Safety Recommendations

We know how important the safety and health of employees and customers are in the restaurant business. 

To avoid illnesses, especially as a result of contaminated food items, it is vital to practice cleanliness at all times; particularly when preparing food. These are some of the most important guidelines that should be followed by all food establishments, according to the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Below are some of the recommended steps by the FDA and other restaurant organizations on how to maintain a safe operating food establishment with directions on how to set up and enforce them using Zenput.

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Maintaining cleanliness, separating food, properly cooking and chilling food all helps avoid costly and embarrassing foodborne illness outbreaks. Utilizing Zenput to its full potential, you have the ability standardize operating procedures, obtain reporting and increase accountability across the board 

 

CLEANLINESS

It's important to maintain and encourage cleanliness amongst everyone handling food. Ignoring cleanliness procedures is one of the most common ways that can cause foodborne illnesses and contamination.

Below is a list that we've converted into a Zenput form named "Cleanliness Reminder" as a checklist to emphasize these steps at the beginning of each shift that each employee can access and initial that they've read and understood. 

Admin View

1. Ensure that anyone handling food washes their "hands with warm water and soap for at LEAST 20 seconds" in the following cases:
   • After using the restroom
   • Clearing tables and/or busing dirty dishes
   • Taking out the garbage
   • After eating, drinking or smoking
   • Handling chemicals that might affect food safety
   • Touching body or hair
   • Handling money
   • Sneezing, coughing, or using a tissue
2. Wash and clean all cutting boards and surfaces, such as utensils, dishes, and countertops that come into contact with food with hot soapy water.
3. Rinse all fresh fruit and vegetables under running water. Scrub firmly with a produce brush. 
4. Remember to change your single-use gloves regularly.

Submitter/Manager Mobile View

SEPARATE

Important to avoid cross contamination of any food to inhibit any harmful bacteria found in raw ingredients from spreading, as well as cross contamination between cooked and raw food. 

You can also assign the form as a task at the beginning of each shift or throughout the day to your employees at your locations to complete. Once you have assigned the form at regular intervals to your employees, you can pull reporting on which locations did and did not complete this task assigned form.

1. Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs from each in refrigerator.
2. Use one cutting board for produce and another for meats such as meat, poultry, and seafood.
3. Never reuse marinades used on raw foods unless they are brought to a boil first. 
4. Never reuse a plate that previously held raw food or eggs unless it has been washed in hot soapy water. 

With Zenput's built in reporting capabilities , once the task is submitted, you can set the form submissions to be automatically directed to you and other important team members/supervisors to enhance accountability. You can also pull reports on a recurring basis and have them sent automatically for a certain team(s) or location. 

A manager can set up a recurring Project Completion Recap with Failures for their entire team, whereas an admin can set up a recurring report for the entire company. Can choose on which recurrence and specific timeframes as well. 

Here is what a copy of a project recap report looks like for none compliant locations: 

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COOK

Ensuring that food is cooked and chilled to a proper temperature helps avoid costly and embarrassing foodborne illness outbreaks. Utilizing Zenput's temperature question type on your forms, your food handlers can monitor and record temperatures of your ingredients. Should an ingredient temp outside of the safety zone, Zenput has the ability to automatically trigger corrective follow-up tasks and alerts for food items that require immediate attention. 

Once cooked, users can take the temperature of food with a supported BlueTooth temperature probe which will be recorded in the Zenput app automatically. If the temperature is not in what has been designated as safe, it will show up in Red as failure. If/when this happens, you can create a automatic corrective actions, thereby ensuring the safety of your customers.

Supervisors can even leave comments for the store employees to reply to when they get the notification, if an explanation is needed. 

Please note: Zenput uses the FDA suggestions for ingredient temp already, and it can be edited where ever necessary. 

Admin Form Builder View

Submitter/Manager Form View

Admin/Manager Follow-Up Tasks & Alerts Submission Email View

1. Use your supported  bluetooth food temp. probe to ensure the correct temperature of all cooked food for all cooking methods. each ingredient MUST reach a safe minimum internal temperature to destroy any harmful bacteria. 
2. When using a microwave oven, make sure to cover food, stir, and rotate for even cooking/heating. Always allow for standing time, to complete internal cooking, before checking the internal temperature with your food temp. probe. 
3. Bring sauces, soups and gravy to a boil whenever they need to be reheated. 

CHILL  

Using the Zenput platform with Zenput Temperature Monitoring, you can view the real-time temperatures of sensors in your locations at, you can also set up alerts to notify the correct people in case the temperature rises or drops below a safe range. This enables you and your team to be alerted instantly of any potential equipment failures which will prevent food spoilage and save your company money as well as give peace of mind in ensuring that all refrigerated ingredients have been held at the correct temperature.

Manager/Submitter View

Admin/Manager view of Sensors at locations

Email for temperature alerts triggers

1. Use Zenput Temperature Monitoring Sensors to ensure the appliance temperature (fridge) is consistently 40℉ or below.
2. Use Zenput Temperature Monitoring Sensors to ensure all freezers are consistently 0℉ or below. 
3. Never thaw food at room temperature.
   Three safe ways to defrost are: 
   • In the refrigerator
   • In cold water
   • In the microwave should be cooked immediately
4. Always marinate food in the refrigerator.
5. Refrigerate within 1 hour if the temperature outside is above 90℉. 

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To make life easier we are happy to copy any of the forms (Cleanliness Reminder, Daily Temp Log, and/or Temperature Form E) seen above to your account, please reach out to Support and let us know you would like to use any of the forms from this article. Once you get the form and are ready to implement it, you can send an announcement to your teams about the new process, so they are ready and expecting the new task!

Admin/Manager Announcement View

Team Announcement View

The Cleanliness Reminder and Temperature forms can be automated to be tasks and can help keep your business running to the highest food safety standard. As well as have real time access to forms, tasks, and reporting on safety items that are important to you and your customers. 

Once they are copied over, these forms can be edited to better suit your needs or use them as is. Simply distribute them on an as-needed basis or on a recurring basis via a project, and once they're submitted, you can pull reports to gather information on each location at any time, as well as setting up scheduled recurring reports. 

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❗️Articles containing information and step-by-step instructions gone over above:❗️

How to: Create a form (Admin)
How to: Edit an existing form? (Admin)
How to: Distribute a Form so it is always available to complete (Admin)
Creating a daily recurring project in Zenput (Admin) (Video)
How to: Create & manage trigger automated follow-up tasks? (Admin)
Zenput Bluetooth & BLE Thermometer Integrations
Temperature Monitoring Overview
How to: Get project recap report with failures
What are Announcements and how do I use them?
How to: Commenting (Mobile)

Sources Used:

• https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/safe-food-handling

• https://restaurant.org/manage-my-restaurant/business-operations/covid19/food-safety