on or off the train and could only get on board with full protective gear.

Deborah DesRochers, chairwoman of the town of 380 about 100 kilometres southwest of Timmins, said,

"The whole place is being overrun with ambulances and police cars, and we’ve got helicopters. They’ve got the train quarantined. They’re trying to isolate what it is."

Provincial police Const. Marc Depatie said officials are still trying to determine exactly what caused the illnesses on the train and whether they’re at all related to the fatality.

"We don’t know if the element is viral or bacterial or a case of food poisoning."

Train quarantined south of Timmins, Ontario

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A VIA train bound for Toronto with more than 260 passengers aboard has been stopped north of Timmins after one person died and five other people became ill with flu-like symptoms.

Ontario Provincial Police emergency workers with full protective gear were called to the train and about 10 people have been taken to hospital in Timmins. The rest of the passengers on the train have been quarantined.

The train originated in Jasper, Alberta.

 And in a good use of technology, the Toronto Star says,

Are you on the train or know someone who is? Call us a 1-800-268-9756.