National Food Safety Education Month

September is National Food Safety Education Month.  With catering, as with any food service establishment, food safety is large part of our business. The safety of our clients and their guests is one of the most important things we are trusted to safeguard. It requires a lot of attention to details when you are moving your kitchen to the site of your event. There are so many things that we do behind the scenes to ensure that our food is not only delicious, but also safe!

Cleaning:  Cleaning is probably the number one way that we keep our clients safe every day.  We have a daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning schedule that allows for all of our equipment and spaces to properly washed and sanitized.  When we go out on site to an event, we make sure that we bring things that we need to clean and sanitize equipment if necessary.  You never know when you might need to clean something.

Out On Site:  Because we don’t always have access to sinks while we’re on site, we always bring potable water with us. Also, anyone handling food uses gloves and changes them in between food items to avoid cross contamination.  This always includes washing our hands, even between glove changes.  Did you know that even if you are doing the same task that you still should change your gloves and wash your hands every four hours?  Cooking food on site at our events rather than bringing everything hot is safer for food temperatures! Attempting to keep food hot during travel time leaves greater chances of food falling into temperature danger zones. We also take the temperature of every single food item we serve to ensure it has been cooked to a safe temperature.

Staff Training:  ServSafe is certificate program administered by the U.S. National Restaurant Association. We have an employee certified to teach the course, and we hold regular classes. We believe in training all of our staff on proper food handling techniques, cross contamination and safe food temperatures. This way, in addition to having a ServeSafe certified employee on site for every event, all our staff knows proper protocol, even if they aren’t tasked with food handling.  In addition to the ServSafe training we provide for all our employees, many of our event managers and all of our culinary team are AllerTrain certified to identify common allergens in our menu items and to help guests navigate our food presentations safely. We also label all our menu items for common food allergens for the convenience of our clients.

Food safety is important every time you serve food, or host an event.  Don’t want to worry about the hassle?  Leave the food safety to us for your next event!