The LRA is your provider for food safety and sanitation, alcohol server training

The Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) is the largest provider of food safety and sanitation and alcohol server training in the state. Members of the LRA receive significant discounts on these state-mandated training courses. Are you taking advantage of the convenience and savings?

ServSafe Manager, the eight-hour course is offered to members at just $109, compared to the non-member price of $160. Classes are offered at numerous locations across the state and year around. The cost includes study material, the in-person course and testing materials in a proctored setting. To date, the LRA has trained over 30,000 foodservice professionals in ServSafe Manager and the course is regarded as the gold standard for the industry.

ServSafe Alcohol training is available online, 24-7; anywhere the individual has access to a PC and an internet connection. The LRA was the first to offer the state-mandated, two hour course online.  Members receive special pricing of just $24 with the a special discount code (call the LRA for the code), while non-members pay $30. The LRA’s Louisiana’s BEST (Beverage Education Server Training) private classes are still available upon request. Call the LRA for details or to schedule your in house alcohol server course at (504) 454-2277.

Voluntary courses are also offered online for ServSafe Allergens and ServSafe Food Handler. More than 15 million Americans have food allergies and the trend is growing each year. Allergens training can help you serve those guests with food allergies safely and gain their repeat business. Food Handler is a two-hour course covering the basics of food safety and sanitation for your front of the house and back of the house staff.

ServSafe Allergens is just $22 and ServSafe Food Handler is just $15. 

For more information, please call the LRA at (504) 454-2277 or visit www.lra.org. 

Food Safety Month concludes, but is a year round practice for restaurateurs

This week is the final one for the annual September is National Food Safety Month awareness campaign. Although we focus on food safety during September, it is a daily practice for every restaurant. Preventing foodborne illnesses is of the utmost importance for the Louisiana Restaurant Association and for restaurants, as only one outbreak can be dire for the future of an establishment.


Week 5 of National Food Safety Month focuses on
cross-contact of food allergens to prevent illness.

We’ve explored the theme, “Be Safe, Don’t Cross Contaminate,” each week this month beginning with personal hygiene practices that prevent cross contamination. The second week’s topic was focused on proper hand washing, followed by week three with cleaning and sanitizing practices to prevent cross contamination. During week four, we discussed preventing cross contamination during storage, preparation and cooking.

During the final week of NFSM, we’ll explore a topic that is increasingly a challenge for many Americans—food allergens. A food allergen is a protein in a food or ingredient that some people are sensitive to and occur naturally. When enough of an allergen is eaten, an allergic reaction can occur. You must make sure that allergens are not transferred from food containing an allergen to the food that is to be eaten. This is called cross-contact.

Here’s how cross-contact can occur:

• Cooking different types of food in the same fryer oil
• Putting food on surfaces that have touched allergens
• Not washing, rinsing and sanitizing utensils

Steps to avoid cross-contact include:

• Wash, rinse and sanitize cookware, utensils and equipment after handling a food allergen
• Washing your hands and change gloves before prepping food
• Use separate fryers and cooking oils when frying food for customers with food allergies
• Prep food for customers with food allergies in a separate area from other food
• Label food packaged on site for retail sale. Name all major allergens on the label and follow any additional labeling requirements

Be aware of common allergy symptoms and common food allergens. The symptoms include: nausea, wheezing or shortness of breath, hives or itchy rashes, swelling of various parts of the body like the face, eyes, hands or feet, vomiting and/or diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Common food allergies include: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts such as almonds, walnuts and pecans.

Through ServSafe, a nationally-approved and recognized, good standard curriculum for food safety and sanitation, the LRA has trained thousands of restaurant and foodservice employees.

To register for a ServSafe course, click here. Classes are offered across Louisiana.

Food Safety Month, Wk.4: Preventing Cross-Contamination during Storage, Prep & Cooking

We’re now in week four of the National Food Safety Month awareness campaign, started in 1994 by the National Restaurant Association, to raise awareness of the importance of food safety. In partnership with the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA), we’ve been sharing the various ways to prevent foodborne illnesses through cross contamination each week in September. This year’s theme is, “Be Safe, Don’t Cross Contaminate.”

This week will explore how to prevent cross-contamination during storage, preparation and cooking.

Pathogens can move around easily in your home kitchen or a restaurant’s kitchen. Cross contamination can happen at almost any point in the flow of food. Knowing how and where it can happen is the key to prevention. The most basic way to prevent cross contamination is to keep raw and ready-to-eat food away each other. Here are some guidelines:

Storage
Keep all storage areas clean and dry. Food must be stored in ways that prevent cross contamination.

• Store all items in designated storage areas
• Store items away from walls and at least six inches off the floor
• Store single-use items (e.g. a sleeve of single-use cups) in original packaging
• Store food in containers intended for food that have been cleaned and sanitized
• Use containers that are durable, leak proof, and able to be sealed or covered
• Never use empty food containers to store chemicals, and never put food in empty chemical containers
• Store dirty linens away from food
• Clean dollies, carts, transporters and trays often
• Wrap or cover food. Store raw meat, poultry and seafood separately from ready-to-eat food. Make sure packaging does not leak.

If raw and ready-to-eat food cannot be stored separately, it advisable to store ready-to-eat food above raw meat, poultry or seafood. This will prevent juices from raw food from dripping onto ready-to-eat food. Store raw meat, poultry and seafood in coolers in the following top-to-bottom order: seafood, whole cuts of beef and pork, ground meat and ground fish, who and ground poultry.

Preparation and Cooking

Use separate equipment when handling different types of food. Colored cutting boards and utensil handles are good ways to help keep equipment separate.  The color tells the food handler which equipment to use with each food time. An example is using red for raw meat and green for vegetables.

• Prep food at different times when using the same prep table. For example, by prepping ready-to-eat food before raw food, you can minimize the chance of cross contamination.
• Clean and sanitize work surfaces and utensils after each task. This includes thermometers.
• Buy food that doesn’t require much prepping or handling. For example, buying chopped lettuce instead of chopping it yourself reduces the risk of cross-contamination.

This lesson is part four of a five part series. Week One's lesson was Personal Hygiene, Week Two's lesson was How to Prevent Cross-Contamination through Hand washing, and Week Three's lesson was Cleaning and Sanitizing to Prevent Cross-Contamination.

Through ServSafe, a nationally-approved and recognized, good standard curriculum for food safety and sanitation, the LRA has trained thousands of restaurant and foodservice employees.

To register for a ServSafe course, click here. Classes are offered across Louisiana.

Cleaning & Sanitizing Practices to prevent cross-contamination, NFSM Wk. 3

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September is National Food Safety Month and the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) is covering an aspect each week of this year’s theme, “Be Safe, Don’t Cross-Contaminate.” Week three’s topic is cleaning and sanitizing practices that will prevent cross-contamination.

“No matter how carefully food is cooked, without a clean and sanitized environment, pathogens can be quickly transferred to both cooked and uncooked food,” said Pam St. Pierre, LRA VP of Member Services.

To prevent cross-contamination from surfaces, the correct cleaning and sanitized procedures must be followed. Here’s the 411 on what you need to know to prevent cross-contamination from surface areas:

September is National Food Safety Month. Whether at home
or in a restaurant kitchen, these practices can reduce
food borne illnesses.

Food-contact surfaces must be both cleaned and sanitized correctly. Cleaning means removing food and other direct from a surface, and sanitation reduces pathogens on a surface to safe levels.

• Scrape or remove food bits from surface

• Wash the surface

• Rinse the surface

• Sanitize the surface

• Allow the surface to air-dry

All food-contact surfaces must be cleaned and sanitized after they are used; before food handlers start working with a different type of food; any time food handlers are interrupted during a task and the items being used may have been contaminated; and after four hours if items are in constant use.

During the first week of National Food Safety Month, the focus was on personal hygiene. The second week’s focus was on preventing cross-contamination through hand washing.

The National Restaurant Association and the LRA partner throughout the year to raise awareness of the importance of food safety to the restaurant industry and our diners. Through ServSafe, a nationally-approved and recognized, good standard curriculum for food safety and sanitation, the LRA has trained thousands of restaurant and foodservice employees.

To register for a ServSafe course, click here. Classes are offered across Louisiana.

Prevent Cross-Contamination through Handwashing

September is National Food Safety Month and this year’s theme is one that we can all benefit from, whether you work in a restaurant or prepare meals at home for your family and friends. “Be Safe, Don’t Cross-Contaminate,” focuses on best practices to avoid the spread of pathogens from one food or surface to another.

“Every day our hands touch surfaces covered with pathogens that we cannot see,” said Pam St. Pierre, Louisiana Restaurant Association VP of Member Services. “Even healthy people can spread pathogens and for this reason, handwashing is the most important part of personal hygiene.”

Hands should be washed in a sink designated for handwashing, not in sinks for food prep, dishwashing or utility sinks. The proper steps to wash hands should take about 20 seconds. Here are the five steps to correctly washing your hands.

1.      Wet hands and arms. Use running water as hot as you can comfortably stand. It should be at least 100° F.

2.      Apply soap. Apply enough to build up a good lather.

3.      Scrub hands and arms vigorously. Scrub them for 10 to 15 seconds. Clean under fingernails and between fingers.

4.      Rinse hands and arms thoroughly. Use running warm water.

5.      Dry hands and arms. Use a single-use paper towel or a hand dryer. Consider using a paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door when exiting the room.

“While it may seem basic, food handlers must wash their hands correctly and as often as needed to prevent hands from becoming a vehicle for cross-contamination,” added St. Pierre.

Knowing when to wash your hands is also key to reducing cross-contamination. Food handlers must wash their hands before starting work and also after the following activities:

• Using the restroom
• Handling raw meat, poultry and seafood (before and after)
• Touching the hair, face or body
• Sneezing, coughing or using a tissue
• Eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum or tobacco
• Handling chemicals that might affect food safety
• Taking out garbage
• Clearing tables or busing dirty dishes
• Touching clothing or aprons
• Handling money
• Leaving and returning to the kitchen/prep area
• Handling service animals

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) and the LRA partner year around to raise awareness of the importance of food safety to the restaurant industry and our diners. Through ServSafe, a nationally-approved and recognition, gold standard curriculum for food safety and sanitation, the LRA has trained thousands of restaurant and foodservice employees.

Registration for ServSafe, a food safety and sanitation course, can be done online here. Classes are offered across Louisiana.

Food safety and sanitation core of LRA benefits

As a partner in Food Safety with the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals, the Louisiana Restaurant Association is the largest provider of food safety and sanitation. Since 1999, when the state legislature mandated as least one person at each foodservice establishment complete the eight-hour course, ServSafe®, the LRA has trained nearly 28,000 restaurant employees in the principles and techniques to maintaining a safe environment for patrons to dine.

ServSafe is a nationally-approved
curriculum developed by the
National Restaurant Association and
offered year round by the LRA.

ServSafe is a nationally-approved curriculum developed by the National Restaurant Association and offered by the LRA’s staff of trainers weekly across the state. The new ServSafe Essentials, 6^th edition, was recently released and blends the latest FDA Food Code, food safety research and years of food sanitation training experience.

“This is a trusted food safety program with roots in the foodservice industry,” said Pam St. Pierre, VP of Member Services. “ServSafe is designed to help you protect your customer’s health, improve employee performance and preserve your restaurant’s reputation.”

ServSafe Essentials covers foodborne illnesses, including information on specific foodborne pathogens and biological toxins, such as shellfish poisoning, contamination and food allergens. Other areas covering are purchasing and receiving guidelines, food preparation, holding and serving guidelines, food safety management systems, sanitation guidelines for facilities and equipment and integrated pest control.

“We have a team of Certified ServSafe Instructors that collectively have more than 100 years of restaurant industry or regulatory experience,” said St. Pierre. “They are seasoned food safety and sanitation experts and provide practical, real-world experience to complement your training.”

Primarily managers go through the eight-hour course, while ServSafe Food Handler is offered for front and back of the house staff  in a condensed session of two hours.

Last year, California mandated that all foodservice employees complete the ServSafe Food Handler and more states and municipalities are looking to adopt that practice. Since the mandate, the California Restaurant Association has trained more than 350,000 restaurant staff in the two hour course, which is offered online.

ServSafe Food Handler covers five sections including basic food safety, personal hygiene, cross-contamination and allergens, time and temperature, and cleaning and sanitation. In addition to the full ServSafe course, the LRA also offers to come to your place of business and train your entire staff for a mere $25 per staff member. 

ServSafe classes are held in metropolitan areas across Louisiana and online registration is easy and available 24 hours a day. LRA members pay only $99 which includes the course book and exam. The non-member fee is $150. To schedule an on-site ServSafe Food Handler, please call the LRA at (504) 454-2277.

Interested in a ServSafe class?  You must register at least two weeks prior to the class and your materials will be mailed upon receipt of payments. Course materials and exams are also available in Spanish, but please allow four weeks for delivery of Spanish materials.