Training News

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Was a disaster.

Mostly my fault: there are new health department directives that I thought were to be phased in over the next year. 

 Labeling for the dates that goat cheese and milk was opened, etc. 

 Record keeping of symptoms every time someone calls in sick. 

 Keeping a procedure for what to do when anyone on premises pukes, plus a special bucket of supplies for the task of cleaning said puke.

Keeping policies and procedures for dogs outdoors and filling dog water ffs.

So there will be loads of training and a few more clipboards all over the place.

And places for all the staff to sign that they have had training.

And there will be training.  

This is the training. 

You read this page then you take a test. 

Then you sign the bottom of the test, ~ a signature page stating that you have been trained on all the new health dept. requirements is a health department requirement.

Oh - and there will be lots more health department inspections.  We failed so badly that he will be back at least every two months and charging for the privilege.

So, always be ready for Paul to walk through the door.

I mean, that was always the situation, but now even more so.

In addition there are special cleaning projects for everyone during every shift. 

As we have already been doing, so thank you for helping with that.

The employee manual contains all the pages with all the information from which this training has derived. 

It also has the lists of all the diseases you need to call in sick about, all the cheeses and other foods that need to be date marked, all the items in the puke cleaning and dog shit  cleaning kits, and a variety of other things.

Of course y ou know that all our food handlers cards are in there, as well as procedures to follow when the POS has problems, plus opening and closing cleaning/stocking lists and loads of great information that I want you all to be familiar with. 

Phone number to Wave (Astound) phone number to the POS people... what to do when the power goes off, etc etc etc.

*** You might be tasked to fill in the report in this picture: 

It is where we document the symptoms of anyone calling in sick. 

And it tells you what problems require you to call the health department.

THIS STAYS ON THE CLIPBOARD IN  THE EMPLOYEE MANUAL

Apparently putting quiches directly from the oven into the display case isn't good enough.

They have to go into the walk-in and cool to 41 before going out front.

I had no idea. 

There is another layer of cooling... 

They want food to get from 135 to 70 in 2 hours, then to 41 within 6.  That's according to the health code 3-501.14 section 03515 subsection 2.   And we have no way of knowing when it hit 135 to start the clock timing it from 135 to 70, unless we keep poking it every 5 minutes.  Of course I'm dying to do that just to see, but I usually don't have the time.

(Subsection 1 just says cool food in a cooler with ambient temperature below 41 ~ and section two is an alternative so just based on that i don't think we should have lost 25 points) 

Anyway I don't think we did anything wrong there at all, but i am not the final judge of that, the health department is.

One more alternative is, we could put them at room temp with a time stamp and throw away at the 4 hour point, but of course we are not going to do that.  Like we do with bacon rolls, with the time stamped label for when they come out of the oven.  Perhaps for winter we will have to just keep them in the cooler since they might not sell within 4 hours.

We started making quiches that are not as tall which will cool faster, and cooling in the walkin, additionally we will be training the evening staff to make quiches so they are ready to go in the case in the morning.

But ffs,speaking of cooling things properly, lets start taking tarts and brioches and cheesecakes back to the walk-in as soon as the pans are cool enough to touch.  This is a goes-without-saying item that i keep hearing myself say. 15 minutes after coming out.  We might start putting a tape on the sheet pan with the time out of the oven.

So get in the habit of doing this. Wash your hands for 20 seconds (the foodhandlers test says 10 - 15 but the test doesn't give out infractions)  and you do that before putting on gloves.

And turn off the faucet with your paper towel.  Just like the health department wants you to.  Try not to use 9 paper towels, but still do it right.

AND, the closing list has "FILL THE SOAP DISPENSERS" on it.  THIS DOES NEED TO BE DONE.

also cleaning the bathrooms.  Both of them.

The closer does not have to be the one doing it every day, he/she can have the person getting off in the late afternoon do it on their way out. Today the trash in the staff bathroom was overflowing again, as it usually is.  That's one of the many thing that we need to do.  

See Something DO Something.  

When you are leaving the bathroom, the easiest is to bring your paper towel with you and toss it in the trash in the kitchen, since you opened the door with the towel anyway, right? According to the health department code?

Also, pick up garbage whenever you see it on the floor.  Eggs shells behind the compost bin.  Cambro lids in random places.  Utensils under the dish machine. 

I know the floor always looks like shit because its old concrete.

I will find time to stay overnight and pull up the shitty ugly ripped up linoleum and put down some paint temporarily until we get it done for real.  I also have to replace a couple sinks.  This slow time of year is when that will get done finally.

Meanwhile, we need to keep random spills and trash from making things even worse.

Are in a  pouch in the Employee Manual.

When the health department comes in  open the employee manual and towards the back, there is an orange page with everyone's name and the date that their food handlers card expires. 

Inside that pouch are all the food handlers cards.

It's not rocket surgery, so i don't want to hear later that we got points off because nobody could find the food handlers cards..

This is only the second place on this page where I mentioned it though, so it could still be a problem.

First with the Dogs. that's the easiest. 

You can't go pet the dogs outside any more  :(

Nor can I .  :(  :(  :(

There is a combination pet cleanup and puke cleanup  kit stored on the shelf by the back door for cleaning up dog shit.  One of the things on the list is hot water.  We keep the hot water in the faucet... but everything else is in the box.  But we have never had to clean up dog shit in the 4 years we've been here.

Other dog/pet rules:

~ must be on a leach AND (not or, definitely AND according to Paul) under control of owners.  I guess that means they can't leave them tied up at a table out back while they come inside for an ice cream.

~ Can't clean dog water bowls inside.  Not sure if we will keep the one on the sidewalk, we can clean/fill the patio bowl with a hose.

~ the rest of obvious:   Of course dogs don't go through the building.  Of course they don't get up on chairs or tables.  Of course we don't do tableside food prep or store forks on the patio.  D0g shit gets cleaned up right away (scooping, using paper towels, and scooping it all into a trash bag)(scoop and paper towels and gloves and bags will be in the dogshitkit) and then we wash our hands up to the armpit.

We've been doing this already, even though it was my understanding that they weren't inspecting on it yet.

There are some more details and policies though:

new closing requirement, not negotiable, it MUST be done every night at closing:

Date everything in the milk fridge.  Soy, chai, other chai, other tea, other non dairy, regular milk, non fat milk, and etc.   Etc includes the date that melon was cut.   Goat cheese.  Brie. Cream Cheese.  Feta.   Cream.  Ham.  Yes ham, i didn't think ham needed to be dated.  We will be doing that as we go, but the latte milks we won't have time to do that every time we open a new jug of something.

Not sour cream.  However our sushi grade salmon must be marked with a date.

Obviously if you crack eggs to separate them when we run out of carton yolks, date them.  USE ThEM FIRST.   In buttercream or quiche you can use the extra yolks or whites.

its a 7 day situation, so shit doesn't need to get thrown out for 7 days. although we will continue to do 5 days with things like bread pudding and parfait.  (everyone knows that we check the dates on bread pudding, parfaits and quiches at opening and closing and toss things 5 days old...? right?)

But get this:  reheating a prepared food like a soup resets the clock for 7 more days.  That seems like cheating and let's not do it.

Basic rules are obvious:  freezing pauses the time.  but we would have to know the count of days at which it is frozen.  That would require people writing down a few details, which we won't, so lets never open then freeze something.

Combined food has the earliest date of all the ingredients.

Obvious, right?  See? this is going to be easy.

We have a special cleanup kit for this too.

This will only happen in the dining room or toilet, because staff would make it to a restroom and not be working with food when eruption occurs. If you were to be working with food when this happens, we get to throw it all away. So we don't.

When you feel the urge to barf get to the restroom.  or to your car, better yet. Then drive home.

Fun puking policy:   Inform the Manager... or the Person In Charge (PIC).  Early in the day that's going to be the Morning Baker Person (MBP) and after the closer comes on its The Closer Person. (TCP)  That person will decide who to have do the cleaning.  Like with dog shit in Chapter One, the next expendable person to be scheduled getting off. 

So, Whoever is getting to go home next gets to clean up, or the most expendable next person off.    

Because in the new rules, they don't want you staying at work, until you shower and change clothes. But we all get to help because we won't be selling anything if there is puke in the dining room.

Who ever isn't cleaning it is going to throw away all food in the area then wash all equipment and utensils in a 25 foot area.

If its up front, stop doing food service with in 25 foot area, so that's basically stop serving food until it gets cleaned up.

Say, "Sorry, but health department won't let us serve food until we clean, sorry."

Get the customers outside if that's the only place for them to be away from the puke. 

All hands on deck for this.

PIC, grab the PuKe Box, appoint the designated cleaner  someone to clean and sanitize the area as ASAP as possible.

Utilize the gloves, mask, disposable apron and paper plates, kitty litter from the Puke Box.

If we use a mop, throw away the mop head and get the new one from the puke box.

Mostly use the paper towels in the puke box and the kitty litter, use paper plate to scoop it all up, throw it in the garbage bag from the puke box and then sanitize the whole area with the bleach at 1.5 cups per gallon.

Everyone else sanitize the 25 foot radius with bleach.

Then you all disinfect, wash up, and get back to selling sugar.

Cleaner-person will be going home to shower and not likely to get back that day.

PIC chose that person for being the next one off or the one doing less production that day.

We get to keep track of your symptoms.  Yes, this will be fun for everyone !

notes:  When you text in sick instead of calling, go ahead and text what your issue is.  

Are you shitting liquid?  Tell us.

Are you barfing? We need to know.  Both of these, stay home 24 hours. 

Jaundice?  got to get permission from kitsap public health to come back.  And you go on report.  Seriously, that gets reported to the county.

Also as a side note, if you text in sick and don't get a response, you have not communicated.  You'll get a response when I see your text. Try calling my cell number but if I didn't see your text I might not get a phone call.  It is also customary in food service work to find your replacement for the day.

Jaundice is a condition in which the skin, sclera (whites of the  eyes) and mucous membranes turn yellow. This yellow color is caused by a  high level of bilirubin, a yellow-orange bile pigment. Bile is fluid  secreted by the liver. Bilirubin is formed from the breakdown of red  blood cells.

I didn't know either.  That came from google.

Sore throat AND fever?  Might as well stay home because Health Dept doesn't want you working with open food, clean equipment, dishes... can't do anything anyway so stay home.

Sore throat OR fever? Call and ask how bad we need you. 

Open sores and infected bits on hands and arms.  Band-aid and gloves. and write it in the book, tell the PIC.

All those items from dire rear to open sores gets put on the special Disease List kept in the employee manual.  PIC (person in charge) can do that when you call in/out sick.

The following items report to the Employee Manual if your doctor tells you you have: 

E Coli.

Salmonella

Shigella

Hepatitis A

Norovirus

Also we get to record any time a customer tells us that they think our food made them sick.

PIC, listen to this: WHEN SOMEONE CALLS IN SICK YOU NEED TO WRITE THE DETAILS IN The LOG. Which is located on a clipboard in the Employee Manual.  And You even get to call the health department for folks who didn't call in sick but worked with those diagnosed illness, jaundice or the report from a customer complaint.

All this great information is on the reporting sheet in the Employee Manual.

I expect that the Health Department will want to ask you guys some basic questions that have been covered in training, and I expect you all to have the right answers for them.

don't be surprised if I randomly ask you these things too. like where is the puke kit, and what do we do about dog shit.  and why did someone bring their dog in on halloween and no one said a word to them?

and if I a watching you wash your hands i might be counting to 20.

WE CAN't FAIL ANOThER FUCKING INSPECTION.

Let's get back to Being Awesome.

Remember all these health department rules as we go about our day.

Wash our hands long enough, wear gloves when appropriate, write down the details of people calling in sick, remember where the food handler's cards are, cool food properly, keep track of temperatures, put dates on everything you open, put labels on everything including bread, let me know what labels we are getting LOW on  (before we are OUT)... AND always smile at customers, know what is in things and how to package them etc etc etc etc.

I know this is not an easy job, with all the details we have to know, and we do a great job.

I expect that the Health Department will want to ask you guys some basic questions that have been covered in training, and I expect you all to have the right answers for them.

don't be surprised if I randomly ask you these things too. Like where is the puke kit, and what do we do about dog shit.  and why did someone bring their dog in on halloween and no one said a word to them?

and if I am watching you wash your hands i might be counting to 20.

I'm going to be helping you stay on your toes.

WE CAN't FAIL ANOThER  INSPECTION.

Thanks for paying attention and being fabulous.