Will Food Safety Schemes Improve Food Safety?

SQF (Safe Quality Foods), GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) and all the other schemes in the world do not manage our plants and farms every day. The goal is to find a system that everyone can follow, to develop a HACCP plan for their processes, and provide the develop a sanitation, product handling and processing plan that employees will use every day to protect the consuming public. And yet even with retailers demanding that suppliers have systems, we have to deal with individual people making decisions every day.

The retailers do not totally trust the schemes because they are still too easy to make the grade and are dependent on auditors to find the holes in the process and see that people are doing the right thing every day. How can you judge the adequacy of a sanitation program from reports? Is one inspection every year or two enough to keep producers and processors focused on food safety?

How many recalls have you seen this year? Produce still has issues with Salmonella, seafood issues with Listeria, C. botulinum, meat and produce E. coli. How many times have we seen recalls for allergens, when we know that multiple allergens are processed on the same line, but not shown on the labeling? Cilantro, smoked salmon, chocolate brownies? Will these be recalled this week?

Do you know as a consumer how well your manufacturers are performing? Maybe we need a rating system that is consumer run, not manufacturer, not retailer. Do you make an informed vote with your food dollars? How do we apply ethics to the mainstream and the fringes of the food industry? Let's devote ourselves to putting ethics back into all we do in our food industry. In the choices we make about what is "okay". In the ingredients we use. In the training that we give our people. In the accountability in our actions. Do you walk the walk and talk the talk? Is everything that you do the truth? Are the products you make beneficial to all concerned?

Where do you stand on food safety? Do the right thing everyday!

Bonding in the Kitchen

Thanksgiving is often described as a holiday that emphasizes family togetherness. Relatives coming in from out of town, kids returning home from college, and family gathering around a table full of food are all very familiar images that one associates with the upcoming holiday season.

However, bonding shouldn't be exclusive to just the dinner table. The preparation of your meal is often a great time to catch up and interact with the other members of your household. Everyone can partake too: younger children can help out with mixing ingredients together, while older ages can be assigned to more complicated tasks like making tamales. The resulting meal is more appreciated by everyone, having contributed to a part of it. Best of all, the dividing up of food preparation means that the meal is ready faster and cleanup is faster!

Jean's Restaurant Supply can help with you with all of holiday cooking needs, from something as simple as a cookie cutter, to something as extensive as an entire knife or cookware set. Call or visit today!

Advertising Changes

Over the past few years restaurants advertisements have been geared towards the customers wallets, and the value of their dollar.

Just recently more and more restaurants have been advertising to show the quality of their food. With channels like the Food Network presenting shows that focus primarily on culinary masterpieces, and how to make these foods at home, its no wonder restaurants are using advertisements that focus on their food quality.

Restaurants have begun using words such as "Artisan", and "Hand crafted" when they are describing the quality of their food. Restaurants have no longer been mentioning the price of the meals, instead they have begun using close up images of the food, or featuring 5 star chef's in the kitchen preparing the meals.

If your in the look out for new advertising and need some great Restaurant Equipment to be featured in your commercials.... Look no further, Jean's Restaurant Supply has everything you need and more to supply your restaurant with great quality commercial equipment. You can find everything from Refrigeration and Cooking Equipment to Janitorial Supplies on our website, or in one of our showrooms!