Emphasizing the connection between food safety and wellness is crucial, operators say.

Linda Gilardi, senior director of quality assurance for Charlotte, N.C.-based Compass Group, The Americas Division, says that one integral element is consistent retraining. “You just have to keep repeating and reinforcing,” she says.

At Compass, food-safety training for hourly employees starts with a 45-minute online orientation program and continues with weekly five-minute presentations conducted by a manager. Presentation topics are from Compass’ quality-assurance manual, and managers rotate twice through the 24 QA standards each year. Among the issues addressed are produce washing, cleaning schedules and procedures, food-storage practices and the safe serving of second portions in cafeterias.

Gilardi says that these weekly mini refresher courses represent a valuable and easily manageable investment—for managers and hourly employees alike—in food-safety training. Given 2008’s skyrocketing food costs, “a unit manager’s job is tenfold what it was last year at this time,” she says. “We have to make our learning as easy and as turnkey as possible for them.”

LeAnn Chuboff, director of science and regulatory relations for the Chicago-based National Restaurant Association (NRA), agrees on the point of making food-safety instruction exceedingly accessible. The NRA’s ServSafe food-safety certification program is now in its fifth edition, and Chuboff and Kari Dabrowski, NRA director of marketing for ServSafe, say that changes for the newest edition (released in March) were made with this goal in mind.

“We took real-world examples and tried to put them into the perspective of, 'This is the learner,’” Chuboff says. As a result, each chapter of the food-safety textbook now begins with a real-life scenario, and graphic icons help carry topics addressed in one chapter—from the chapter on microbiology, a skull and crossbones to indicate pathogen prevention, for example—through the entire textbook.

HACCP plans can help prevent contamination.

“It’s showing visually what not to do,” Chuboff says. “We’re saying, 'Don’t do this; do this.’”

Compass’ Gilardi attests to the value of having visual references in place at the point of food preparation; Compass uses posters in its kitchens to “have the food safety standards reinforced at eye level for all associates,” she says.

One poster lists proper cooking temperatures across all product categories, Gilardi notes; others focus on personal hygiene and food storage. “Because it’s a lot to remember, this is something they have right there,” she says.

Simple visual cues also are a vital aspect of ensuring food safety at Scottsdale, Ariz.-based P.F. Chang’s China Bistro. The chain, which dedicates a section of its regular menu to gluten-free items for guests intolerant to the wheat protein, presents allergen-free dishes on special logo-bearing plates to help remind servers to take extra caution in delivering the items.

“It’s something that we take very, very seriously from the kitchen side of things,” says director of public relations Laura Cherry. P.F. Chang’s has menus available for guests who have any of seven common food allergies and intolerances, including those to shellfish, nuts and milk. Servers have access to these menus, including ingredient lists, through the chain’s point-of-sale system; this allows servers to quickly answer guests’ food-allergy questions.

When an order for an allergen-free item arrives in the kitchen, a wok chef assigned to allergy-free dishes prepares the item at a separate wok station. P.F. Chang’s also develops a hazard-analysis-and-critical-control-point (HACCP) plan for each of its recipes to identify and address the potential points of contamination specific to an item.

Having set procedures in place to deal with any food-safety issue that might arise—whether it’s a guest’s severe tree-nut allergy or an employee who arrives at work and mentions that his or her child just came down with a stomach virus—will help protect guest and worker safety and ensure a smooth flow of operations. A successful food-safety program, says the NRA’s Chuboff, is “not just a checklist but [something that] is just natural to the operation.”

Perhaps the most essential element of a food-safety program is a proactive commitment by management to food safety. Compass unit managers emphasize that food safety is first and foremost a matter of personal responsibility, Gilardi says. “We incorporate those messages into the training—'What you do is extremely important to us in keeping the food safe; we need you to come to us with questions,’” she says.

Making food safety a regular topic of discussion rather than one that’s mentioned only when something goes wrong demonstrates a genuine, ongoing commitment to making the operation as safe and sanitary as possible for employees and guests. That said, the “teaching moments” that arise when a food-safety error has occurred should not be squandered.

Observed mistakes can be prevented down the line if managers opt to discuss them openly and review not just the content but also the purpose of hygiene and sanitation rules. “In their heart of hearts, people want to come in each day and do a good job,” Gilardi says. “What we teach them about prevention of illness in the workplace, they take an interest in that. They see that what they do here can help keep their household safe.”

Contact writer at christine.lafave@reedbusiness.com